My First Dental Visit

Last week, I complained to mummy several times that I had a toothache. On one of the nights, the pain was so intense that I could not eat my dinner. Every chew hurt! Daddy then made an appointment for me to see a dentist on the nearest Saturday.

My very first experience in a dental clinic

Upon examination, the dentist found not one but three cavities on three of my teeth. 3 cavities??? HORRORS!! Despite the strict oral hygiene imposed by mummy, which includes daily flossing since age 3, mandatory mouth-rinsing after food, closely monitored brushing and minimal intake of candies, I still ended up with bad teeth. After all the effort she had put in to take care of my teeth, this news was a big blow to mummy. At the same time, she also regretted not bringing me for regular dental check-ups... all the time believing that her preventive measures were good enough. Silly her! 

I had one big cavity on my pre-molar (milk tooth) and two tiny cavities on two of my first molars (permanent teeth). All 3 of them required filling. It was here that daddy and mummy learned a shocking fact that I already have permanent molars at this age. So ignorant! *shake head*

Daddy and mummy's brave little girl... although this was my first tooth-filling, I remained calm throughout the entire procedure and was very co-operative! I was not scared at all :)

The decayed pre-molar was the one giving problem because it had affected my gums, causing swelling and inflammation hence the pain. The dentist only dealt with this tooth for this visit (we have to make another trip there to settle the other two later because the dentisit did not want to traumatise me with too much drilling in my first visit). Just a simple procedure of tooth filling for this one tooth and guess what? Daddy was slapped with a RMB930 (RM465) bill!

Slaughtered!

As mentioned before in one of my earlier posts, healthcare in China is extremely costly. Luckily daddy's company insurance paid for most of it, so daddy needed to fork out only RMB60 (RM30) for this visit. Phew!!

After leaving the dental clinic, we went for lunch and shopping as usual (our favourite weekend pastime) and look what mummy found...

Cute floss!! Yes, she is quite obsessed with dental flosses so she immediately grabbed a pack and suggested I bring one to school so that I can floss my teeth after lunch every day! @-@

When My Folks Ignore Me...

... I learn to do things on my own, for myself! 

There are days when daddy and mummy are too busy to entertain my request for something, like that day when I asked mummy to teach me to play a new piece on the piano. Mummy was busy cooking and I couldn't wait for her to finish so I learned to play it by myself... and I did it! I learn to play all new pieces on my own now... it is a good way to improve my sight-reading! 

When (I think) nobody is watching, I sit like this while playing the piano @-@

Recently, I had a shaky tooth again. I pleaded with daddy (my personal "dentist") many times to help me pull it out but he kept saying "later". He felt that the tooth was not loose enough for manual extraction (with his bare hands). Desperate to end the pain, discomfort and misery caused by the dangling tooth, I pulled it out on my own! *proud*

Shaky and painful tooth no more, thanks to... myself! :)

Teeth-less and Teething

Recently, I lost two of my front teeth... both my left and right upper lateral incisor. Both the teeth became shaky at about the same time. The first to go was the one on my left. It was on the 3rd morning of CNY when daddy and mummy heard a whimpering sound from the bathroom. The tooth had come off while I was brushing my teeth. When daddy came to my aid, it was already dangling loosely with blood trickling down the tooth. Daddy gave it a gentle tug and the tooth was freed :)

The right one started giving problems about a week later. It gave me a hard time during meal times. While struggling to eat my lunch one afternoon, I summoned daddy to be my personal "dentist" again. I begged him to pull the loose tooth out for me.

Last pic of me with only 1 missing tooth...

Holding a piece of tissue paper for better grip, daddy did the job quite "professionally". In just a matter of seconds, the tooth was already in between his fingers! :)

I complained that it was a bit painful this time and he quickly "sayang" me back hehe...

Here are some of my no-front-teeth moments...

Enjoying my very first McD sundae cone

Teeth-less but happy in the park

Teeth-less but happy at home

No front teeth to eat corn? Never mind, just peel with my fingers...

These "no front teeth moments" will not last long because mummy noticed a new tooth sprouting already... Yay! Surprisingly, the new tooth is growing on the right side (where the milk tooth fell off later).

Tooth Story

Something happened to my loose and dangling tooth on our way out of the country last week. Well, it finally fell off at the LCCT (of all the places!) on the night of our departure to Perth.

We were queuing up to enter the boarding gate when I suddenly turned to mummy and said "Mummy, I think my tooth came out". I immediately opened my mouth to reveal to her the tiny pearly white on my tongue! Mummy wanted to keep the tooth and she has been cautioning me not to swallow or lose the tooth.

It was a painless and drama-less affair. No blood (just very little, a few drops), no tears and no fuss. Daddy and mummy were very glad that I finally got rid of that dangling tooth, which have been a hindrance whenever I chewed my food (but neither of them had the courage to pull it out). However, this also meant that I would appear toothless in all my holiday photos!

The very last photo of me with all my teeth intact... loitering around the check-in counters of LCCT

No worries... I could still smile despite the loss :)

Could even make funny faces!

11th March 2012, at approximately 11:30pm, I lost my first milk tooth (the lower right central incisor) at age 5y7m 

The following day, (with better lighting) mummy noticed a new tooth already emerging from beneath the recently gone tooth. This sprouting tooth must have pushed the old tooth out. 

Toothless in Perth

What about the tooth fairy then? I did not believe in it and at the very mention of the word, I refuted "Don't be silly! There's no such thing as a tooth fairy!" ^-^

Nothing's Happening...

... which explains why mummy has been slow in updating my blog. Well, here are some random updates on what I have been up to lately...

Books
Mummy bought more books for me recently. Although she kept reminding herself not to buy too many books for me (and too frequently), she just couldn't resist the good bargains at a recent book sales. Here are some of the books she bought for me, just some...

My new collection of hard cover Enid Blyton story books (only RM7 each)

Because of daddy and mummy's crazy book-buying spree, we ran out of bookshelf space some time ago. Our home has been "littered" with hundreds of "homeless" books piled up at almost every corner until daddy could no longer tolerate the mess and decided to give those poor books a proper "home"...

Let me help you, daddy... I know how because I watch Handy Manny, you know ;) 

Our spanking new Billy bookshelf from Ikea... it was immediately filled up from top to bottom, leaving no space for future new books :(

My new-found love... Where's Wally?

Kindy Field Trip

I went for my kindergarten's first field trip of the year on 1st March. I joined the K1 group to Taman Tasik Permaisuri, Cheras, where we went for a nature walk followed by a lunch picnic at the playground. Mummy did not go with me on the trip but she managed to steal some photos from my kindy's Facebook :p

One for the album... with my teachers and some of my friends

Milo ice-cream for dessert at the picnic (we had chicken rice for lunch)

Loose tooth

Since late last year, mummy noticed that my teeth are very widely spaced out, leaving unsightly gaps in between, especially on my lower jaw. This "widened jaw" is a sign that I'm growing well and that I'm ready to "change to a new set of teeth". 

Big gaps between my teeth (they used to be close and neat before this)

As expected, one of my lower teeth started to feel shaky last month. It is so shaky and loose now that it can even move side to side, revealing a huge gap that many times fooled mummy into thinking that the tooth had dropped. 

See the "hole" on the bottom row of my teeth? The "hole" is actually a gap as all my teeth are still intact! 

Skinny

Many people have been commenting that I have lost weight, esp Ah Ma and Mah-mah (both my grandmas).  Even friends and other people close to me have been commenting that I look very skinny lately. Well, as long as I'm eating well (I actually eat quite a lot) and growing healthily, being skinny doesn't bother mummy that much. 

I'm skinny because I am tall... I am growing upwards, not side ways, that's why!

Music 

Playing the piano is my latest passion and look forward to attending music classes every week. I am still very self-motivated and I will practice without being told. I can play all the pieces in Book 1 (most of them self-learned) and mummy is considering letting me skip a grade or maybe send me for individual piano lesson sooner. The class that I am attending now is more suitable for 4yo and I find the lessons too simple and not challenging enough.

Here are 2 videos of me playing two of my favourite pieces - I Am King and Hot Cross Buns...

Do You Floss Your Teeth?

Mummy is quite fussy over my oral and dental hygiene. To introduce me to proper dental care (besides brushing my teeth), she bought me a pack of cute kiddie floss.

Children's Flossers from Tesco

Four different colours and designs to choose from

Mummy is hopelessly terrified of dental visits herself so naturally, she just wants to spare me the agony of going under the dentist's drill or worse, "pliers". So this is what I do (and expected to do from now on) every night before bed...

Say aaaaah!

Mummy will help me with the first round of thorough flossing. I am then allowed to do it on my own and practice doing it in whatever way I like...

I like to do it while lying down so that my saliva won't drip out haha!

While we are on the topic of dental floss, here's something naughty that I did quite some time ago *giggles*

My Chipped Tooth

Finally, a picture of my chipped tooth...

Can you see it? Actually the one beside it (on my left) is also slightly chipped at the corner but only someone as observant as daddy and mummy will be able to notice it.

I Broke My Teeth

Mummy did not come and see me in the last two days. Today when she finally came to see me, she cuddled and smothered me with kisses all over as usual. I think she always missed me more than I missed her. In the midst of our bonding, she suddenly cried "Oh dear!" Mummy must have noticed my chipped front tooth (right central incisor) at a very first glance. "Open your mouth, show mummy your teeth... show... show" she kept repeating.

Upon close inspection, she found out to her horror, that the left one too, had a small corner chipped off. Yes, I now have two slightly broken front teeth! Neither Mah-mah nor Yeh-yeh realized what happened or how did it happen so this still remains a mystery to daddy, mummy and them. Only I alone know what happened but I don't think I'm going to tell...

Teething again

In addition to my mini set of 8 teeth, four new pre-molars (gigi geraham kecil) have erupted from all the four corners of my jaws, which means I have a total of 12 teeth at 13 months. Three of them are clearly visible, while the one on my lower right jaw is just cutting through. It's not easy to catch a glimpse of my new teeth unless I go waaaaaaaaaah!! Maybe that describes why everytime I cry, mummy will tell daddy, "Quickly... come and see. There! There! Can you see it?"

It's funny to learn that our teeth do not actually grow from front to back. According to the front-to-back order, next to appear should be the canine (gigi taring) but since the canines are still in hiding, the presence of the pre-molars have left some gaps on my gums. I can feel with my tongue, something like this: teeth, teeth, teeth, teeth, gum, teeth, gum...

Mummy says I'm a good girl because despite the discomfort, she considers me quite well-behaved (meaning: not making unnecessary fuss or being too cranky). I also suspect this teething thingy is the main culprit of last week's fever.