I Had The Worst Dental Student Nightmare EVER!!

As I type this, I’m still breathing heavily and my heart is still beating like mad.

So I was in a field, lying down with an old friend from standard 6, Brandon Tan. Of all people, I haven’t even seen him in years!! Asking each other the typical, “So what are you doing now?” etc etc. Then he got up to leave and joined some other friends from my high school.

So I sat there alone, having a few teeth in my hands, teeth that I needed for my practicals. This is something I normally do, collecting teeth for class.

In my dream, a few days ago, I drilled my own teeth for some class stuff. I needed to make some cavities for something academic related, but little did I know, I’ve already  went too deep and all my teeth were brittle so it kept chipping away.

Suddenly, I felt my lower lateral incisor getting mobile. It was milk teeth all over again. The entire tooth came out!! When your milk teeth comes out, it’s just the crown. This is the whole friggin tooth. I didn’t scream.

In my head, I recalled what I learned, “ok chill chill, just go grab a glass of milk.” By putting a tooth that has fallen out due to trauma, you can still preserve the supporting tissue by putting it in a glass of milk and then rushing to the nearest dentist to get it fixed back into the socket.

Now the entire dream is about my journey to get a glass of milk.

Then the scene cuts to the kitchen in my old rented house (the super dirty one, my classmates would remember that. Super famous among the people here for its grossness). I was staring at myself in the mirror. All my anterior teeth had big gaping cavities that I had put there myself.

As I moved one by one, each tooth started falling out, complete with roots and all. The central incisors, the lateral incisors, the canines. The premolars and the molars remained intact.

I was staring at myself in horror and my palm was gripping all the teeth that fell out. I could feel and taste that familiar bleeding socket where the teeth all felt out from. The gum in that area was totally flabby.

I fitted the front teeth one by one back into their sockets, but they were awkwardly placed. All those years of braces-wearing, gone just like that. I pushed it in, it stayed there for awhile before falling out again.

The premolars and molars then fell out and with that, I opened my mouth and blood and saliva started gushing out from my now flabby upper alveolar ridge. Which is not the case since it takes time for the alveolar ridge to get flabby if there’s no more teeth there. But the blood and saliva just gushed out and in my head I was like, “OMG OMG OKAY RELAX GET THE FREAKING MILK ALREADY.”

Then I fell backwards, and the teeth in my hand intermingled with the teeth I collected for class stuff in my other hand. It was gross but it was easy to tell my own teeth apart as they were much bigger and healthier looking than the ones I collected for class. But remember I said the kitchen was the one in my old dirty house? Ughhh.. hair and dirt intermingled with blood on the teeth and I was frantically picking them up from the floor, wondering if it’s too late to plop them into a glass of milk.

I stared at my flabby tissue in the mirror and closed my mouth. I looked like an old lady with no teeth. Sucked in cheeks and pursed lips and all. I was not devastated, strangely. In my head I was like, “Okay, will daddy be willing to pay for implants for me?” But I doubt it as implants is one of the reasons in dentistry that keeps me going. Few implants = one car.

We’re practically talking about the entire mouth here. Then I thought about dentures. And all the stupid stuff like denture stomatitis (arghh too much studying lol) cropped up. I was worried about plaque retention if I had to wear partial dentures, since some of my molars were still there, and I did not dare touch it, in case it starts getting loose and falls out as well.

I didn’t want to get dentures at such a  young age!!

I didn’t even think of going to the hospital but I stupidly told myself, “Okay relax, tomorrow got clinics with Dr. Khoo. Can ask him for help.” -______________- If it was a real life case, I would have gone straight to the ER if it was in the middle of the night.

I did something stupid in my dream, I washed my teeth under running water before putting them in milk. Bad move!!

it was then that I woke up. I was so damn glad it was just a dream but my chest was heaving painfully for the longest time, my breath came in short gulps, feeling super thankful that it’s not for real.

I WILL BE MORE CAREFUL WHEN I MAKE CAVITIES ON PATIENTS! In an alternate universe, teeth will chip off and fall out one by one..argghh.

Last paper tomorrow lol.

p/s: in my dream, I went to visit my nephew Ethan at his baby sitter. He could talk SO MUCH!! (he still can’t talk yet). He was conversing in english AND cantonese, and somemore got a very cool attitude, unlike a baby at all.