Dentists and doctors with a difference

It was time to visit the dentist again last week.

Nope; it wasn't for my half-yearly regular dental check-up which I make it a point never to miss.

This time it was for an emergency.

One of my tooth had chipped whilst I was brushing my teeth before bedtime.

The next morning, another tooth decided to drop its entire filling off during breakfast. It had a good two-year run and had served me well.

Fortunately, there was no pain in both incidents.

However, experience has taught me that when it comes to your teeth, the faster you get it fixed, the less likely you will suffer the consequences afterwards.

Unattended tooth only gets worse when you ignore it.

And when the first signs of pain appear, the chances of the whole of hell breaking lose inside your mouth may be only minutes away.

I recall the first time when I went to a dentist.

It was during my primary school days. I hadn't started to use a wheelchair then, although I was born with a disability.

I was able to walk but with a severe limp on my right leg.

We were all made to stand up in a line in the school whilst the dental nurse with all smiles checked our teeth by asking us to say, "Ahh!"

I was thrilled when I was immediately picked for a trip there and then to the government hospital. (I guess the fact that I was the only disabled student of the lot also made me somewhat a prized catch).

The nurse assured me that I had nothing to worry about when I asked her. She told me that they would just "adjust my teeth a little" and "give my mouth a good washing up" before sending me back to school.

But when I got there, it turned out to be a hospital from hell experience!

It was as if I was in on death row with the worst criminals in prison. I could hear my classmates who were also "chosen" screaming in agony inside the treatment room.

I suddenly realised that I was in the wrong place and at the wrong time. I wanted to dash out of the clinic and steal the ambulance or run back to my home at once.

But I was too young, and too unfit, to do both.

When my turn eventually came, it was worse than what I had imagined.

Nobody told me about a heinous high-speed dental drill that they would be sticking into my mouth, or a monstrous dental chair which look like an electric one used for hardcore crooks!

The "friendly nurse" suddenly turned ugly. She started pinning me to the chair whilst the dentist kept growling at me to stop struggling and making a total nuisance of myself.

And I could almost swear that he had every intention of using his drill tool more as a punishment on me rather than to fix my tooth.

Fortunately things have changed a lot nowadays.

As a permanent wheelchair user for over four-and-the-half-decades, my biggest worry is to find a dental practice that is accessible to me.

Most of them are on the first floor and without lifts.

I finally found one a couple of years ago in Mid Valley Megamall, Kuala Lumpur.

So, with the help of my best friend Andrew Martin (to help me dress up and get into the car), I drove to my wheelchair-friendly mall to see my dentist Dr Suresh Nair.

Needless to say, his clinic is nowhere near the nightmarish dental encounter of my growing up days.

For one, it's full of friendly and smiling staff all the time. Even from the moment you pick up the phone you can feel the exuberance of positivity in their voices.

I was given the next nearest appointment date when I rang them up.

The minute I entered their clinic, I was greeted with numerous "hellos" and smiling faces.

And even though I was nearly an hour early, the doctor saw me as fast as he could. (This helped a lot because I was then free to use the restroom in the mall whenever I wanted.)

Once again, let me say that I always love people with warm and smiling faces. The doctor was full of it, along with his dental assistants.

He inspected my teeth carefully and thoroughly. He told me the problem, and then, told me what he was going to do to make things all right again.

I love it when doctors do that. I have met some who not only tell me the problem, but then go on to lecture and even scold me for it.

I don't know why some healthcare professionals do this as all it does is to make patients lose their self-confidence and feel worse after a trip to a hospital which is supposed to make them better.

But this dentist did none of such nonsense.

In fact, we ended up speaking more about politics and my social work than anything else.

He also treated me as I sat in my wheelchair. He had one of his nurses gently holding my head in position whilst he worked on my teeth.

This was really helpful. Shifting into his dental chair would require a lot of work. I would need as many as four persons to carry me into it.

Having brittle bones, stiffened limbs, pressure sores and a weak bladder can certainly complicate matters.

But what a world of difference it makes when you have dentists – and doctors – who truly understand you. – May 25, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.