took out 3 stitches from the gum yesterday, with instructions to flush out bits of food with a syringe and antiseptic from THE ABYSS where the wisdom tooth had been previously buried, a bone cut off from the gum.

THE ABYSS upon close-up looked like a moist pink cave in the innermost recesses of my left gum, pulsating with temptation to trap and hide tiny treasures of its own.

given the “exceptional” case of the surgery and the still-swollen/sensitive jaw/gum, got my MC extended…

in any case, it REALLY didn’t feel like i was on MC the whole of last week, with the kids around, 24/7. always, always around. they were like.. everywhere, all the time. here. there. here. there. round and round. left and right. up and down… well, you get my drift.

with the kids back in school, the house peaceful and silent like a temple, yesterday was a nice respite. at night when they’re asleep, i’d whined for some “hot mushy fries”, and the spouse conjured a plate of it. i even had a whole stick of ice-cream i’d hoarded for myself.

so, just a few more days, please. to contemplate on me.

and THE ABYSS. (which you can substitute with THE BIG HOLE IN MY UNFULFILLED LIFE. /drama)

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i’d always thought i was one of the lucky few who’ve escaped the troubles of wisdom teeth, because none had made their appearance thus far in my adult life.

little did i know that the non-appearance of wisdom teeth brings troubles of its own.

about 2 years ago, i’d asked the dentist to investigate the cause of a tingly sensation on the bottom-left gum behind my last molar, which resulted in a discovery that I DID have wisdom teeth after all – they were all embedded in my gums, refusing to emerge. since it didn’t bother me so much, we left it alone after cleaning up the food bits stuck in the area.

the tingly sensation, sensitive gum/molar, and pus-like taste around the area would come and go, and a trip to the dental clinic once in a while would assuage it. but last friday i finally had enough and told the dentist I wanted to do the extraction. (i’d been told if i wanted to have any wisdom tooth removed, best to do it before the age of 40 – and we know that number is nearing…) but looking at the depth of the tooth in my gum and the way it was growing horizontally against my molar, a proper surgery would have to take place. he referred me to the national dental centre, then apologised when he realised i wasn’t an SQ cabin crew (whuuuut?), and referred me to raffles hospital dental instead.

i went, gladly, having had lovely experiences at RH before. and once again, i did. the oral surgeon did a consultation the very next day, where i did this beautiful x-ray (ha ha), and discussed about the not-so-common way my wisdom teeth are growing on all four sides, and how i’d have to be under full sedation during the dental procedure.

email of my dental x-ray courtesy of the nice people at raffles hospital dental

since the wisdom tooth that was irritating me was pressing against a nerve (bottom-right of x-ray) and pushing against the root of my molar, she spelt out the risks involved: a damaged nerve, which may result in numbness on the left side of my mouth/tongue/lips (not able to apply lipstick without looking in the mirror – gasp), or even slight drooling (bibs, anyone?) – there could be either permanent numbness or pain. then there’s the risk of the jaw bone being damaged if i were to accidentally fall or knock myself during the healing phase. and since they were cutting out a small part of a bone in the gum, it could cause a shift in my teeth or something. and the more the risks were spelt out, the more i cringed. thankfully, we could leave the rest of the wisdom teeth alone.

and then there’s the thing about being under full sedation. which came with another set of risks, obviously. among the side effects were nausea and vomitting. but it had to be done, instead of local anesthesia, because it’d be “quite cruel otherwise”, in her words.

there was also the issue of my drug allergies, one of which drug i’d forgotten and tried to describe (“it’s red! it’s given out to women with menstrual pain! i only took it once, at 17, from a friend, it made my eyes swell up like crazy… it’s red!), only to remember the name after i left. (and when i came back on the day of the surgery to tell the doctor, she beat me to it – “Ponstan!” she exclaimed, saying she also thought of it after i left. brilliant. love her.)

since it’s the school holiday week, i thought i’d just go through with it and stay home on MC with the kids, even though they were my number one safety hazard for my post-op jaw.

i was actually more worried about the sedation bit, more than the actual surgery, believe it or not. i mean, WHAT IF I DON’T WAKE UP?

the night before, just in case, i read an extra book to the kids during bedtime. before i left in the morning, just in case, i kissed the kids in their sleep. just in case, you know, i had an Inception moment and never got The Kick.

but i was paranoid over nothing. the anesthetist on call was wonderful, and explained to me every step of the way, that i’d be under medium to full sedation, assuring me that the method he’s using is perfectly safe and low-risk. i made him promise, THRICE, to make sure i wake up. i was happy to report that i was free of smoke, alcohol, drugs, went through 2 natural births without epidural, and therefore, a (ahem) perfect patient. as for my niggling drug allergy issue, their painkiller plan was to prescribe me something controlled from the “opiate family”, which sounded ghastly and highly-addictive and what michael jackson probably popped like peanuts.

well i don’t know why i was so worried about the sedation thing at all, because it turned out to be THE BEST SLEEP, EVERRRR! i wish i could have whatever it was that coursed through my blood for that one hour, like, EVERY night. it was TOTALLY awesome. (well, for $300, it had to be awesome.)

oh, as for the surgery itself yesterday, it went pretty well. a few hours of blood-soaked gauzes, puffy lips and fishball-sized swelling on my jaw, i could eat a bowl of macaroni soup, talk, scold, read aloud, teach the kid spelling (!), and sleep like normal. i’ve inspected the stitch in my mouth, and the offending tooth shattered in two during the extraction. hardly stuff worthy of valour, really.

i am also happy to inform that i have full sensation of my tongue/mouth/lips, so my multi-tasking application of lipgloss while driving is definitely back in business. woohoo!

and as for those disturbing-sounding painkillers – skipped it altogether, despite the husband’s warnings of impending, excruciating pain. seriously? i feel like Wolverine. a slight dull ache, is all. i think labour pains raise the bar on your pain threshold, so if you need to remove any wisdom teeth, i say do it after you’ve experienced that. and, err, that’s the only wisdom i can impart.

the lovely doctor called this afternoon to check up on me, and was surprised to hear me sounding like the cheerleader on Heroes. she probably thinks i’m a freak.

yeah. a masochistic one.

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our yearly dental affair, and i was the one who could hardly wait for the appointment date to arrive. was dying to get aniq’s teeth polished and be assured that his teeth dropping off at the beginning of 5 years old is not TOO early. paranoid much?

the boy went through the motions – open mouth, spit, gargle, open mouth, spit, gargle, choose toy from box (although this ‘painstaking’ toy selection process took up more time from the doc than the entire teeth cleaning process). nothing much we can do to keep away stains other than regular visits to polish them, but on the upside, he has low chances of cavities. two of his bottom teeth have dropped (one he valiantly plucked out himself), and one permanent tooth has emerged from his gums. doc said something about his ‘dental age’ being more mature than his, er, ‘chronological age’, but it has nothing to do with nutrition. i always thought he was somehow… ‘old’-ish ever since he was a baby, but wait… this doesn’t mean he’ll reach puberty earlier too, i hope…?? O_O

but OH HOW i wish for his behaviour to be more mature than his chronological age….

it was the girl’s second time, and this time round we’d prepped her with books on visits to dentists, so she readily climbed up the seat and opened up her BIG BIG (in more ways than one) mouth.

checked the number of teeth and cleaned out some food stuck between gaps, coz while her brother’s teeth have always been gappy with plenty of space for new teeth to grow, hers are close together.

like so:

now, SMILE! :)

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come, tooth fairy~!, originally uploaded by izadd.

his wobbly tooth finally dropped! well, technically, it got knocked out, thanks to him bumping into his sister by accident. whoops. :p

this was taken after his initial shock at the amount of blood that spilled out of his gum. yes, there were some tears involved, lol. so much for being gungho and teasingly shaking the tooth at me and laughing when i CRINGE.

told him that it’s ok, happens to every kid, and when we were small, ours dropped too. my grandma even extracted one with a string! (sadism runs in the family, apparently.)

the daddy gave him a container to keep the tooth and ALL the future milk teeth that will eventually drop off. to make him feel better, we even told him to put the tooth under his pillow… (so, what IS the market price these days?)

and so we hit another milestone.

do you remember when YOUR first tooth dropped? :)

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exactly 2 years ago, aniq had a milestone moment with his first visit to the dentist, at 2yrs 2mths old, and auni was, well, -2mths (ie. unborn!):

uh oh, i sense a cliche coming now —> “how time flies!”

it’s become a yearly routine and this being his third visit, he knows the drill, so to speak – come in, play with toys, talk to the doctor, sit in the reclining chair, open mouth, scrape, spit, brush, choose a reward from the treasure box.

of course, it helps that he gets HEAPS of praises from the friendly doc for his good teeth and behaviour. sheesh.

his canines have this greenish stain which we can’t remove with a toothbrush despite our nightly attempts. apparently it’s common among kids (actually, even more common are blackish ones instead of what doc described as aniq’s more ‘textbook’ green), and simply genetically inherited. case in point: his cousin, adam, came in right after, and was found to have the exact same green stains on his teeth. sooo, it just HAS to come from my chlorophyll-rich side of the family tree. (by the way, adam would need braces some day, coz his mouth is so small, his teeth would be overcrowding. braces! so cute, right?)

but the stains were easily removed with the right tools (doc said to DIY with a toothpick next time). the ‘gappy’-ness of his teeth makes it hard for food to get stuck in between, so they’re generally easy to clean. remember when you aunties called him ‘madonniq’? turned out to be a good thing after all, heh.

pronounced as cavity-free, his good-as-new, post-polished teeth (i’m not kidding, they look awesome, sigh – dear aniq, please pleaseeee don’t ever mar them with smokes and coffee in the future) were photographed by the doc, and then it was auni’s turn.

okaaay, so ALL the doc managed with our wriggly worm of a girl was count her teeth (16) and made her promise to let mummy or daddy brush them every night (to which she nodded in a very ‘macam paham’ way), before she successfully made like a slippery eel and slid out of her daddy’s clutches on the reclining chair, and ran off to play in the wendy house at the waiting room.

better luck next year, doc.

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the last time we brought aniq to the kids dentist was about a year ago, and we were supposed to follow up six months later but kinda forgot about it, until an opportunity came up for a not-so-far-in-the-distance slot (you know how impossible it is to make dental appointments within the foreseeable future!), thanks to, erm, a ‘special arrangement’. :)

the boy was compliant as ever, answering the doc’s questions (or at least tries to, lol!), opening his mouth and spitting out according to instruction.

to cut the story short, his set of teeth is complete for now, at a full 20. all gappy and nicely spaced out, according to the doc. plaque and stains had inevitably set in despite our best efforts, so those were promptly scraped and polished off. thankfully, his candy intake is still *somewhat* under control, so no cavities for now.

and after the lil baby teeth were restored to their pearly white glory, the doc pronounced that we need only come back for another visit a year later. :)

his choice of toy from the toy chest this time? after careful deliberation via a thorough elimination process (car? no. spiderman? no. ball? no.), he chose a… bottle of bubbles. wahliao. pay dental fees so expensive, choose 30cent toy. wth.

and speaking of teeth, after a few days of swollen gums, her first tooth FINALLY erupted, like the tip of an iceberg. we only discovered it righhhht after the visit to the dentist. we’re still unable to actually view it, just stuck our finger in her mouth and felt the rough edge. sho cute.

and no, she’s still not biting me. or any part of my anatomy. i’ve scolded her a few times before, so i think she got the point.

how? nice or not, my teeth??

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the first thing i checked with the doc yesterday during my monthly check up was whether it’s STILL a girl.

the good news is: it still is. heh.

the bad news is: my low tummy is likely due to my laziness at exercising after the first baby, hah! weak muscles = flabby womb, you know. so, first-time mummies, let this be a lesson! but ugh, the thought of tummy crunches turns me off, so nevermind, another reason for me to stop at two. or i foresee my tummy hanging down to my knees the next time round. eew.

at this point, the scans of the baby aren’t too exciting coz the baby’s grown too large to be seen in full on the screen, so the doc could only show us parts of the blurry images which i, after two babies, still am very bad at deciphering what is what. ok, the head is easy enough, being round and all.

baby is now almost 1.4 kg, mummy has gained all of 7 kg, EDD stands at 17 april. well, give or take two weeks.

the doc offered me ventolin nebuliser for my phlegmy chest, and so, seeing that the clinic was TOTALLY empty that morning (a miracle, i tell ya!), i had my feet on the sofa and breathed in the damn thing for twenty minutes. i also wanted to know what was it about the nebuliser that kids absolutely hate, and the aftermath, as i find out, was a palpitating heart, shaky hands, and plain jittery-ness. the phlegm was still there, but i guess with all the other meds, i slept somewhat better at night.

aaaaanyway, the highlight of the day was aniq’s first trip to the dentist. i’d psyched him up by telling him over the past few days that we’re bringing him to a doctor who is going to brush his teeth, and we got him to practice opening his mouth when instructed, hehe. so by that day, he knew that he was going to the “entist” to “ush teef”.

the dentist discussed with us about his daily diet and brushing habits, showed us the proper way to brush his baby teeth, and warmed him up with a teeth model for him to brush…

then it was on to the dentist’s chair with daddy! he had his teeth counted (17 in all for now, including one erupted molar), brushed properly (without any biting or chewing, like he does with his own toothbrush at home), and some stains scraped off (due to the iron-rich spinach he eats). and all throughout, he simply kept his mouth opened compliantly like a good patient, and kept very still, allowing the dentist to do his thang. kinda like when he has his haircuts, actually. i think he’s a funny little boy like that, always taking in new experiences in a curious, adult way.

you know how dentists, like in movies, tend to give kids a lollipop at the end of their visit? i always thought it strange and disturbing that they do that, or it could be a conspiracy to keep the kids’ parents coming back to give them more business. but thankfully, no candies were in sight, only a toy as a reward. phew!

and as our reward to him, we brought him to the botanic garden nearby to run around and feed the fishies. :)

check out my teeth!

i must add that i myself like going to the dentist, never having a bad experience before – well, except that the pocket hurts most during visits. (why are dental checkups so expensive?!)

i remember my mum used to be very insistent in reminding us to brush our teeth every night since i was small, so i know dental hygiene is important, and i guess it’s subconsciously passed down to me now that i’m a mother myself. so yeah, call it the kiasu-mother-syndrome or whatever, but i think it’s an investment coz… do you know just how freaking expensive braces and extractions cost?? (i’ve never needed them, but i’ve heard!)

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