Sweet tooth...

When I was young oral care is the last thing on my mind. I mean my mom had to think of so many ways to ensure that I have good well aligned teeth.

I vividly remember 3 particular incidents.

The first 2 had to do with my baby teeth as they were slowly being replaced by permanent teeth but I was really nervous about it.

In fact even though this baby teeth could be swaying and I can rock and twist them a bit, I will not pull it out nor let anyone near it.

So my ever wise mom will offer me sugar cane to eat. Having a sweet tooth, I am a sucker for anything sweet. So before long, out comes the tooth, nailed in between the sugar cane.

Then there was this particular front baby tooth of my which refused to budge even though my mom could see the tip of a new tooth coming out.

Sugar cane did not work this time, so she schemed with my uncle and a few other cohorts (which included my aunt and a few others) and when I was walking by the corridor of my grandparents house minding my own business, 2 pairs of strong arms will suddenly grabbed me and in a second I would be on the floor pinned down by these hooligans and my mom with a handkerchief will grabbed and pull out this baby tooth.

It was a swift and successful operation for their record as I was too shock to register any reaction.

My last memorable incident was my trip to the dentist in Ampang Park. The dentist was japanese. I could remember him clearly because my parents made sure I know that I was getting the best dentist and not just any average dentist cos he's japanese.

But before reaching there, we will make a detour to a pastry shop on the ground floor, my personal favorite.

It was a japanese sweet snack in shape of fish. Now with the help of google I managed to find it's name of these long years of not knowing. It's (ta-da-da-da...)

Taiyaki (たい焼き)
A snack in the shape of a sea bream. (A sea bream is a freshwater fish in Japan.) A mold is made in the likeness of a sea bream, and batter is baked in the mold. Then the sweet bean paste is used as filling.

I wonder why no one sells this snack anymore... Perhaps the price of red bean had gone up drastically.

Anyway my mom will use this as bait to get me onto the dentist's chair but I wont sit there without a fight. And by fight I really mean fight. I'll be screaming, kicking and swinging my arms so much that the poor japanese dentist had to call in reinforcements.

So picture me being pinned down by 6 people including my mom and dad and the dentist extracting the tooth hastily and with much force and determination.

After putting on such a fight, my dad will then have to carry me in his arm and I will be slumped over his shoulder, looking ever so betrayed and forlorn with a gauze in my mouth to stop the bleeding and carrying my precious taiyaki.

The cause of my downfall... blame it on my sweet tooth.

But it's funny how I cant remember any of my other doctors but I can remember all the dentists I went to. Maybe it's cos going to the dentist has and always will be traumatic. Even right now, I am dragging my feet to have my belated annual dental checkup. Sigh... where is the taiyaki shop when you need one...

Guys without tooth... Eeww...

There are many occasions of travelling to Indonesia that I meet guys who were impeccably dressed, having good physique but the moment they open their mouth to smile I cant help but grimace at their missing or cracked and decayed front tooth or in some cases teeth. Some decays are so extensive that all that's left are the mere root of the tooth.

So on hindsight I really appreciate my mom's concern and efforts in bringing me to dentists when I was young. Our malaysian government was also to be thanked to making oral checkup mandatory during my primary school time but how I HATED these check ups.

I would try to make a lot of excuses but somehow the school dentist always get to us. Blame it on the close proximity of the clinic to the school canteen. To us that place was more like a torture chamber than a clinic.

Later I heard rumours of these dentists having been paid by the government based on the number of fillings or extractions that they performed will indiscriminately performed such procedure on us poor students especially on those with below average oral care ones... I mean chocolates and sweets are staple food in a child's mind.

Come to think of it, I do find some truth in it cos I had these innocent growth kind of like moles, if tooth can have moles like skin, then that was what I had at the back of my tooth which is not visible at all when I smile. So till today I dont know if the growth is black colour like mole or just that my tooth at the back is not even.

Anyhow this dentist saw it, drilled it and filled it. And this mole growth thingey is not just on 1 tooth but on 2 of my teeth. Did I mentioned that the drill did not have water squirting at it as it drilled? It's basically just a drill, without any extras like water, suction thingey, piped in music, air-con, pain killer so you can just imagine the pain and agony for her to hurry up and finish the job.

Thank God she did a good job in the filling as after 20 over years, this filling have not been giving me any trouble. Goes to prove that old stuffs are still the best just like electrical appliances.

This is just one of the many close encounters I have had with dentists. Will blog more about them next time. Children nowadays have it so nice and easy so there's no excuses not to have sparkling and complete set of teeth, from top to bottom, front to back.