Dental Culture Shock

After inspecting my tooth, he told me that he would let me see what he saw. And that's when the mystery of the computer and tv monitor was answered. He placed a small camera into my mouth, switched both the computer and tv monitor on and hey presto, my bad tooth was staring back at me in all its gory glory. Yikes! Now I know why I never considered dentistry as a profession. You'd have to look at peoples' mouths all day long.

Bad tooth aside, I was fascinated by the gizmos that this hi-tech dentist was using. He further surprised me by asking me to check the condition of the root of my tooth via x-ray, which only costs RM20 and takes about a minute to see the results.

Figuring that I had nothing to lose (except for RM20) and suddenly consumed by the need to see how bad my tooth was, I went ahead with the xray. A small metal plate was pushed on the side of my mouth, I was told to bite on it and voila, the xray was taken. One minute later, Dr. M showed me the xray which indicated that the root of my tooth was still strong. He also showed me that there were some decay in another tooth even under the filling.

"You mean, decay can happen even after a tooth has been filled?" I asked in dismay.

"Yes, this happens when there is a crack in the filling and the bacteria from the remnants of the food we eat gets stuck there," he said knowledgeably. "That's what happened to your bad tooth. The filling came out when the decay gets worse."

I pondered for a while, "And you can only see the formation of such hidden decay under xray?"

He nodded and for a moment, I wanted to say, "Xray on, dude! I wanna make sure that all my other teeth are ok." But self-control prevailed and I just clarified the other questions I have about tooth matters before taking my leave. I wanted to have some time to think about what I should do about my tooth. Root canals are not cheap and takes a span of a month to complete.

So there you have it folks. An account of what goes on inside a modern dental clinic. Too often we put this visit aside because although we know it's important, we don't see the urgency. Until our tooth hurts. Or breaks like mine. I think I'll fix it after Chinese New Year. Wouldn't want to miss out sinking my fangs on all those cookies!