i've got beautiful teeth now!

my teeth was fugly, they were super patchy and discoloured due to bad Fluorosis and bad cement used for the braces i had more than a decade ago.

here's how ugly they were:

been wanting to do something about it, but the dentists i've consulted before all told me to put veneers which costs $600-800 per tooth. and i had to do at least 6 teeth, which is crazy. plus, i never really found a dentist whom i feel i could really entrust my teeth to.

then i met Dr Shervon Lum @ Toof Doctor, Duxton branch. which i mentioned in my wisdom tooth post. she suggested just doing special aesthetics fillings for the patches, quoted $60/tooth. less lasting and pretty than veneers, but not too bad results given the affordability.

okay i must admit that to a large percentage im bought over by her super duper good looks, but she's proven to be a capable dentist too okayyyyyyy~~~ wahahahaha~

anyways, my chio dentist (hereby known as Chio) suggested that i bleached my teeth first before doing the patching so that the final effects will be better. and so i did:

the whole bleaching procedure in brief:

(1) numbing cream to the gums

(2) 3x local anesthesia jabs to the gums (which doesnt really hurt thanks to the numbing cream)

(3) did mould for home kit 

(4) a bracket is inserted into the mouth to stablise the position of the teeth

(5) some white glue ish thingy is applied to the gums so that they dont get bleached

(6) bleaching gel applied on teeth, only the visible parts of the teeth are bleached, the molars and the insides of the teeth not bleached

(7) laser light shone on teeth for 15min

(8) lasered bleaching gel removed and then fresh coat of bleaching gel reapplied

there are 4 sets of (6) to (8) in total, so theoretically the whole procedure is 15x4 = 60min. but i was on that chair for 2.5hrs in total, no idea why. haha. Chio was very caring and meticulous throughout, kept asking "are u alright, dear?" and even put a blanket over me cuz it was cold in the clinic. awwwww~~~ <3<3 LOLOLs.

i was quite paranoid at first, cuz i've heard afew horror stories of how much it hurts during and after. but surprisingly, the pangs of sensitivity only started on the last 20min of the 60min procedure and only lasted for the rest of the day, everything went back to normal next day. and the pangs of sensitivity are rather bearable, at least i didnt feel like i wanna bang my head against the wall lah. hahaha.

bill, $1.3k. acid polishing is additional, to try and get rid of the cement marks. if u have no patchy stuffs on your teeth then u dont need. it helps a little. in-clinic bleaching is actually $699, home whitening kit is $300. Toof Doctor's in-clinic bleaching price is actually very competitive, i checked a couple other clinics all about that price or higher.

this is the home kit whitening set. there's 8 "syringes" in the set, which can supposedly be used a couple times per syringe. apply bleaching gel in the syringe onto the mouth tray and fit into teeth for 1-2 hours whenever you feel like your teeth has yellowed.

this is the tray, from the mould done in (3) above. look like retainers, but much softer. collected 10 days later. im not sure of the home whitening kit results, havent tried yet.

actually i didnt think my teeth was super duper white after the bleaching, cuz i saw Chio's bleached teeth was like paper white but mine's abit of creamy white. until i saw this photo i took with Lulu:

either my teeth are really white or Lulu's teeth are way too yellow. wahahahaha. Lulu should visit Chio too! hurhur~

so right, the patches have became even more obvious after bleaching in the photo. that is actually because my mouth was still quite dry when i took the photo, dry mouth makes patches more obvious. and also the braces cement stains theoretically wont get bleached as much. and also the bleach takes awhile to settle.

last step to beautiful teeth is the fillings for the patches! first, she roughened my teeth up a little to file away abit of the patches, then she used what i believed its a special kinda aesthetic fillings cuz laser was beamed on the fillings to stablise them after. no anesthesia required this time round.

TADAH!!! beautiful teeth!! YAY! 

okay actually Chio only patched 3 teeth, the 2 front teeth and the one on the immediate left of the fronts. she said to do the most severe 3 first and see how. as u can see alot of the patches are gone after the bleach settled down. i might go back and patch the other 3, but so far i think these are fineee~~~

put all 3 together for comparison! big difference hor?? muahahaha yays~~~

per Chio, the fillings might still crack if i try to bite food that are too hard. and the fillings might have to be replaced every 4-5 years because the colour of the fillings might start to not match the rest of the teeth.

last bill, wrong name wrong i/c number though. i think $60/tooth is cheap for the sort of fillings i get, normal cavity fillings cost about that much as well. Chio gave me discount cuz i did so many procedures with her.

costed me $1.5k in total, but so far i think its worth it!

love my new teeth alot now!! hurhur kept taking pictures of them~~~~

i requested for a photo with Chio on my last visit with her, but she declined. sigh. no photo. sad~~

sparkling white teeth *bling bling* hehe. oh and i think my eyeliner looked perfect here! wahahahaha~

new Chio teeth for the dragon year! ohohohoho~~