Headgear means BRACES in this context :razz: I’m getting my braces done, soon. Last Wednesday I went for my first dental appointment, and the female dentist is nice enough to explain everything about the braces, from getting the orthodontic spacers inserted to getting my entire face xray-ed (I bet 10% of my brain cells got zapped).
She inserted 8 spacers into my upper and lower, left and right molars. They didn’t really hurt at first, just like having little unchewed vegetable stems stuck in between your teeth. But as the days went on (especially the second and the third), my molars hurt so much I took every restraint to prevent myself from flossing the spacers out.
Then came this Wednesday, I was prepared to get slaughtered – I was heading for a *gasp* tooth extraction, which sounds worse than having my blog deleted or aliens attacking earth. I was fidgety throughout the whole process, starting from the very second I got seated on that horrible seat.
We’ll have this gel to numb your gums, the dentist assured me. She was on my right, blocking my view of the tray that holds all that hair-raising apparatus (which includes super-sized tweezers and syringes). I tried to have a look at the tweezers when she pried open my mouth, stuffed the gel inside and lowered the chair so much so that I can’t see anything else besides the ceiling.
Look, this won’t hurt. Just a little. Hang on, she instructed. Prying my mouth open again, her index finger reached for the gums. And then came the syringe, big and fat. It says xy… something, and before I could finished reading she drove it into my gums. A small, sharp pain (oh yea, you call that won’t hurt? Just a little?) immediately spreading across my gums, under my cheeks, over my lips. Then the next 3 injections proceeded just like that, with each wave of pain getting less agonising (I was finally getting less nervous).
Go and gargle your mouth, she instructed. The numbness was overwhelming, my entire left mouth felt completely paralysed. When I tried to gargle I realised water was squirting out from the left side of my lips, I giggled. Hell yea that was funny!
Does this hurt? She used a needle-like appartus and poke at my gums, hard. I just felt a pinch. Nope, I replied. Okay we’ll start with the extraction now. And I was like whaaat?! and felt like running out of the room. Will it hurt? I asked, rather nervously. No, believe me. But when you feel any pain, raise your hand and I’ll stop. It’ll be a little rough, but it’s okay.
And she whipped out the gigantic tweezers (woah!) and clasped it around my upper left molar (I asked for the teeth on the left side to be removed for this appointment). Shake shake, pull pull, jerk jerk, push push… and after repeating this a few times (miraculously it wasn’t pain at all, believe me! It just felt weird), the molar finally got dislodged, and she eased it out with a gentle pull. Look, it doesn’t hurt right?
After extracting the other molar (yes, I got two removed), she stuffed some gauze into the cavity. You can wait outside now. I never realised it ended so quickly – under 15 minutes I guess! The nurse will check on your bleeding twice – if you’re okay, you can go home and get some rest. When I went out mom’s nervous eyes met mine. I’m fine, I reassured mom. It didn’t hurt at all, not a single bit. Okay I lied, I was about to say besides the injection part, that is, but I’m afraid of her passing out (she passed out once when she bit her tongue and saw blood, a few years back). I grabbed a celebrity magazine and laughed rather gawkily at Britney Spears’ obese body and Amy Winehouse’s drugged look.
I was certified WILL NOT BLEED TO DEATH when the nurse told me that my wound is getting better, and the dentist was nice enough to come out, have a chit chat with us before ushering us out :) she’s so nice!
And guess what – I’ll have to live with this kind of diet for the next week. Everything blended into a bowl of goo! For today’s lunch (see below), I have lots and lots of veg (quote mom, I am afraid you’ll get constipation!) and some chicken and some porridge, blended into a bowl of unrecognisable green paste. Yummy (note: yummy in a sarcastic way – do you ever think that a bowl of green goo will taste good?)
That’s all for this update! Erm wait a minute, I’ve got tags to reply!
sam: Thank you for dropping by and your kind comments! You’re linked!
smashp0p: Yea… hope she’ll rest in peace. She’ll be missed :cry:
val: Hey val, thanks for tagging! Everything is fine here, besides the getting-my-braces part, haha :) anyway how’s life over there?
SilverIsle: Hey there! Thanks for your compliments. You’re linked!
Artix: Actually I didn’t realise it was funny until you mentioned it and after re-reading it, lol :mrgreen: let me tell you what, just try to hang in there! There are worse stuff coming up next – you’ll have balance of payments, exchange rate, international trade and other monsters waiting ahead…
WHAT IS THAT GREEN THING! LOL!!!
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ted,
i was so getting ready to see ur pics of the extraction or while you are vulnerable at the dentist’s seat… or watever its called… hehehehe… i knw.. sadist me…
i’m sure, many of your readers won’t appreciate that kind of pics..
oh well!!…
nyways,
enjoy the ‘green’ porridge… im sure its tasty…
rite?
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ooo kesian poor teddy. I never had to go through braces, but it sounds painful! *hugs*
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I never went through getting a head-gear, but I had to go through having braces and tooth extraction, so in terms of that, I feel your pain! Totally!
The soup (which actually doesn’t look too bad.. then again, I am typing this at almost 7am.. I could be imagining anything!) is a good way to slim down, though I highly doubt you need that. Either way, even though it’s rather painful right now, it’ll be worth it in the end!
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green things aren’t that bad really. I once had those too. broccoli blended. it depends on the taste of the ‘soup’ anyway. and not too watery too, then it’ll be more filling.
i never had my teeth extracted but i do know how teeth spacers feel like. At first they feel okay, but then it gets downhill from there.
anyhow, you’re gonna get the braces you want right? so it’s a good thing. just take care of your teeth well.
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Krisandro: It’s blended porridge packed with vegetables. For exactly what did my mom put inside, I guess I’ll have to ask :)
eddy: Lol eddy you’re seriously sadistic, heh :mrgreen: nah, I’m just joking. Even if I manage to smuggle a camera inside (which is highly impossible), I wouldn’t even dare to take photos of the dentist extracting my tooth. After keeping that two extracted teeth I realised how deep their roots are, and so the two gaps in my jaws will be pretty deep eh? Yucks! Anyway I’m starting to love that blended goo! Today I had carrots blended it, so it looks orangey! Mmmhmm.
letti: Haha that’s the price I’ll have to pay for a beautiful smile… at least some genius invented something called local anesthetic and I wouldn’t have to scream and the dentist wouldn’t need to hire big guys to hold me down when extracting my teeth. Thanks for the hug!
Id: Sounds like you’ve got your braces done too! Have you removed them? I guess that’s a big relieve after having the braces cemented to your teeth for 2 solid years. Now that spookes me out. I’m scrawny enough, I don’t need any slimming stuff to keep my size :) heh. And now I’m having multiple meals a day, a huge bowl of porridge every 3~4 hours, which would keep my stomach from growling like a cat scratching blindly in a sack.
jason: The brocolli blended thing you’ve mentioned is probably vegetable soup (I highly doubt the use of the word soup, but everyone seems to be happy calling it so). My mom’s friend Aunt Kay thought her how to prepare vegetable soup many years ago… she would blend potatoes, brocolli and some carrots, mix with some water and serve it with bread. It isn’t that bad afterall. Anyway, you’ve got spaces inserted before?
NOT ANOTHER DENTIST-RELATED ENTRY! This time I stopped at molars being pained with spacers. Sorry, I really cannot handle anything to dentists. AHHHHHHHH~
That’s a nice bowl of goo you got there. :)
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[...] Got my braces installed – I’m now Mr Ugly Betty! [...]
I completely know what you mean by the spacers not really hurting at all, then after a few days you want to pull them out so the pain goes away.