Hi everyone, thanks for dropping by this forum. For start, im a certified dentist currently serving at the Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia. Im a little bored here and i cant find much related to teeth in LYN, so i decided to open up this tread to discuss a little bit of teeth and dentistry

PURPOSE
1) Increase awareness of oral hygiene
2) Debunking some myth about dentistry related stuff
3) Serve as a platform for dentist to gather and give opinion
4) For those who wish to take up dentistry as their career, this is a great place to ask , to know what you are expected to do once you graduate!

' Dentistry is the art and science of preventing, diagnosing and treating diseases, injuries and malformations of the teeth, jaws and mouth'
Above is the definition of dentistry, it is a unique career that require you to master both art and science. What you study theoritically may not make you a good dentist, and you cant do practically without a theory behind, hence the word ART AND SCIENCE. It is very true when you think that a distinction student may not be the best dentist, and vice versa the bad student will not necessary be the worst dentist. You have to put the theory into practice and perfecting it, so i prefer to call ourself PRACTITIONER , because we are and we will be practicing and perfecting our skill and knowledge everyday. Oww...not mentioning the SKILL OF COMMUNICATION, which is a very very very important skill that every good dentist must have!!


*Disclaimer*
World of dentistry is ever changing, there is alot of argument, different school of thought on dentistry. What i write/express is my own opinion, it may differ from one practitioner to another

Reading Zone
Is a blog created not by me, but other dentist in Malaysia, good info there!

Ask.DentistMY


This post has been edited by AskTheDent: Sep 14 2014, 10:34 PM

Top 10 Reasons Why People HATE Dentists

#1 THE PAIN
#2 THE NEEDLE
#3 THE ANXIETY
#4 THE DRILL
#5 THE INVASIVENESS
#6 THE SOUND AND SMELL
#7 THE COST
#8 THE LECTURES
#9 THE POOR SERVICE
#10 THE BAD MEMORIES

This post has been edited by AskTheDent: Sep 10 2014, 11:16 PM

-Reserved-

lemme start.
I haven't done scalling for the past 3 years already.
is that ok?

I want to do crowning, but private dentist too expensive (RM2k above). Is there any cheaper option?

The purpose of scalling is to remove the calcalus deposit that are form through the time and cant be remove by regular brushing. Increase the frequency and by using the correct brushing technique will only make the formation of calcalus much slower, but it will not halt the production of the calcalus.

In normal healthy person ( no shaking teeth, no gum bleeding/swollen ) , it is recommended to do scaling once every 6 months. For those who have shaking teeth, gum bleeding, gum swollen ( Medical term, Periodontitis ) has to do scalling every month until the condition improve, then you can increase the duration to 3 months, and then to 6 monthly.

Hope this helps

This post has been edited by AskTheDent: Sep 9 2014, 04:24 PM

Sorry to said that, there are not alternative for crown. Maybe you can try other material such as metal or porcelain crown, it usually be cheaper then Zirconia crown. Im practising in northern part, what i know is they charge Rm600 per crown here. So i suggest you go to a few a dental clinic and ask for quotation.

Or, you can go to government clinic, but not all clinic can do crown, only a specialist clinic can do

Suppose I have a very small cavity, and I go to the dentist, and he digs and drills, and make a small hole into a much bigger one, and then caps it with filling ...

Or alternately, I diligently brush my teeth immediately after EVERY single meal. Every time I eat anything. And I keep this up for 3 months. And the micro cavity dissapears.

Question, with very very small cavities, do teeth have some limited capability to heal?

Everytime I visited a govt dentist, they did scaling for me for only 10 minutes?

I remember spending more than 10 mins in a private dental clinic.

Is 10 mins enough?

To answer your question, we must know how a tooth cavity is form. The acid in our mouth will de-mineralised the tooth structure, especially the calcium. When the time goes by, the loss of calcium is too much and the tooth collapse and hence , the cavity is there. We can prevent the demineralisation by applying high concentration of calcium on tooth surface ( GC tooth mousse ). BUT this REmineralisation can only be done on early stage, once a cavity is form, the only method is do filling to prevent further caries progression.






Actually that depends on how much calculus you have, if you have huge big chuck of calcalus sticking onto your tooth surface, then it will take longer. On the contrast, if your tooth is relatively clean, 10 minute is sufficient.

Another explanation is that the private clinic might be doing deep scaling for you. Deep scaling usually cant be done in government clinic as it need special instrument. Hope this answer your question

Which government clinic in KL/PJ is good for scaling?
Am i able to choose a specific doctor or its assigned randomly?

I think all the gov clinic is the same, haha.
Errrr... Yes and no to your second question. It really depends on the clinic and the doctor. Like my clinic, we have a duty roster, if im working for today, all the patient that come today will be seen by me. So if you want Doctor A, you ask when is the day he duty and you come that day, or simply ask to put your appointment under his/her name. BUT, all clinic have their own system, try ask if you can choose your own doctor. This is common especially for woman patient who want to be treated by woman doctor.

Is there a risk of HIV and Hepatitis during dental treatment?

where is ur clinic?

before we talk about symptoms i believe the best medicine is prevention..

let's start with the basic..

correct way to brush teeth.

doc, please guide us on the correct way to brush teeth

million dollar question, do we need to rinse after brushing?

This post has been edited by nate_nightroad: Sep 9 2014, 11:39 PM

Yes, there is always a risk, either from patient to patient, or dentist to patient. So if you ask how to prevent this, i would say the best way to prevent the transmission is to only visit the clinic that have good sterilization equipment and do the proper sterilization procedure. Just to add a note, infection control in private clinic is COST CONSUMING, it involve alot of money. So sometime it is better to visit the dentist who charge a little bit high, but the clinic is clean



Sorry dude, i prefer stay anomalously. My clinic is at norther part of M'sia



Use soft toothbrush!! Hard toothbrush is use to wash the toilet bowl,haha!! I know how enjoying or 'feel' more clean after brushing with hard toothbrush, but trust me, is the technique that matters, not how hard is the toothbrush.

There is a contrary opinion is rinsing after tooth brushing. Toothpaste has fluoride and other type of material in it. The risk of NOT rinsing is swallowing the toothpaste. High amount of fluoride in our body will lead to fluorosis of the bone and teeth ( if it is consume during tooth formation stage ). Personally, i would recommend to rinse after brushing as the main purpose of brushing is to brush out the food that stuck. Not forgetting regular flossing and gargle with mouthwash twice a week



Brushing method


This post has been edited by AskTheDent: Sep 10 2014, 12:30 PM

very informative doc

but let me embed the video for u

Haha, thanks, i already edited and the youtube is uploaded

how much govt charge ?

Above is the price list for gov clinic, if foreigner is different price

This post has been edited by AskTheDent: Sep 10 2014, 09:02 AM