Last week after fighting a war in Singapore, I headed to my brother’s place at Seremban, Negeri Sembilan. With his help, he arranged an appointment for me with a dentist, Dr. Zambry to examine on the problem of my deviated lower jaw.

The first day they took some teeth models, impressions, measurement, x-ray, photo shoots (nothing glamorous cos I looked like a convict). Then the day after that, Dr. Zambri, Dr. Goh and Dr. Latif the Orthodontists had a joint-clinic discussion, and confirmed I was a Class-3 patient with these problems: friction between end of lower and upper jaw, misaligned teeth, and deviated lower jaw to the left. I have to undergo a dental treatment: braces for 1.5-2 years, then an orthodontic surgery, then braces for another 6 months. This is gonna cost me about RM4,000 altogether. Well, it’s something I have wanted to do. So without much hesitation, I agreed to do it.

Before putting on braces, I would first need to get my all 4 wisdom teeth extracted, two at one-go. No problem lah!

Today I was to get two of my teeth (both lower right and upper right) extracted first. I woke up early in the morning to follow my brother and his wife to the hospital. On the way to hospital, I started having some extra nerves all over. Man, I had never seen a dentist to extract my teeth before! Then I remembered how brave I was riding the Superman Escape roller coaster twice in Warner Bros. Movie World, Australia twice, and Tower of Terror in Dreamworld, Australia twice, no problem lah!

Superman Escape

Dreamworld Tower of Terror

As I entered the room, Dr. Stephanie, the gentle dentist kept trying to calm me down, because I obviously looked nervous. I felt myself shivering.

“How fast are you gonna take?” I asked.

“I will try to do it as fast as possible, except if your teeth are too strong,” she replied. At that point of time, I knew I had no control at all. I was all hers…

All the tools were all laid down in front of me. I did not know what they were, except a plier like tool, that I knew it must be the evil metal piece that was gonna extract my teeth!

Extraction began. I was praying in my heart: make it quick please. Dr. Stephanie kept trying to adjust the chair to get a good position (in order to have a better view of my teeth, in case you were thinking something else). She injected anesthetic to my gum, and waited for a while to let my lips and tongue numb.

“Do you feel numb on your lower half right lips?” she asked. I shook my head.

“Do you feel numb on your tongue?” she asked. I shook my head.

“It’s gonna take a while, don’t worry,” she kept calming me down. I knew how nervous I was, because I could feel myself trembling all over.

Few minutes passed, she asked if I felt numbness on my tongue. I shook my head again. Then she said she would start extracting the upper-right wisdom tooth first. I nodded, and let her go ahead.

So she started extracting my wisdom tooth. As she was extracting, she was calming me down. Sometimes I felt that she was actually calming herself instead. Haha. It was quick. Her skills were alright (dental skills, please).

After a while, she asked, “do you feel numbness on your tongue now?” I shook my head, again. “If that’s the case, I will just start extracting your lower right wisdom tooth. If you feel painful, just stop me.” So she started performing her evil works again.

Sadly, this time it wasn’t smooth. She was struggling pulling my tooth out. I started feeling tension, because I could see she was stressful. “Don’t worry, are you ok?” she tried to calm me again. I thought in my heart, “looking at your nerves now, I don’t think I am ok…” Still, I let her do whatever she wanted. I was all hers.

Then, I heard a sound pak when she made her last pull. My tooth fell on the ground, oh gosh. Nonetheless, the last tooth was out. Before Dr. Stephanie released me from the chair, she looked me into my eyes and advised me not to rinse my mouth and not to eat hot food. Alright, I’m all set to go. I thanked her, and rushed out of the room like a little kid to grab my free gift for being a brave child:

Gaoze pad, painkillers and receipt of clinic payment.

Next appointment was arranged on 9 February 2010. I’m gonna sit on that evil chair again next week. No problem lah.

Oh, while I was driving home, only then my tongue started feeling numb…

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