Thursday, December 2, 2010

Maintenance Is Better Than Repair

We are all used to the quote which says “Prevention is better than cure”, right?.

We can prevent a car accident from happening by driving in safely manner, and by being alert all the time. Of late, we see lots of people using their handphones while driving. And more dangerously, they even dare to read or write text SMS while driving. I used to do that too, but I’ve slowly stopped doing that, in the name of safety. I’ve seen a real video footage of a nasty car accident caused by a driver who was not paying attention while driving. His car knocked down a female pedestrian crossing a road, and she died.

In that particular scenario, the word “prevent” plays the most important role. Those are the scenarios where we can prevent something bad from happening.

But, when we talk about health, how do we prevent from something bad from happening? I mean, talking about disease, or sickness? Can we prevent everything?

Let’s just take an example on dental care. How many of us who rarely get dental problems think that taking care of our teeth is also part of healthy living? For what I know, most of us brush our teeth once or twice a day because we want to get rid of tahi gigi.

Bila masa pulak gigi kita pandai berak ni? Woops, pardon my budu language here.

In actual fact, taking care of our dental is one of the most important aspects of health. Just because we seldom get toothache, that doesn’t mean it is not important. And the way we used to prevent from dental problems to occur is by brushing our teeth, at least once a day. But as we also know, brushing our teeth alone is not enough. We need more than that.

Just as we need to send our cars for maintenance servicing so that they do not eventually cause a massive repair job, same thing for our teeth. At least once a year, we need to send our teeth for a maintenance servicing, before we end up with a massive repair job. That is, if repair is still one of the options.

Not being a good boy, I’ve neglected this maintenance service for a good four years. The last time I visited a dentist was more than four years ago, when I had to do the very painful root canal treatment. The moment I stepped out from that dental clinic, I never made a visit back again.

Until yesterday, when I can’t take it any longer with some food keep on sticking up in between my teeth every time I eat. I finally made another visit to the dentist. No, I didn’t go to Taiping to see Doctor Julinda (she’s busy running). I just went to a nearby dentist for some scaling, polishing and some filling up work. Furthermore, the validity of the dental insurance from my company is going to end in 30 day or so. Hence, better make use of it.

The scaling job was a bit nasty. We are talking about a bunch of teeth that has not been ‘serviced’ for several years. Not that I have a bad breath or rotten teeth, but it made me belief that brushing our teeth alone is not enough to properly clean them. That’s why it is recommended that we visit the dentist at least once a year.

The normal polishing job was ok. I asked about whitening too, but I don’t want to spend RM300++ just to get a sparkling white teeth. Yeah, I may be a drama-man, but I’m not a celebrity. And let’s not talk about the whitening process using laser, which costs more than a thousand Ringgit (I better save it for Cervelo.. hihi).

I had to fill up three small holes in my teeth. My jaw was sore from the non-stop jaw opening action. The price for filling up has raised quite tremendously lah. I’m not whether sure it is due to the professional workmanship, or the cost of the filler material, or to compensate for the lack of dental patients coming into the clinic. All in all, I spent a good amount of money, of which I can get myself a new pair of running shoes. Inflation, inflation… sigh.

The funny thing was, the dentist who was very friendly kept on asking me about where I work lah, about what I do at work lah, what kind of products I design lah; all during the time when my mouth was wide open and she was using her tools to clean up my teeth. How to answer lah?

“Hokher… hulut haye herhange hachang hi, hachahane haye hak hakhap?”

16 comments:

ziff71 said...

hahaha, aku pun heran part kene tanya masa mulut tgh nganga tu. Nyilu plak bayang kene scaling.

p/s. sempat plak kau snap gambar tu hehe

EnAikAY said...

Hehehe.. biasala. kalau takde 'bahan' takde la entry utk harini...

IJAM said...

dentist kau tak cun, lain kali cari yg cun punya.
Aku punya cun, tempat..rahsia..
huah, huah, huah...

EnAikAY said...

Ijam,
kalau cun sgt pun susah, nanti asyik meleleh air liur je...

Yimster said...

wah ada assistant plak tolong amik gambar tu. gambar taik gigi takde ke? kenal kumpul dan frame up sebagai kenangan terindah kan?

EnAikAY said...

Yim,
You think this photo shot is assisted by someone else? Think again bro.. hihi.

June Malik said...

hahah dia tau tak masuk blog nie?? mesti lain kali dia makeup tebal sikit lagi lol

rusfarizal rusli said...

aku sokong carvelo lagi beshhh..

tsar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tsar said...

Last mth or so, after a year tak gi jumpa doctor gigi I called the clinic
Me: saya nak buat appt dgn Dr "Z"
Receptionist: Dr Z, dia tak de
Me: oh tak de? Bila dia ada?
R: Dia dah meninggal.
Me: gulp

Hmm mana nak cari dentist baru ni?r

tsar said...

oops, terkeluar lak 2 komen. sori tuan rumah :)

Jaja Shah said...

ok lah bahan menarik jugak ni. kalau u jadi patient i, akan ku mesin2 lubang yang baru, muahahaha

EnAikAY said...

Juney,
Mekap tebal2 pun no point, sbb dia pakai topeng.

Hanchik,
Cervelo mmg terbaeeekkkk...
dan jugak termahaaallll.....

Zarin,
Contact Ijam, dia tau tempat dentist yg cun.

Jaja,
Ini marah sebab report powerman tak keluar2 lagi ke ni?
Marabahaya ni, boleh matikudasai dibuatnya.

Che said...

thanks for sharing the experience, err.. kind a reminder to me too, bile last aku gi buat scaling eh? haha.. :P ish.. ish.. ish..

Julin Julai said...

uhuk..uhuk..patutla asik tersedak je kat tempat keje tadi, ada org ngumpat pulak.
Haha.
Good public service entry. You made my job easier.
My kids were excited when they saw me reading this. They were like " That's you mom!" and I'm like, "Serius bukan ( mama cun lagi)" hakhakhakhak.
Lain kali singgai mai Taiping, while you can get it free, or rather chearper. Kang I dah bukak private kang korang komplen mahal..kuikui

EnAikAY said...

Daud,
Jangan sampai jadi mcm kes Zarin punya dentist sudah lah... al-mar-hum...

Julin,
Hahahaa... semasa hamba menulis menda alah ni pun hamba asyik teringat je kat tuan hamba.
Eish.. kalau kitorang singgah Tepen, confirm kitorang contact korang lah. Bila lagi nak mintak doktor gigi belanja makan mee goreng mamak n popia kat Larut Matang yg best tu kan?