This is the story of how I met Anita Fok, DDS.
I was young, I was in Malaysia getting a Visa for Thailand and I needed a dentist. My first mistake? Taking a recommendation from an aging (to put it nicely), more than slightly inebriated British ex-pat I happened upon in the Reggae Club of Penang.
"You need a dentist?", he said, leering at me in the way that only drunk older men tend to do. 'I've got a tip."
I told him that I heard all about the dental hospital in town and how friendly, nice, and clean it was. Just like America?
He gave me the tip that sent me on a different course for a very long time.
"Go to the Australian Consulate."
I told him that as I was an American citizen, thank you very much, and though not quite proud of my government at the time, there would be no way I was going to the Aussie Consulate for advice on a very personal problem, my teeth!
"He's a dentist, too. And he's cheap." Read more
If you have ever been to my dentist’s office than you would already know that they do everything in their power of minimize the amount of pain that you feel during any dental procedure. But my dentist uses a few other tricks that I had never heard of before my first appointment at his office. Not knowing that my dentist wrote a best-selling book on pain management, I learned a thing or two when at his office on that fateful day. He used the art of distraction to make me not think about the series of shots that he was about to administer into my tender gums. By distracting me mentally I thought about it less.
Many people, myself included, dread any sort of trip to the dentist. When it comes to wisdom tooth extraction surgeries, it can be really easy to put the entire experience on hold. But when it needs to finally be done, the more that you are in the know about the surgery the better prepared you can be. Here is what you should expect when getting a wisdom tooth extraction surgery, and how you can be best prepared for it and know what to expect.
Are you still brushing your teeth using an old fashioned and obsolete toothbrush? If so, let me enlighten you to the next great thing in oral hygiene: the supersonic toothbrush. In a nutshell, this is an electronic toothbrush that has a powerful motor contained within. It is able to rotate the brush bristles and near supersonic speeds, which makes for a super clean mouth every time. The best part, perhaps, is that these newer sonic toothbrushes have been proven to be way more effective than the older, hand operated toothbrushes. And, they are going down in price—making them an affordable necessity for all of those out there who want to stave off costly and time consuming, and quite often painful, trips to the dentist.
We are all instructed by our dentists that in order to practice proper oral hygiene that we must floss all of our teeth once per day, generally at night before we lay down to sleep. If you can find me one person who is actually fond of this habit, please let me know. Because a community consensus generally is partial to the latter: that notion being, that everybody dislikes this necessary routine.
