Screw Inner Beauty

Screw Inner Beauty - lessons from the fatosphere by Kate Harding and Marianne Kirby.

I thought this book would be a wicked revelation of how superficial modern soceities are. I thought it would show us what really fills the minds of people who emphasise on inner beauty over outer beauty. I expected a funny, honest, candid and sarcastic style. Well, this book turned out to be totally beyond my expectations.

Well, it did start off with some revelation of hypocrisy by magazines that tell you to love yourself the way you are on one page and then carry tons of advertisements telling you how to change your looks for the better. Then, the authors revealed that they are fat and not ashamed of admitting it. That’s fine with me. It’s their own bodies. But the insights and advice that follow show how little they understand nutrition and physiology. It’s true that most people who embark on weight loss programs succeed at first but regain all the weight they lost, but that does not mean that the science behind dieting and nutrition is all wrong. Yes, experts have been paid to endorse programs and products. Some have even written books aimed more at selling than informing, but the science still holds. People become obesed because they take in too much and burn off too little.

Healthy At Every Size (HAES) is an interesting concept. I might even agree with it. No matter how some people exercise, they just can’t get rid of their thick thighs or buttocks. In fact, the majority of people who attend slimming programs aren’t even overweight. These are genuine victims of “media standards”. They should go for counselling instead of extreme weight loss programs if they are healthy in spite of an isolated chunk of stubborn fat that just wouldn’t go away. Perhaps they should even read the more sensible parts of this book.

However, there are many people out there who are indeed overweight and at risk of serious chronic illnesses. It’s factually incorrect for the authors to say that the majority of people will not be able to maintain their weight within healthy limits even if they exercise sufficiently and eat good food. The authors further postulated (wrongly) that there is no such thing as good food and bad food - just eat intuitively. That would be a recipe for disaster.

They seem to have forgotten that very few of our ancestors were fat because there weren’t much junk food, travelators and escalators back then. Malnutrition was a bigger (no pun intended) problem than obesity. We live in very different times and going intuitively with food loaded with trans fats and sodium without any discipline or knowledge to discern is exactly the source of weight problems (with accompanying health issues) in the developed world.

The part about choosing doctors who don’t tell you are obesed and at risk of certain illnesses is preposterous. How about avoiding the doctor who tells you you’ve got a tumour that needs to be investigated? Aren’t they supposed to be confident and in full acceptance of their bodies? Why bother to avoid doctors who comment on their weight? While I admire the authors’ positive outlook in life, I can’t help but conclude that they are people who are happy because they are blissfully ignorant or in denial.

I can’t comment on their advice on social life. I’ve never been fat and if one of them is happily married and other dating successfully, I guess, it’s OK to take some advice from them. Finally, take a look at Kate Harding’s picture below. Does she look that fat to you? Think twice before buying her book.

Bond & Conlour

This Filipino Tai Tai's problem is quite obvious. Wear and tear chipped the biting edges of her upper incisors. Though she only complained about the chipped edge of the left incor, we decided to complete the picture, so to speak, by dong bonding on the left incisor and some contouring on the other teeth.

The chipped tooth has been repaired with composite resin. The other teeth have also been "sculpted".

Not many people will dare show their cases as this magnification.

Cost of Conscious sedation.

We provide moderate conscious sedation for procedures taking less than 1 hour. Unlike deep sedation which is administered by an anaesthetist and costs $600 per hour, conscious sedation costs only $200. It is suitable for 1 simple wisdom toothe surgery or multiple extractions.

Getting To The Church On Time

Here is one young gentleman we want to get to the church on time and having teeth like this just won't do . He was wearing a removable plastic denture. His central incisor is dead.

We did root canal for the dead tooth and bleaching for the other teeth.

His gums are still not "level". Gum surgery will be required to correct that and produce a more harmonious gum line.

We removed gum tissue on the left side.

Weeks after gum surgery shows remarkable healing. We prepared the 2 bridge supporting teeth.

The temporary bridge is in place. Even thought the shade of the temporary bridge is light, it appears darker than the patient's bleached teeth.

Cost of Root Canal Treatment

If you are looking to do the root canal treatment in Singapore. Yes, you should ask for the cost of the treatment but the cheap root canal might not be the cheapest in the long run. Don't go to a dentist with whom don't have experience or you are not familiar just to get a cheap treatment. The better you should search to be sure first but I didn't saying that the dentist with the cheap fee won't do a good job .

How much does root canal treatment cost ? (in Singapore)

Central incisor, Lateral incisor (front tooth) about $ 350 - $400
Canine $400 - $600
First premolar, Second premolar $600 - $700
First molar , Second molar $700 - $950
(This price for GP )

For Endodontics Specialist about $950 - $2000

We are a Medisave accredited day surgery centre.

Everybody wants to announce that after going through all that paperwork, briefings, training etc to become a Medisave accredited day surgery centre. Why do we go through all that trouble? Well, being able to draw from the patient’s Medisave to pay for surgical treatment is really cool. The patient is happy to tap into frozen savings, not having to pay cash and day surgery centres offering these services can look forward to better business from patients who may find it difficult to pay hundreds of dollars in cash. It’s a win-win situation.

Sure, the number of surgical cases rose after we became Medisave accredited. But along with those minority of genuine surgical cases, came a majority of irritating enquiries.

“Wa, your clinic accepts Medisave payment ah? Good wor. Ei, I do scaling can use Medisave or not?”

“For surgery only. Here is the list http://www.luckyplazadental.com/medisave/

“Scaling cannot ah? The filling can or not?”

“Please check the list of surgical procedures that are covered.”

“Filling also cannot ah? Then braces leh?”

It happens on the phone, it happens at the reception counter and it happens especially in email enquiries. Certainly, these people must either have seen the We are a Medisave accredited day surgery centre. sign at our clinic or saw our webpage with a list of claimable surgical procedures. So why do they still ask us these questions?

“Crown can or not huh?”

“Root canal can or not huh?”

As we receive more and more of these emails, we become more and more convinced that Singaporeans are becoming functionally illiterate. Is the word “surgery” such a piece of proprietary jargon that laymen can be excused for not knowing what it means? That’s obviously not true. Whenever we mention surgery to someone with an impacted wisdom tooth, he/she runs for the door. So why don’t people understand what surgery means when they see the word Medisave? Does seeing the word Medisave diminish one’s ability to read?

Perhaps it’s a little like the Hokkien pengs of yester-years who didn’t understand any orders in English except “book out”. Or could all these irritating enquiries come from spies acting on behalf of competitors who just want to see us wasting our time explaining to fake patients who pretend not to know? We may never know the source of the problem, but literacy aside, anyone not willing to pay for something not claimable is obviously not a very good patient to begin with.

Another Extreme Makeover by New Age Cosmetic Dentists's (Singapore)

You don't need to be a dentist to tell that this is a challenging case. We marked her 2 canines for extraction. We'll also need to do some gum surgery on her laterals. Her incisors on the left side will also need to be "moved" to close the gap after the canine has been extracted.

Another look at how difficult this case is. Apart from extractions and gum surgery, we also need to do root canal on the incisors on the left side.

Extraction just done on the right side. There is hardly any gap between the lateral and the first premolar. This will be the easy side.

The other canine has also been extracted. Gum surgery done, exposing more crown height for the lateral incisors and the premolars. The gap on the right side is more significant.

Here's the patient's left side. There is a gap about half a tooth wide. We have already done root canal on the left incisors. We will later cut them off and rebuild with post crowns to close the gap.

4th day after surgery. Check out the healing.

The teeth have been trimmed down and temporary plastic crowns placed.

We will wait 2 months for the gums to stabilise, then we'll place emax crowns over them.

Emax crowns fitted, another ready for have nice smile.