Dentists are Sherlock Holmes and Unsung Heroes

The global cavity needs filling

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“You’ve been sipping tea or coffee?”

“Missed these four teeth,” remarked Dentist M, lightly tapping teeth 10th to 13th situated at an awkward angle for me, a right-hander, to brush well.

“How long do you spend brushing your teeth?” (It implies I’m not cleaning them enough).

“Give me a break,” I thought, “I’m flossing and doing the interdental thing even when deadbeat at night”.

“Hmm, brushing too hard on the lower right — an abrasive cavity is forming,” she continued.

You can’t fool dentists — they can easily determine what you’ve consumed, the way you’ve brushed, and if you’ve flossed properly. It is a crime scene investigation — all in the mouth. You can’t argue with them, not even the best of lawyers.

CSI movies rarely include them, which is strange. Dentists deserve much more attention than they are getting. What a calling to an unglam job — filling ugly cavities, fixing crooked stained teeth and bleeding gums, scrapping calculus, removing bits of food from our last meal!

For someone who has had 4 root canal treatments (thereabout), and 4 tooth implants (I’m certain), I’m well qualified to speak about this rare breed of professionals.

Reclined on the dentist chair, I only entertain one thought — YIELD.

Yes, yield to the drill, scaler, suction tube, dental probe, spoon excavator, and the dentist’s pronouncement of the state of my oral hygiene. Other than yielding, I prayed during the extraction, “Dear Lord, please help Dr. J extract the decayed tooth in one piece.”

Lest you think I’m a slob at brushing, I spend more time and care brushing my teeth than my husband. But he has far fewer dental issues. I conclude my children are to be blamed. During gestation, they drained my calcium store and left me poorer.

Nobody dares fight with the dentist working on her mouth. Stay fully reclined and keep still (but keep on breathing) and be fully cooperative. When your dentist pronounces a less-than-desirable state of oral hygiene, just repent and resolve to do a better job at brushing.

“3–1, distal palatal, 2–4 lingual,” Dr. M called out to her assistant who was recording the readings as she probed my gum.

“The power of vocabulary,” I thought, as her masked face behind the plastic face shield loomed over me, “to capture precise information.”

I looked it up on the internet and deciphered their code words.

Singapore Back in the 70s

“Look, here comes one with the dental card. Who’s next? ” I asked, shifting in my seat, wondering who would be summoned next to the dental hot seat. That was my earliest memory of a dental checkup in primary school.

Thanks to the health minister then, Mr. Chua Sian Chin, a dental health program was launched in 1969 to raise the standard of oral hygiene. The government started a toothbrushing exercise in Singapore’s 600 primary schools.

My classmates and I did exactly like the students in this painting: we squatted over a drain and brushed our teeth. We were taught how to brush our teeth. I’m impressed that the government invested in dental health in 1969, just four years after Singapore became independent from Malaysia and despite being a poor nation.

Improving Lives

The National Dental Centre’s mission is to improve lives through oral healthcare. That, in essence, captures the importance of dental health.

Toothache, anyone?

Or a smile sans your front teeth?

Dentists and oral hygienists are the unsung heroes.

Now that Singapore has much more resources, she is paying it forward by making dental missions to surrounding countries.

Quoting Dr. Rosalind Ho, who went on a dental mission trip to Sri Lanka: “It was a great feeling to be able to help relieve the pain and suffering of patients with dental problems (toothache can be quite tormenting)”.

Recently, a young dentist friend of mine went on a medical mission to East Timor.

“Some of the children’s dental condition was quite concerning, likely due to the lack of oral health education and unawareness,” she said.

She snapped a few pictures of the children’s decayed teeth and showed them to the principal. Appalled, the principal seized the opportunity to push through a toothbrushing school program.

The Global Cavity

The Singapore government’s efforts to improve dental accessibility include subsidies for primary and secondary care, as well as Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) subsidies in private clinics.

Despite this, the costs of dental treatments remain high. As an unsubsidized patient, I forked out about SGD $5000 (USD $3745) for each of my tooth implants. Root canal treatment is only marginally cheaper. In my young dentist friend’s opinion: “Singapore still has a long way to go in making dental care truly accessible to everyone.”

If this is the case with Singapore, what more for the poorer parts of the world? According to a World Health Organization report in November 2022, “Some 3.5 billion people suffer from oral diseases — with three out of four affected living in low and middle-income countries”.

This is a global cavity that needs filling.

To be Thankful

Since each tooth implant costs USD$3745, a set of 32 teeth is worth USD$119, 840!

Shouldn’t we be thankful for the gift of our teeth?

And yes, I shall heed Dr. M’s advice to use the longer interdental brushes, not only inwards but also outwards.

(If you don’t understand this, it means, like me, you can clean your teeth more thoroughly!)

References

Churchfield Dental Centre. “Dental Jargon: What are they talking About?” Accessed 29/12/23. https://www.churchfielddental.co.uk/dental-jargon

National Library Board. “Dental Health Campaign”. Accessed 29/12/23. https://www.nlb.gov.sg/main/article-detail?cmsuuid=6889bf1e-d170-4005-8e28-2d84af53bfe7

Tzu Chi Singapore. 2015. “My First Overseas Dental Mission”. Accessed 28/11/23. https://www.tzuchi.org.sg/en/news-and-stories/inspiration/my-first-overseas-dental-mission/

United Nations. 2022. UN News Global Perspective Human Stories. “Almost half of us worldwide are neglecting oral healthcare: WHO Report”. Accessed 29/12/23. https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/11/1130782