All About Dental

[Mvm]

cwc:

JoyBliss:

Dear All,


Need some recommendations
My 31 month old ds, fell & hurt his 2 front teeth. Been to the GP then who said nothing could be done since the teeth didnt fall out but to continue monitoring for 1 month. Now, 1 mo later, the 2 teeth and the gum area have turned greyish to my dismay. And DS complained of pain still!

Appreciate any recommendation for a good dentist experienced with kids ( i.e. sweet, patience etc). This happen so to be DS 1st dental visit as well, makes me more worried that he will out up strong resistance.... What should I do?

Many thanks in advance for any advice

Cheers,
Joyce

Hi Joyce,
Agree with sall. Turning greyish seems serious, it can mean the teeth are probably impacted.....do bring your DS to see a dentist fast.

Just to share my DS case.
He fell and chipped the front tooth at ~18mths. As DS just cried a little and got over it, we thot nothing of it (DS is a happy boy with high threshold for pain). Life went on per normal for the next 3 weeks......except DS started to drool more & more and tho I feel something not right, could not pinpoint.
One night DS started crying badly throughout the night, by next day 6am, we suddenly realised half his face was swollen....sent to A&E immediately.
Outcome.....the fall impacted 2 of his front teeth. Internally, it had swell and when the specialist touched his gums, thick pus and dark blood just oozed out. His ear and nose were also infected and the swell was so bad that he could barely open up one of his eyes. They quickly scheduled an operation (put to sleep) and extracted the 2 teeth. Frankly, I dun know how DS had endured those 3 weeks & without making much fuss.

According to the specialist, the outcome of the fall could be any one of these
a) if lucky, no problem
b) adult teeth may be darken/not straight
c) the adult teeth may not grow at all
His teeth are indeed not straight....one is protruding and the other, no sight of it :sad: . Guess, we'll just have to make do and depend on the orthodontist to do her magic liao.

Go consult a good pediatric dentist. One that I would recommend is Dr Ong at Marcus Cooney & Associates at Camden medical centre. Very good with children, very experienced, and she works very fast, and my kids LOVE her. But a little on the expensive side. A small price to pay.

[BeContented]

cheerymummy:

schweppes:

[quote=\"cheerymummy\"]I am also looking for a good dentist for my kids. I may want to get my 8 year old braces. Any recommendations?

I'm not too sure if 8yo is too early for braces. Not all the permanent teeth is out yet and the child's mouth/jaw is still growing and developing. May be a little too soon. A better time is usually after 12 yo (or if u can wait, after PSLE).

It's also better to do it if the child is slightly older and more able to take pain and discomfort.

Oh yes, but my 8 year old has some of her front of adult teeth out and they are protruding. It makes her very conscious. Any suggestions what we can do or just ask her to bear with it? I feel heart pain when she comes back telling me she was made fun of in school again because of her teeth.[/quote]Hi,
Understand there is this dental trainer T4K for younger kids (~6-10yo) to help the alignment while the teeth are growing. It's a plastic 'container' (like a mouth guard), not customised type and removable. Perhaps you can go check it out.

My 11yo son just started on it, not sure of the effect as yet. Actually, prior to the trainer, we had started a simple brace to bring his protruding front tooth down, but due to his constantly changing & growing adult teeth, the brace could not fit after 3 months (was supposed to last 6-9 mths). A new brace will face the same issue.....so orthodontist suggested the T4K trainer for the interim time...until his adult teeth are all out then we go for braces.
FYI, orthodontist did mentioned that 11yo is a little late and teeth too crooked, would have been better to start earlier for the T4K trainer.

[zinx]

Hi CWC,


Able to share where did your son get his ‘retainer’ done?

Thanks

[BeContented]

zinx:

Hi CWC,


Able to share where did your son get his 'retainer' done?

Thanks

Hi Zinx,
I write until I confused.....ha :oops: Not sure if retainer is the right word for my son's case. I understand people who put braces will normally have a retainer after their treatment is completed. Apparently the retainer is to help keep the teeth in alignment. I only learnt about this retainer when I asked the dentist why my once-straight teeth has started to be crooked.....I was not given any retainer 25 years ago.

As for son's case, what he has actually seems like a very basic & simple braces - a customised layer of gum + a metal strand for the whole set of top teeth. But the purpose is to bring the front protuding tooth down and keep the alignment of his top set of teeth.

As for the orthodontist, Dr Tang PangMei - currently at TTSH.

Rgds.

[sall]

I had my implant done this afternoon. The only excruciating pain was the 4 jabs given before the procedure, and the dentist still told me it'll feel like a little ant bite.

The actual procedure was painless, now there's still some bleeding, am given lots of antibotics and painkillers.
If anyone is considering implants, then I can assure you the experience is not too bad. Don't wait until the bone collapse, then the dentist got to do a bone graft and that will be much more complicated.

[jedamum]

sall:

I had my implant done this afternoon. The only excruciating pain was the 4 jabs given before the procedure, and the dentist still told me it'll feel like a little ant bite.

The actual procedure was painless, now there's still some bleeding, am given lots of antibotics and painkillers.
If anyone is considering implants, then I can assure you the experience is not too bad. Don't wait until the bone collapse, then the dentist got to do a bone graft and that will be much more complicated.

when i did root planing, also need jabs. very very painful.
care to share how much you paid for the implant?
mine still a lot of work. need to remove wisdom teeth. dentist even suggest braces to straighten my teeth for easy cleaning for long term maintenance.

[sall]

Hi jedamum, the cost is much cheaper than the specialist. Specialist charge will be about 4K. My dentist is not a specialist, so I paid much less, should be in total about 2.8K.

[sesame246]

sall:

Hi jedamum, the cost is much cheaper than the specialist. Specialist charge will be about 4K. My dentist is not a specialist, so I paid much less, should be in total about 2.8K.

wow..that's cheap! But were'nt you worried that it was not done by a specialist?

I hv my upper molar extracted 1.5 mths ago and the dentist suggested implant. I am still thinking abt it as it seems so bloody - i watch from youtube.

what is the ideal interval between tooth extraction and implant? also is it ok to just leave the gap there without doing anything?

my dentist quoted me $4.8k which I think is expensive, it is a clinic under Q&M. I am thinking if it is safer to do it at the hospital instead where generally they hv better equipment.

Can anyone pls advise?

Thanks!

[sall]

Hi sesame, it’s not wise to just leave the gap there, the neighbouring teeth will shift to take up the space, and in future, your teeth may not be perfectly aligned. It’s best to do it asap after extraction, when the wound after extraction has completely healed. If you wait too long, you may lose some bone mass (something like that). Better not watch the procedure on youtube, it’s so bloody and scary.

I think mine should cost more than what I mentioned earlier, I haven’t paid the whole sum, can pay part of it thru medisave.
As for my dentist, he’s done a lot of implant before and he did my extraction too. It was a good job done and I’m very comfortable with him even though he’s not a specialist.

[winth]

Dear all,


Thanks for all the PMs on the dentist that DS1 is visiting.
Very sorry for not being able to respond sooner as I’m very inactive now, I think I’ve come online less than 10 times this year.

DS1 visited this dentist due to misaligned upper and lower jaw set of teeth and I didn’t believe the neighbourhood dentist who simply told us that he needs braces (cos he was diagnosed with crooked teeth, but we needed all his milk teeth to fall off before those metal braces). And the last draw came, after he told my son that his teeth is too deeply decayed and needs a crown and needs a specialist treatment for crown for S$6k (on top of losing his good tooth).

The new dentist we visited had his decayed tooth fixed in no time, though he said that the decay was really pretty deep. He introduced us his wife (another dentist) after discovering that DS1’s upper and lower jaw problem. He told us that it’s not a matter of braces and if we had waited for his milk teeth to fall out, it’ll be too late to align his jaw problem (which was really, the problem that DS1 had).

The dentist clinic is Dr Johnny Lee and Hinly Lau, and they just moved to Novena, Thomas Medical Centre early 2010. We are his regular clients since that visit. They are a husband and wife team, in their 50s and very professional. Dr Hinly has been treating DS1 and we visit her monthly to see how DS1’s progress.

DS1’s ‘braces’ involved two sets that click onto his teeth. It cost me S$1,200 for that special set and I have to manually calibrate it so that the ‘braces’ will push against his about his set of teeth so that they will align gradually. The equipment is really not difficult to calibrate and people with all thumbs like me can do it. Oh! Other than the S$1,200 for the set, I need to pay a fee of S$20++ for every visit to Dr Hinly Lau for his monthly progress.

DS1 is on the braces since June/July this year (couldn’t really remember) and he is pretty used to it. At first, it was really a matter of getting used to something acrylic in his mouth. And his tongue couldn’t really feel his way, that’s when his pronunciation wasn’t good. Now, he’s eating and sleeping with it.

The ‘braces’ are really just clicking onto his teeth, so he just needs to unclick them and brush them in the am and pm.

=========================

As for me, I was diagnosed with thinning gums by that same neighbourhood dentist why. He told me I was simply brushing it too hard. The only way to prevent it was not to brush so ‘hard’. ya ya

Luckily for me too, I changed to this new dentist and he told me my problem of thinning gums was due to food stuck in my gums. Nothing to do with brushing. I merely needed flossing and regular dentist visits. And he told me that my brushing is so thorough and the teeth are in good condition.

Hope the stories help in creating a little bit of general awareness and I would strongly recommend that seeking consultation in different dentists is quite crucial.