bleeding love

It is true. Not until I’ve met this girl yesterday that I am now healed. The pain has brought me so many nuisances that I have to face her. And thankfully, I did the right thing. Her touch has been a miracle; all those days of torment immediately vanish in minutes.

She has explained to me that soft deposits have formed on the surface of my teeth. Because of my braces that usually obstructs my “toothbrushing” sessions for proper cleaning, these deposits harden, become a calculus (not those found in your Mathematics textbook), and stick firmly in my teeth. Thanks to Dr. Myrine Lerio-Garupa, I’ve finally realized that I am experiencing mild gingivitis—which explains the eternal bleeding of my beloved gums. “It’s just normal for people who have braces,” she said with a smile.

Therefore, with that statement alone, I’m proud to say that this has happened to me not because I am unconcerned of my pearly whites but, rather, because of some awful relationship forming between my braces and calculus. To hell with calculus! That’s why I hate Math.

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red monday

If you are given three hours, what would you do?

It’s easy, you may say. The list to be written is endless: Stagnate yourself in an internet session and browse hundreds of Facebook accounts, reread your old favorite novel that has already accumulated enough dust to acquire colds and cough, paint if the Dali or Malang in you needs some visual art calisthenics, and many more!

But this day, I had just spent my three-hour time on something I was least fond of: Impacted Third Molar Extraction. It was not easy, I had my braces adjusted too!

Yes, sounds familiar. I had this same operation last May, but that tooth was from the right side (and the whole process took three hours, too). This time, I had the one from the left side removed. It had to be, it was for the common good, I tell you.

It was not a moment to enjoy, really, but surely it was memorable. Well, who would not forget opening one’s mouth for three long hours, with some person crossing the threshold within by means of some cold, shiny blades and other contraptions, stressfully pulling that damn big tooth over and over again, while a sucking tube inserted under the tongue created buzzing sounds in the head? And from a session which started at exactly 10:00 AM and ended at 1:00 PM? Anyone who would say these would never leave even a tiny mark inside the head needs a visit to the nearest dental clinic.

My decision of wearing a red shirt, too, was not bad. Actually, it was a choice of epics proportions! When I opened my eyes (honestly, I shut my eyes on the whole process when my dentist gave me the first anesthesia shot), my two bare arms where spotted red, big and samll. Not because I had attained some unspeakable disease, but it was due to the blood spurting out from my mouth powered by another sterile and gleaming device that powerfully spray water. I looked at my arms with amazement and felt like I survived a twisted game of Jigsaw—of Saw fame.

I just hope these Mefenamic acid, Amoxicillin, and Tranexamic acid would lessen the pain and hasten the wound’s healing. CEGP-Visayas Campus Journalism Convention at Leyte and enrollment begin next week!

And let me add this special menu I “enjoyed” this day:

Breakfast: champorado with milk and longganiza
Lunch: 1 cup of plain Oat Drink and 1 cup human blood
Snack: clotted blood
Dinner: porridge of unflavored oatmeal with drops of blood

Anyways, on the good side, when there’s something to smile in the next years to come, this set of teeth would look fabulously proper.

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my sister is now a doctor!

When I had my own trouble with my set of teeth, dealing them with my dentist this summer, my sister on the other hand sweated through the month of May taking up the theory and practical board exams to become a dentist. And just this morning the results finally came, and voila!, my sister just became an official dentist.

Now she can already thoroughly deal my teeth. Yay!

Out of 802 who reviewed, only 264 of them passed! And to think of it my sister, Merry Sharon Carnice-Diabo, was just some little more points away to be listed on the Top Ten! Now that’s a feat.

Well, here’s the rest of the good news from Manila Bulletin Online.

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264 pass licensure exam for dentists

The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) announced yesterday that 264 out of 802 passed the dentist licensure examination given by the Board of Dentistry in Manila this month.

The successful examinees who garnered the 10 highest places are Maria Jacinta Rosario Hernandez Romero of the University of the Philippines (UP)-Manila who got a rating of 83.79 percent; Sharie Ivy Liao Tan of Centro Escolar University (CEU)-Manila, with 83.58 percent rating; Joanna Joy Ngo Chiu, UP-Manila, 83.45 percent; Jedrek Lenci Sy Ho, CEU-Manila, 83.01 percent; Liezl Diana Tam Guong,CEU-Manila, 82.85 percent; Sheila Anne Ducusin Leonor, UP-Manila, 82.84 percent; Ryan Salvacion Soriano, CEU-Manila, 82.84; Irene Maye Dumlao Rodriguez, UP-Manila, 82.42; Clarence Clair Christina Kalimpo Ngo, CEU-Manila, 81.99; Karla Patricia Buenaventura Camello, UP-Manila, 81.79; and John Michael Torres Ramirez, University of the East-Manila, 81.60.

On the Board of Dentistry are Dr. Maria Teresa De Jesus-Amador, chairman, and Dr. Rosita Canlas-Nisce and Dr. Norma Reyes-Ayap, members.

The oath-taking ceremony of the successful examinees in the said examination as well as the previous ones who have not taken their Oath of Professional will be held before the Board on Monday, July 9, at 1 p.m. at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza, CCP Complex, Pasay City.

Successful examinees should personally register and sign in the Roster of Registered Professionals.

Registration for membership with the Philippine Dental Association will start on Monday, June 18.

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threaded

Have you ever experienced a day when you intently wait for something to happen—which is supposed to happen—only to realize the happening go nowhere out of sight, gone into oblivion? I just did.

This may be one of the most mundane thing to “wait for something” in this era of extensive logical thinking but what I had just waited a while ago was for my stitch (in my recently operated wisdom tooth, as if it matters, euch) to be removed, only to discover that the thread was not already there. Gone. I am sure it’s there in the bowels of my being.

Argh. I’ve waited for about an hour in the clinic just for my dentist to recommend this in a two-minute talk: “Oh, the thread is gone. And gargle it up with Bactidol at home, okay?”

And so that was it. Now I have doubts on what Lyde had quoted from my very own short story I let him read last week through text messaging:

“Waiting is never a stressful task nor is unproductive, as long as you are
willing to accept the end as it is, good or bad. Waiting is rewarding.”

-Waiting Days and Story Nights

Argh. That silly thread!

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impact of the world

I just had blood for lunch; my very own blood to be exact.

One will always have a special childhood memory of going to the dentist’s clinic and sit upon the Chair—waiting and gleaming in its sterile wonder. You obviously know how this frightened us out of our senses when we we’re little rascals.

But just this morning, my childish nightmares of meeting the dentist were rushing, vivid and grotesque images, back into my mind. Because what I had just gotten through was no simple root canal extraction but, rather, an Impacted Wisdom Tooth Removal.

Sounds groundbreaking? It is.

Posted in the website of My New Smile, my case is this: “[when] there is not enough room for them [teeth] to erupt into the arch normally, they attempt to come in sideways or have other similar difficulties. They then become impacted, that is, impeded from normal eruption.”

If left untreated, “risk factor for problems such as tooth abscess, cyst formation, damage to adjacent teeth, or any life-threatening infections that can swell that could close off your breathing or can spread to your brain” may happen.

To have a clearer picture of how it looks like, I think this picture could help:

As of the moment my whole face felt like they have been banged on a concrete wall for several times, and much more the throbbing pain increases as the anesthesia’s powers are ebbing away.

My dentist mentioned that my third molar (or commonly known as Wisdom Tooth) was undeniably bigger than the usual size, which explained her vast effort in extracting the tooth. Imagine, she even needed help to hold steady my jaw while she pulled, pulled, pulled, and then pulled some more to greater extent.

I thought the pulling never stopped, with the words “Lord, Lord, Lord…” repeatedly chanting in my head and numerous anesthesia shots numbly stinging my mouth. With a rare move, the dentist decided on breaking the tooth for an easier removal—if which she was successful.

The session started from 10:35AM and ended at 12:15PM, which made the other waiting patients silently anxious (but they projected their cheesy smile when I got up from the Chair). Basically, the process almost took us 3 long hours.

And the pain won’t stop in disturbing my preferred lifestyle! Spitting on an ebony white sink, swirls of red streams endlessly appears; you can just envision a cherry and cream candy.

Tonight, stale blood for dinner is the least thing I am looting for. Oh God, heal thy wound in haste.

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the metal mouth of may

The mouth being one of the most important parts of our body, from verbal communication to food consumption, will never be that effective without its consisting set of teeth. These stubbed little bones, 28 all in an average adult person, will always share value with the mouth the same way the table is with its legs.

Teeth, as far as we’ve known since childhood, are bone structures found in our jaws that bite, chew, scrape, tear, or any possible usage that you may think.

For some a little bit of information, a single tooth in the most basic sense is made up of two parts: the crown and the root.

The crown is the part of the tooth starting from the gumline to its tip. It’s what you always see in a person while smiling, while eating, opening the mouth, and many more.

And the root is the opposite. If the crown is what you visibly see inside your mouth, the roots are the ones beneath those.

In some cases these set of teeth, from the incisors (the four front teeth), the canines (the fangs extremely elongated in horror flicks), to the molars (last three biggies), will misalign upon growing up—just like mine. Let’s not talk about its degree of disorder but let’s just say my dentist, Dr. Susan Yvette Morgia-Navarro, D.M.D., had little reasons to smile upon seeing my pearly whites last May 8, 2007, Tuesday.

On that same day, I finally had my braces. Wow, what joy I felt upon picturing myself flashing, smiling my straight set of teeth to anyone (no, not the horizontal kind of straight but the curving kind if you get what I mean). But my, oh my, the great happiness that came into my mind that time was just suppressed by the great stinging pain I am experiencing today. And still I am going to deal with my two impacted wisdom teeth next week, but that’s yet to be mentioned in a much later post.

According to the HealthyTeeth organization in their website, “Orthodontic treatment (or braces and retainers as they are sometimes called works by exerting a gentle pressure over time to straighten teeth that are growing, or have already grown, out of place.”

Braces have three basic parts:

1) Brackets - brackets that are attached to each tooth

2) Bonding or band - the material that attaches the bracket to the tooth

3) Arch Wire - a thin metal wire that runs from bracket to bracket

“Braces have come a long way from the "train track" look of years ago. Today, many orthodontic patients can get braces that attach to the backs of the teeth, or use transparent brackets.”

And because of this excruciating contraption wired in my teeth, I can neither bite nor chew. Oats and cereals in the grocery stores are trendy for me these days.

Mentioned in the same website, “having straight teeth is important. Teeth that are crooked or out of place (misaligned) affect the way a person chews and talks and how their smile looks. Because they have unnatural spaces, crooked teeth are harder to clean and are more likely to have cavities.”

This is very true.

Two years. Two years! That is the duration I have to patiently endure before witnessing the glory that impends before me.

And there’s just one thing that keeps on horrifying me aside from the fact if this metal-mission would fail: What will become of me this school year as a junior in a college?

Why, I don’t have plans strutting around the acacia-lined campus in a skeleton look!

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