I've been wearing braces for about 2 months and today's post will be about how these 2 months have been.
The dentist I go to is Dr Alfred Cheng. His clinic is at Mount Elizabeth Hospital which is opposite Paragon shopping mall. Some of you may think that just because his clinic is situated at Mount E, his charges are going to be exorbitant. But quite frankly, his charges are similar to the other clinics in town.
I'm currently wearing metal braces and I'm expecting to pay SGD 3800 for the entire package. This excludes GST and any extraction needed. This is the breakdown of what I have paid so far:
Second visit ( first set of pink braces) - $1070
Third visit - $107
Fourth visit - $107
First visit
Dr Cheng recommended metal braces as the procedure is apparently faster. The consultation was quite fast and it lasted for about 15 minutes. I was brought into the x-ray room to get my x-rays taken. After which, I paid my first $535 at the counter.
Second visit
I was extremely excited to put on my braces. Dr Wee helped me to put on my braces and it took about 30 minutes. I remember reading up on websites in the USA that stated that the procedure takes about 1.5 hour. Thankfully, Dr Wee reassured me at the start that it would take only about 30 minutes. However, I would be lying if if I said that the procedure was a walk in the park. Throughout the entire procedure, I was uncomfortable as I felt as if I had many things being gouged inside my mouth. At one point, I even told Dr Wee that I tasted something extremely sourish. I wanted to spit the liquid out, but couldn't, as I had these tubes attached to my mouth. Am thus so thankful, that the whole procedure only lasted for 30 minutes.
The cab ride back was excruciating. My whole teeth were in pain and read part 1 to understand how I felt. Sleeping was terrible too. No one told me about this part of wearing braces. Everyone was like go for it!!! You will look like a beauty queen! No one told me that I was only going to wake up at 4am in the middle of the night because of the excruciating pain. But thankfully, this only lasted for the first week. Oh yes, eating during the first week was hell too. I am just so glad that my first month of braces trauma has been over!!!
Third visit
I really like my third visit because I got to meet the friendly Dr Cheng again. His customer service is awesome. He is this soft spoken man who will greet you and make you feel at home the moment you sit on his dentist chair. And he doesn't demand that you do this or that. Sorry, but I had a previous extremely bad experience with my acne doctor who used to scare and threaten me. So good customer service is what I look for these days if I am going to spend a few thousand dollars at your clinic. Anyhow back to my third visit. Dr Cheng checked my teeth, asked me to choose the colour I wanted and tightened my braces. All this surprisingly took only about 10 minutes. I was so glad that this was a stark contrast from the first time I put on my braces. It was not only much faster but also not as painful.
My friends told me that everytime the dentist tightens your braces, your teeth will start to be painful again and this is absolutely true. However, the good thing is, the pain usually lasts for about a week. So you get 3 weeks of being pain free before heading back to tighten your braces again.
Fourth visit
Put on my 3rd set of braces and am so happy that again, the procedure only took about 10 minutes. Wheee, I hope this continues for all my subsequent visit. I had to go through the whole tightening procedure again and yes, it is painful. But I know this pain is only temporary and it will go away soon. Well, no pain no gain if I want my teeth to look pretty.
Read: Part 1, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
Read: Part 1, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5