My First Discovered Medicinal Allergy!

What better way to discover an allergy than to find out on the second last day of the year. But then again, this could also be viewed as a unique discovery that makes this year end special.

This morning, I rushed to Mid-point Orchard for my yearly dental appointment. Adrian, my assigned dentist, had this particular tone of voice which made me wonder why he seems so indifferent about me. Or maybe he’s just like that to any other patient. Or he is just bored of saying the same things to all his patients.

In that short 20 minutes check-up session with him, I sensed his self-assured, frank and detailed personality… but I just don’t understand why he has to say things to put himself down. For example, when I was surprised to see so much blood when I rinsed my mouth, he said that perhaps he cleaned too hard until I felt pain and I may want to look for another dentist in future. And he also said that even though he has taught me to floss, I would probably just ignore his words after I walk out of this dental clinic and forget all about it till the next check-up. I mean, why would a dentist say such things about himself? Aiyoh… Strange chap.

Just before the end of my check-up, he told me to bite down on this fluoride filled plastic mouth fitting (like those mouth guard that boxers wear before boxing) for 60 seconds. I suppose it was to let the fluoride absorb into my teeth and gums. Perhaps some sort of nourishment to it.

After the 60 seconds was up (I thought it lasted more than 60 seconds), he removed the mouth guard and handed me a cup to spit out the remaining fluoride. Eeeks! It tasted terrible! It looked and tasted like disgusting thick margarine and strawberry jam! Why strawberry jam? Coz those were the streaks of blood that came from the rough cleaning and polishing of my teeth and gums!

When I spat out as much as I could, but a lot was still stuck inside my mouth. This Adrian fella told me casually that I can swallow it, its okay (even now as I am typing this Blog entry, my stomach is squirming!). So I forced myself to swallow the creamy disgusting yellow stuff that was inside my mouth. Oh boy, it tasted so bad that I felt like I was in the middle of ‘Fear Factor’.

That was my first shock. My second shock came when I was called to make payment at the counter. Wah! $79! And $20.95 came from that sickening fluoride murky stuff! And this $20.95 was before GST! Huh? For 60 seconds?! That was like spending $21 in 1 minute! But not that I wanted to bite on it any longer...

Third shock. I began to feel queasy after about 5 – 10 minutes while waiting for Rebecca to come out from seeing that same dentist. He is indeed the strangest dentist that I have ever seen before. And he even wears that binoculars-type of eyewear which jewelers put on to look closely at jewels, diamonds and stuff! I wonder if this equipment had some sort of ‘10x zoom’ function or something that he uses to peer into our mouth.

This queasiness lasted for the next hour or so, making me feel like vomiting. I felt terrible because of the overdose of fluoride (more than the usual that we use to brush our teeth).

Later on, Rebecca told me that she also experience stomach queasiness. So she checked out the Internet and found out that, “most people can take fluoride as medication with minimal or no side effects. But for those who are affected, stomach upset, rash or headache may occur.” So both of us were ‘poisoned’ by the fluoride! Even hurrying to buy a $3.60 egg and ham croissant from Burger King and swallowing it down didn’t help. Oh dear!

Now we know – both of us are allergic (or maybe a less intense word would be ‘sensitive’) to fluoride! Never swallow toothpaste no matter what! To add onto my list of allergies / sensitivities, I am also sensitive towards raw food, e.g. raw salmon. It makes my stomach upset.
And oh yes… the dentist reminded us to floss daily to prevent further gum receding / disease. Don’t brush too hard! For sensitive spots, squeeze a bit of toothpaste onto our finger and softly rub into our gums. Thank you, Adrian!