Toothache

About one and a half month’s ago (around mid Jan) my upper right molar was going bad. I had a fillings done a few years back, so that means I will have to re-fill it when the pain became unbearable and I couldn’t bite properly. I went to Noble Dental on 1st Feb near home after making that appointment. The dentist whom had treated me have a new clinic to manage. So, it makes sense to go to one that is nearest to home. 

I was made to wait for more than half an hour before being ushered into the dental operatory. I understood that I needed to wait for whichever doctor was available at that point of time. There, lady dentist Dr Joey Ngeow behaved obnoxiously or should I say uncaring. I sat on the treatment chair, asked her if she could save my bad tooth by re-filling it. Her reply was ‘okay’. She looked at it and started doing something to it. Having my tooth in my mouth, I knew she wasn’t doing the re-fillings. I could feel she was pushing something up my gums. After about 5 mins, some polishing and scaling and fluoride was coated. I asked again if she had done re-filling to the affected tooth. She giggled cynically and said that it was done. The entire process took less than 15 minutes. She told me to apply Sensodyne on that tooth before going to bed. She also proudly claimed that her advise to others were positive. Being a good patient, I applied Sensodyne nightly until my gums were sore. Before I left to make payment, she said I will need a root canal on next visit which prompted me to ask for a next appointment. She declined giving me one. No medicine were prescribed.

I thought, ^good ah^ no more pain. Well, that’s because the numbing agent in my gum hasn’t subside. Lo and behold, after about 5 hours, the pain came back.My thought, quickly use Sensodyne should help. 

The ordeal lasted for 27 days. Inside the 27 days, I couldn’t eat properly, my mental state went ding dong, easily agitated to the point of suicidal and violence.

An episode erupted on 15th day first lunar month. A reunion turns up to be a mental nightmare. I lose my mind, thinking about ugly past. (We all have past memories, good and bad. A past created by oneself and by others to you). I will never forget and will try put this behind. But, that action puts others to see me differently as a magnanimous person. I regret being in that state. 

Mid afternoon of 27th Feb I called for another dentist as the extreme pain on my right face radiated up to my right brain hemisphere. Pain also spreaded to my jawbone and soft tissues on my right face and beyond. I wasn’t intuitive, emotionally unstable, clouded with unspeakable imaginations. My quality of thoughts weren’t there at all, although I put in a lot of effort to do some ‘self reflection’.

At 8pm, Dr Arron Chow’s clinic, he noticed that I had recently seen his colleague. He took an X-ray and found I had a hairline crack and my gums had receded. The tooth was infected and terminal. A root canal can probably last about 2 to 3 months when I told him that that was Dr Ngeow suggestion. Am now on painkillers and antibiotics. He also assured me that I will be able to sleep better after extraction.

Googled yesterday’Danger of a toothache infection’ and found frightening results were exactly the same as I was suffering for the past 27 days. Untreated toothache can lead to severe life-threatening such as sepsis and brain abscess or infection spreading to other parts of the body. Death may take weeks or months when left untreated. I count on my strong immune response, or else I would have left this world already.

I’m thinking of giving a law suit to Dr Ngeow of her negligence and obnoxious behaviour. She is not qualified to be a Dentist and her name should be struck off from the Singapore Dental Council.

Any thoughts?