First Consultation

 

After much googling and research, I finally decided on Alfred Cheng Orthodontic Clinic!! I dunno if I'm lucky or what, I got an appointment quite quickly - like I only had to wait a week or so (maybe cos I'm a potential customer? hahaha) Many of the orthodontists that my friends introduced, either they were all FULLY booked till april, or the doctors don't come to the clinic on Saturdays. -_-

 

Many bloggers and forumers introduced Dr Cheng, but when the lady at the other end of the line asked me which doctor I preferred, I said anything. In the end I was booked to meet Dr Wee instead.

 

So... fast forward to consultation day: It was relatively quick, now I understand when they said the doctors are chop chop no nonsense. I like it!

 

When I met Dr Wee for the first time, first thing he did was to take a look at my teeth, then explained that I have overcrowded teeth (which of course was quite obvious haha). He said my gums were pretty inflamed and my teeth were not in a good condition. I had to settle that first before the braces could be put on, in case my teeth are too weak to tahan the pressure...

 

So after that we explored the options of the braces - normal metal: $3.8k, and ceramics: $4.5k (all excluding gst hor but includes an xray and a mould).  Due to work, I decided to go for ceramics la, I'm already being called 小妹,  if I wear metal braces 别人不是不把我当一回事 ？

He asked me whether I needed some time to decide, but I was like, heck la, I'm gonna go for it. Let's just do it today. On the very same day, I did my xray and did my teeth mould on the spot.

 

The moulding was quite fast... Open mouth big big, then put some big blob of clay onto my teeth and press for awhile and take out. Do 2 times - one for the upper and another for the lower set of teeth.

 

Check out my teeth mould! Can see that it's terrible right?

 

front, right side, left side

 

 

Let's take a look at my xray!

 

Ok la actually I also 看不懂. From the xray I think they look pretty straight leh, but of cos I dunno how to understand an xray. I'm sure you can do better than me... My teeth are really crooked as you can see from the mould above. Ya ya ya I'm just trying to show off my xray lol. Oh ya now xrays are now all digital already, no more xray films like in the past!

So... I was due to extract 4 teeth. all pre-molars. relatively healthy teeth. -_-  I asked my dentist why they cannot extract the ones behind, need to extract the ones in the middle (by middle I mean between the front teeth and the molars)... So it was because it's simpler to leave a space in the centre and allow all teeth to space out, rather than leave a hole at the back and try to move all the teeth behind to space out. Sounds legit?

This first appointment was at the end of Jan. My next appointment was 9th March 2013 - a few weeks after CNY. I planned it nicely so that I could eat all the food during CNY, and do the cleaning and extractions after that. And I'd be ready to put on the braces!!! WOOT