A VISIT TO THE DENTIST

Last night I fractured my tooth. I must have bitten on something hard but I can't remember what it was. At around 10pm, I noticed that I had fractured one of my upper teeth. Specifically the palatal cusp of my upper right second premolar. I can't be any more specific than that. When I checked it in the mirror (I used my mouth mirror, of course) I was shocked to see it was a big fracture so I didn't want to put if off and decided to have an emergency treatment today despite the warnings of rains. I say "emergency treatment" because the clinic I was going to is really not my dentist's. But since I needed to have my tooth filled right away, I thought it would be okay to have it done in the nearby clinic.

So, I left the house at around 940 this morning. When I arrived at the clinic, the dentist was attending to a patient so I had to wait. And wait. And wait. Good thing I bought my Agatha Christie book to keep me preoccupied. Anyway, I found out later on that that patient was having crowns made which is why it took forever to finish. Anyway, when it was my turn, it was close to 11am. I told the dentist my problem and she checked the tooth. I didn't tell her I was a dentist because I wanted to see how good she was. She checked my mouth and commented that I had nice teeth (haha!). She asked me what happened to the tooth and I told her everything. I told her that I wanted to have it filled. She was kind of hesitant about that. She asked me if I wanted to have it crowned but I said no. She then proceeded to tell me facts about how the tooth might not survive if she simply filled it. She said that my tooth might be damaged beyond repair. Hmmm. After she said those things, I could tell she wasn't a very good dentist. Firstly, an onlay (bigger than usual filling) would have been a sufficient treatment for my tooth. Secondly, in our school, we NEVER suggest radical treatments unless the tooth is unsalvageable (we always do our best to save the tooth as much as we can rather than resort to other extreme means). She never even asked me about any symptoms associated with the tooth (pain, sensitivity to heat or cold, pain while lying down, etc.). It was only after I told her that I never had any pain associated with that tooth did she think about doing a percussion test on my tooth. Unfortunately she did it pretty badly. Instead of tapping the crown of the tooth, she tapped the inside of the cavity. So naturally it was sensitive. I told her again that no, it didn't hurt, it was only sensitive to the instrument because she poked it (instead of tapping it - but I didn't tell her this). So she reluctantly filled my tooth but repeatedly told me to go back to the clinic should my tooth ache. I so wanted to tell her, why should it ache when I told her that it never caused me problems before except for the fracture? Sigh... I think she's itching to crown it. Hmmm. I hope she did not do a poor job with the filling just to make my tooth crack again. Well, I certainly hope not! Besides, I don't plan on letting her do any crowns for me when the time comes. I might go to one of my classmates instead. =D

Well, she really wasn't a bad dentist. I think her methods were just different from how we do things in school. I am just really used to giving the patient all the options available to them and letting them decide for themselves whether or not they prefer this certain treatment. I think that is the best way for patients to feel that their dentist truly cares for them and is not after their hard-earned money. Anyway, one good thing happened at the clinic though. While the dentist was preparing her dental tools for me we chatted for a bit and she asked me how old I was. I told her, "31". She said, "Ha?!?! Thirty-one ka na? Parang mas bata ka pa sa 31!" (Huh?! You're 31? You look younger than 31!) So that was a nice compliment. I could tell that she really did not expect my reply because the shock was clearly registered on her face. That made me happy even if the filling on my tooth didn't (it was not polished enough). Anyway, I was thinking that the next time someone asks me my age, I'll reply "I'm 35" and see how they react to that. =D

Hopefully I won't have any problems with my tooth anymore. I really don't want to have it extracted should it be compromised but neither do I want to have a root canal treatment. It's just not my thing.