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.