Wisdom Tooth Journey Part 1 - Consultation, Khoo Teck Phuat (KTPH).

Dear Diary,

I shall skip my vacation stories for the time being (though it takes forever for me to blog. Haha! I've never been that free to blog, so please bear with me) and blog about my Wisdom tooth surgery.

As some of you all know that I've completed doing braces 3 years ago. As most people would usually get their wisdom tooth remove first before doing braces, I didn't. My dentist said that I could get it remove later after completing my braces journey. I did my braces at FDC @ Harbourfront Dental with Dr N Aizat. Sadly, right after the completion of my braces journey, my doctor actually resigned and I don't know where he went. Lol! I also stopped heading back to the dental. Until, one day I realized it's important that I at least get my teeth clean and check. And so I came back yearly for cleaning and polishing and also for the first time, I did review on my post-braces check-up with Dr Aaron. LOL!

One day when doing my polishing and cleaning, one of the dentist found out that I had 2 tooth decay. I was so stress. HAHAHA! Like I always floss, brush my teeth and take good care of it. I wasn't too sure why why why I had 2 tooth decay. My dentist advice it's either I had to do a filling or worse come to worse it's root canal. Gosh. Apart from the 'painful' process of doing a root canal, money wise is also painful. And it's non-claimable via Medisave. Luckily, all I needed was just a filling, deep one, that they had to jab me a few times to numb the area. I don't know how many times I survive tooth injection despite being so afraid. 😐

Fast-forward to my wisdom tooth 🦷 story. Back in February, 7 months ago, I realized my tooth is acting up again. I thought I had another tooth decay. It was painful and I even had pus. Tooth-aching is the pain of all pain. It affects your concentration, your mood, eating habits, gives you headache, makes you agitated and just everything. I even had fever. I thought I needed a root canal urgently because it was annoyingly painful. Dr Aaron was on sabbatical leave for a few months and I don't think I could wait. I tried one dentist at FDC before but I felt she wasn't competent enough and makes my tooth hurts even more. I was so desperate that I tried to seek for other dentist that is good enough asking for friend's reviews and help.

Few days after, I tried touching my tooth and gum to feel where the pain was, surprisingly, it was not from the decay. I realized it was from my wisdom tooth gum on my left side that was hurting. It was slightly swollen and right after a few days, the wisdom tooth starts to grow out of the gum slowly, I could feel the 1/4 of my teeth out from the gum. The pain subside by then and I was contented, BUT...after fully grown, it starts to give me ulcer. Apparently, the teeth is slightly sharp and it keeps rubbing & poking against my cheeks. Initially, I thought I just wanted to bear with this feeling because the thoughts of going for wisdom tooth extraction also scares me. Hahaha! I've seen people whose face starts to swell and also like we all know wisdom tooth extraction have different kind of procedure from a normal tooth extraction.

But as much as I wanted to bear with it, it was unbearable. Again, I asked review from friends. Jiemin, had hers removed from Khoo Teck Phuat and said it went smoothly, she recommended me to ask for Dr Sylvia Tay. Some of my friends, like Kak Azie (yes we have the same name Azie. Hehe!) also recommended me to head to Khoo Teck Phuat. She said it's best to go to Polyclinic get referral because it will be a subsidized rate instead of walk-in and so I did too.

I headed to Khoo Teck Phuat around March after getting referral from CCK Polyclinic. CCK Polyclinic wanted to refer me to NUH but I opted for KTPH instead. The waiting time was about 2 weeks.

KTPH Consulation,

An x-ray was done first before I was called in to see a dentist for a consultation. Since it was only 1 wisdom tooth, the dentist said she could help me remove it via Local Anesthetic (LA) there and then, I wasn't too keen for a LA as I have actually made up my mind to remove all 4 via General Anesthetic (GA) as I want to sleep and do not want to feel pain. But since the pain was already pain, I decided to maybe just go with LA until the dentist mentioned plucking one tooth out via LA that day is not claimable via Medisave unless I go through GA. I'm like......I don't know why cannot claim? Because a lot of my friends who removed their wisdom tooth via LA in other dental are allowed to claim via Medisave. So I decided to just go for GA since I also wanted to claim via Medisave.

The dentist told me my two top wisdom tooth won't have much of a problem to remove since it's a sitting down one. But the bottom two might have some problem, because it's a sleeping one and it's really so near, touching my nerves. She said, there could be risk that I might suffer from tongue and lips numbness. Some lasted for a few months but others could be permanent. SCARY CAN?! Like I don't want my senses to just disappear like that. Scary seh! So I have like crazy thoughts about it but I decided to just go with it. What happens if the wisdom tooth at the bottom starts to grow out of my gum too? Somemore it's a sleeping one, I can imagine it pushing all the other tooth at the sides. After the consultation, I had my appointment set on the 13th August under Dr Sylvia Tay (without having to ask for her. So thankful!) This is also right after Hari Raya and Hari Raya Haji, which also mark the end of my probation at Parkway Laboratory and I could take leave.

Truth be told that was in March, just few weeks back, my wisdom tooth on the right side now starts to make its appearance. Again, I went through the pus experience, the fever and this time it was so painful that I even cried. My MIL told D to help me ice my cheek area where the gum was and Alhamdulilah, it helps. Wisdom tooth just don't grow overnight, it takes time like even months to fully emerge for me. So imagine feeling this pain on and off. It's just so irritating. I have two to deal now. One with ulcer and one is painful. 🙄 Some even find it weird that mine only starts to grow NOW when I'm in early 30s.

I resigned from Parkway in June and went back to IDPL. Thus, I was put in probation for 3 months. I had to cancel my August surgery and pushed it forward to September just after my probation ends. Amongst all that bearing the pain everyday. I was actually given a different doctor on 16th September but I only wanted Dr Tay, so the next available date for her was 17th September and yerps, 17th September that is.

So tomorrow will be my surgery. I was so busy with work that I totally forget about my surgery until today and I'm feeling pretty nervous about everything. I have never done surgery before nor even going through GA. While people are worried about the post-operation, the gum, the stitching, tooth pain and all. I am actually more worried if I can wake up from the GA or not. HAHAHAHAHA! Such drama. But yeah, although the risk of not being able to wake up is super super low but different people is different. The post-op does scare me a little but not so much because I've done braces before and I some sort know what to expect from the pain and not being able to eat solid food for months. Painkillers usually help to ease the pain. Food wise, you just have to bear with it for a few months.

Till here, make doa for me. Insyaallah all will be well and I just want to remove this annoying 🦷 out of me. Argh.

XOXO,

Princess Azie Anni ♥
#PrayforAzie