Kate broke her teeth
Miserably as it may be, Kate broke her teeth while controlling her chair back and fore with her leg when she was sitting and rocking the chair. Accident happened and she knocked herself against the table in front of her. “Ouch” and this is when she started to cry with her bleeding lips. We thought of nothing except for the bleeding lips and half an hour later, my little girl requested to drink her milk and this is when she told us that she is drinking in agony. We checked on her and realized that one of the front tooth is shaky and bleeding slightly and we know that this is not a good sign.
Searching for Kids Dentist in Singapore on a Weekend
It happened on a Saturday night and knowing none of the kids dental clinic in Singapore. I started to get panicked as I am unsure what I should do next. The only thing me and my husband is hoping for is to salvage her front tooth as we know the next adult tooth phrase will only happened when she turns 6 or 7 years old. This is like another 2-3 years!
So I tried to google online for kids dentist in Singapore and getting advice from mummies to check if they have any recommendation or similar encounter but to my disappointed, all the answer given to me are pretty negative as most of the answer given mention about the infection if left untreated. When I mean untreated, I actually mean leaving the dangling tooth alone without extracting it out.
As Kate’s tooth is broken near the roots inside the gums, it may caused an infection if the tooth is not removed and that made me really worried and unsure what to do. What made things worse it most dentistry for kids are closed on Sunday.
Therefore, leaving me with no choice but to walk in to a general dentist to see what they can do the next following day in the morning. To my disappointment, I was rejected as I have no appointment made and reservations are fully booked. So I tried another general dentist nearby and finally get a dentist for Kate.
Upon checking on Kate, the dentist informed me that her teeth is definitely broken but she will have to go through the xray to find out at which point is broken. The dentist also has to refer me to a pediatric dentist which is meant for kids as he is unsure whether a space maintainer is required after her tooth extraction.So what is space maintainer? A space maintainer is an appliance that is custom-made by a dentist using metal material. The purpose is to keep the space open to allow her adult tooth to come into place after her baby tooth is being removed. If a space is not maintained, then teeth can shift into the open space and orthodontic treatment may be required.
The dentist then said I have two options: it’s either I bring her to the government kids clinic or a private kids dentist. He highlight to me that as time is a concerned, private kids dentist is recommended as government kids clinic has a longer waiting time since reservation is required. But if a space maintainer is required, a better option is to visit Singapore General Hospital as the treatments is claimable from the government (follow up treatment is required for space maintainer). After his advice, I request two referral letter from him in case Kate requires a visit to SGH for space maintainer.
Kids Dentist Petite Smiles Review Singapore
The next following day (Monday), I bought Kate to Petite Smile as referred by the dentist; a private kids dentist in Singapore. It’s pretty convenience, I took the MRT train, alight at Novena, walk to Novena Medical Center and took the lift up. As I did not make any appointment, I called them up early in the morning and informed them I am on the way. We were lucky enough that we are the second on queue and the nurse get me to fill up the form to register for Kate.
After filling up the form, the nurse ask me to sit at the couch to wait for our turn. The decoration and ambiance there is really welcoming and happy. While waiting for our turn, Kate made herself to the mini playground for a 10 minutes fun before the nurse call her in.
While entering the room, the dentist greed us and tried to make Kate’s feel relax by introducing herself so Kate can introduce herself too. Kate’s settled herself on the “dentist chair” (My bad, I have no idea what you call that…) and stared at the dentist without saying anything. This is when I started to explain the rocking chair incident and how she broke her teeth. Then, she explain to me that her teeth must definitely be extracted to prevent infection but she ensured to me that no space maintainer is required which made me feels relieved.
Next, the nurse bought Kate’s to another room to have her teeth Xray done. They got Kate to wear a heavy jacket and she look so heavy and cute. Kacha~ Kacha~ The Xray is done.
After returning back to the dentist room, they show me the Xray and pointed out to me that Kate’s entire tooth is broken and ask me whether to proceed with the tooth extraction. Next, she shocked me by pointing out the two adult tooth which were already on top of Kate’s baby front tooth. It’s already there waiting for their turn to come out in the next 2-3 years and probably it may be out sooner then majority of the kids since she is going to extract one of her two front teeth. I’m surprise that a child’s adult teeth were already there waiting for their turn to be out.
Kate’s tooth extraction procedure
I was so worried and heart pain to see Kate having to go through the procedure but my little girl was so brave. Before the tooth is being pulled, the dentist inject a few numbing shots on her gums at every angle I supposed. There are about 5 shots and Kate was amazing! She did not moved nor voice out the discomfort of pain. The only discomfort is I guess the taste of numbing shot left in her mouth and I can see from her facial expression that it taste yucky. She have to rinse her mouth a few times before getting back to her seat. Somehow, her favoruite Peppa Pig television show that she’s watching above her seat must have help ease away the tension or pain.
Here’s when the nitty gritty procedure started with the dentist holding something like a forceps but with a little strength she used, the tiny teeth came off. Not so bad I thought and Kate did not shed any tears. Looking at the root, the dentist told me that she must have broken it long ago as the root has no rough edge. Then, I turned to Kate’s with the bleeding gum and the nurse get a cotton roll and asked her to bite on it. Now, the rewards for behaving so well throughout the procedure and the dentist get Kate to choose her rewards. She chose a ring out of the stickers and hair tie rubber band.
After leaving the room, we waited for our bill when the nurse present me her teeth in a case. Cute isn’t it?
Kids toothpaste for 3-5 years old
There’s one thing I learned from the dentist after she checked with me what toothpaste Kate has been using. Kate has been using Pigeon toothpaste (orange flavours) since 1.5 years old. And the dentist highlight to me that she should have upgrade already. However, I couldn’t find a suitable toothpaste in the market for her age. Most toothpaste I found are for 6 or 7 years old and above, which is why she have been using Pigeon toothpaste all the while. This is when she introduce Aquafresh toothpaste (suitable for 3-5 years old) for her, really appreciated it.
The aftermath..
