Zetty’s challenge

Zetty emailed me asking for advice as she had a challenge.

She had a missing lateral left incisor and a pegged-shaped right lateral incisor. This meant there were gaps in her smile … To top this, Zetty was studying medicine in Egypt and her family lived in Tawau!

She had written to me asking what I suggested. The local dentist had told her the peg-shaped lateral was too small to crown … and she wanted to know what I thought about her getting orthodontics done.

I told her that composite veneers may be a solution as there was very little preparation done to the tooth, hence it wouldn’t make it much smaller … and composites would probably be able to close the gaps and disguise the canine so it would look like a lateral instead.

I did remind her that I was saying all this without seeing her in person so she should take my advice (if at all!) with a pinch of salt! 😉

I told Zetty that orthodontics may help her …. but she’d still have to create the space for a lateral incisor on both sides and probably have a bridge done for the missing tooth and crown the peg-shaped one … this means Zetty would have to wait 2 years and then only do her crowns and bridgework!

But then, she studied abroad, so orthodontics (if at all she decided to do it) had to be started and completed in Egypt!

I told her that the best course of action was to come in for a consultation, so I could examine her and only then would I be to advise her and her family, as to what were options open to her.

So many things worked today …

Fortunately, Zetty was in KL for a brief holiday and managed to persuade her father, Dr Rosman and her family to come in for a consultation.

Fortunately, Zetty had mailed me with her particular challenges, so I could warn Amy that she may be coming in for a consultation … even though we were running a tight schedule I wanted to see her.

Fortunately, my patient had missed their appointment for a crown and miraculously I had enough time to see Zetty and figure out what was best for her… and even do her treatment on the spot!

Fortunately, I when did a mock for her and her family to see what Zetty would look like if she had veneers done … there was no guess work on how the end result would be like!

I explained to Dr Rosman and Zetty’s mum, that even though composite veneers would give a satisfactory result, given she was going to be abroad for so long, and since she was only 20 years old … I felt it was well worth it for Zetty to do crowns to correct her smile instead of composite veneers. If at all she managed to break the veneers, the dentists in Egypt could of course do repairs but well, I personally felt the best course would be crowns.

It made sense to do her first visit preparations today, go back to Tawau with her family on Sunday … and return to KL just to fit her crowns again sometime next week or later (the crowns would be ready on Wednesday) … thanks to Tan Sri Dr Tony Fernandez and AirAsia, it wasn’t going to be terribly expensive!

Dr Rosman and I discussed the treatment plan and then he gave the go ahead … he and his family would go to Sogo for some shopping whilst I worked on Zetty! Yay!!!

I worked super quick … I had just enough time to prepare the crowns, take impressions, make the temporary crowns before the next patient!

After a bit Zetty’s family came back just as I was cementing the temporary crowns. … I got to chat with Zetty’s mother about University Malaya (where we both studied), and special needs children.

Dr Rosman surprised me with a gift! He gave me a CD of Malay songs that he had composed and sung … wow! what a talented doctor! His music is aired on the local radio channels!

I remembered to take a photo of Zetty’s smile with her temporary crowns when she returned with her mum to adjust them … and a photo of the family together before they left.

If you look closely, you can see Zetty has a new smile!

So until next week Zetty … smile, and get used to the new you!

And thank you for your trust! It was a pleasure to relieve you of your dilemma though it was a challenge indeed! You have such a nice family and you will definitely be an outstanding doctor.

I love my job!! I get to create beautiful smiles every day!