11/02/2024
BRACES ARE OUT!
Hello Fam!, my first longest post in 2024 is to appreciate Dr. Bashir at Logos Dental & Medical.
It's been 2 years and 6months wearing braces, for a number of reasons, it's a journey i call the most challenging.
I have seen afew people who voluntarily visit dentists to have braces installed in their mouths for different reasons, some want to collect their bite, others to improve their dental formula while others for prestige reasons, unlike me, i got braces installed in August 2021 after a terrible accident i was involved in while in Malindi, Kenya during my East Africa states bike tour.
This left me with a number of broken teeth, injuries, and a slight disclocation in my jaws and offcourse a bad dental formula.
Solutions were to have a minor dental surgery and wear braces to correct the heavy collision effects as advised by Dr. Edie at Makuen County hospital in Kenya during a brain and chest CT Scan.
I have had a fobia for surgeries since the early days of my childhood and I'm going to the grave with it.
My brain & chest ct scans were sent to me while in Nairobi and all was well, so i was left to only worry about my dental, i got afew leads to some of the best denstists in Nairobi, visited afew to hear what they too would say but like any other doctors i didn't like what they told me.
"I will return tomorrow and we do those procedures", i said to every dentist i met that day, i surely knew i wouldn't go back to them.
Next day I headed to Kampala, Uganda because psychologically all treatments i have had from home have always been different from all those that i have had from away and don't know why.
Inside me i knew i would find a dentist in Uganda who would speak the language i understood, may be someone who would look at me and say, "it's not that bad, we will have to give you afew tablets and you go back home.
On arrival to Kla, my friend Faith aka The Bush Girl had already recommended someone and i went direct to him.
A very calm and soft spoken gentle man approached me while at the reception of Logos dental clinic, "Are you Innocent?", he asked.I noded my head in agreement.
Inside my head, my brain is like, "Yes he is the one, the doctor that will give you tablets and you go back home".
"My name is Dr. Bashil, Faith told me about your case, please come inside for a checkup", he said.
I followed him with abit releaved thought.
"You lack 2 teeth in your mouth, perhaps they are still glowing", he jokingly with a smile said, offcourse he was wearing a mask, that's how far my eyes go for smile.
I tried to smile too but unfortunately that plastic big thing that seperates the upper and lower jaws couldn't allow me.
"Your case needs surgery, good news is that braces can also be used to correct your jaws too but it will be slow", he explained.
I'm not in a hurry doctor, i replied, we both smiled.
"Give me a minute", he said and moved out of the examination room.
Little did i know that i was about get into a torture chamber, he returned in minutes and invited to me to the next room, on entry my heart wasn't beating anymore but flying, every tool inside here looked familiar, may be from those 1980's chucknoris movies' torturing scenes.
"Please lay down here", as he points on a dental robot looking bed with a long arm holding some torturing apparatus.
"Innocent!, this procedure will take approximately 6 hours, i kindly request you bear with me throughout, i will start with root canal for the broken teeth, then build a temporary crown for them and there after start the installation of braces.
As a software developer, at this point i understood why doctors use the phrase " " so often because we also use the phrase " ", whenever we don’t want to explain how we came up with the code functionality.
To be honest, i had never dreamt of myself spending 6 hours with a dentist, first of all i have a high pitch sound disorder, meaning any high pitch sound can cause me dental pain and headache but this time it was the high pitch sound tools being used on my dental, just know, it was a nightmare.
Offcourse he gave me those numbing injections but this didn't help much, my jaws got tired and at some point i couldn't open my mouth any more, fortunately the so called procedure was finished in 4 hours, it was now my first day wearing braces.
Due to my fear for the dental tools, i think i caused the doctor to inject me more than enough dose of the numbing solution, beside the tention and discomfort of having metals in my mouth, i spent the whole day speaking glebish, my tongue, cheeks and lips felt too big and heavy for the neck to hold.
In short installation was successful, following were the monthly visits, reattaching of the broken braces and time came for the power chain and chip monk rubbers.
Having metals in your mouth is a different experience but having power chains and chip monk rubbers attached is way a new level of experience.
Offcourse my braces took longer because i missed too many monthly visits to the dentist but besides we also spent 8 months rotating back one tooth which had exceeded it's point due to the long time i missed the visits, that's when i was involved in the second accident which was a head collision with a fuel trailer that left me with broken limbs and thosr face injuries.
Finally braces are out, permanent crowns have been attached and i now have to wear retainers for the next 2 years, however I'm glad.
