Creating Confident Smile-Dr Gan

Gigi is a housekeeper from Philippines. She was first brought to our clinic by her employer, Miss S, who is also our patient.

Miss S brought Gigi to our clinic after she found out that Gigi pulled out her loose tooth on her own. I was shocked! I never knew anyone who dares to pull out her own tooth without anaesthesia (medication to numb the tooth). I couldn’t imagine how painful and traumatic it was to Gigi. Miss S hoped that we could do something to help Gigi.

Gigi was very shy and always smiled with her lips close as she felt embarrassed with her teeth. She worried knowing that her teeth had problems. After an examination, I suggested to remove 12 of her teeth and replace with denture. The reason was because most of her teeth were very loose. They were literally dancing on her gum, as if they were going to jump out anytime.
Gigi was reluctant to remove so many teeth. She preferred to keep those “not terminally ill” teeth at the moment. I explained that the teeth may not be able to keep for too long. Worse still, the remaining teeth might affect the arrangement of her denture, as most of them had grown longer and were tilted.

However, I understood she was afraid of losing most of her teeth. She felt old without her own teeth. Hence, we decided to proceed with pulling out only those deemed unsalvageable teeth.

She had her extractions (pulling out teeth)done in two visits. We gave another two weeks in between for gum healing. Then, we proceeded to second phase of the treatment, to replace her missing teeth.

There were different options for Gigi’s teeth replacement and she decided to use denture. A mould was taken in the first visit. On the subsequent visit, Gigi was here for a denture try in. We not only ensured the denture looks nice and natural, we have also ensured Gigi felt comfortable with the teeth arrangement.

Gigi came again for another try in. This time, she gave a green light to the teeth arrangement. We then send it to the lab to finalize the denture. On the day I passed her the denture, she asked her friend to enter the treatment room. With her mouth covered by hand, she decided to give her friend a big surprise.

“Dang Dang!” She laughed to her heart content, and gave her friend a big smile.
“Wah!” Her friend responded, and they both giggled.

I smiled and watched them, knowing that Gigi was so happy with her new teeth. Gigi was lucky to have a kind employer, I felt happy deep in my heart too to be able to help.