One down.... Where is the tooth fairy?

So, my first tooth in this orthodontic procedure over my teeth got pulled off (a.k.a. extraction in dentist language). My dentist was really caring with this step. Alhamdulillah, I did not feel any pain at all while my dentist was performing the extraction. She was trying hard, and at one point I suddenly saw my tooth in her clippers (or whatever medical name you may call that tool). It was quite painless Alhamdulillah.

umm, those steel things at the ends are the molar bands which were setup on my last visit to the dentist

Disclaimer: If anyone is disgusted by these pictures, please press Ctrl+W (or Command+W on Mac)

However, bleeding was quite a lot. I could not feel my mouth from the bottom left side because of the anesthetics used. Several cotton rolls were kept in that side to help the blood clot quickly. 


To quicken up the healing process, like the previous time, I was suggested to:

• eat soft food for the first few days to go easy on the wound
• eat cold ice cream to heal the wound quickly
• rinse my mouth with lukewarm salt water regularly from the following day to prevent any infection from developing around the wound

Now the thing is, this was just the first step. As I described in my dental makeover agenda, two more tooth need to be extracted for my overall orthodontic surgery.

The molar band has a metallic clamp - can cause infection

There was a point where the molar bands caused a slight infection on the inner skin of my right cheek. I don't know what's the medical term for the skin I am talking about; but I will refer to it as the inner skin.

source: http://www.innobrace.com/Product-1.html

The molar band is fitted on the molar tooth and it has a little clamp on its side which resides on the space between the teeth line and cheek muscles. If the molar band is not fitted properly (which the dentist tried to ensure by asking me several times if I feel anything scratchy inside), then as we talk or chew, the little clamp can slowly wear off the superficial layer of the inner skin and then start scratching the inner layer of the skin - that's when it starts hurting and that's when I realized "The molar band needs some adjustment."

However, the adjustment was pretty interesting. I was given a little chunk of wax - a beeswax. Beeswax covers sharp orthodontic braces and wires that poke into the mouth, which protects the tongue and gums from developing pain and sores. Read more here.

• I would have to dip it in lukewarm water and make it soft. 
• Then mould the softened warm wax on the clamp of the molar band with my fingers reaching inside. 
• When the wax solidifies in a matter of a minute or so, my inner skin won't feel the metallic clamp but a soft waxy cushion. 

It was pretty soothing to the scar that formed inside and it was necessary for the inner skin to heal without suffering more damage.

After the separators, comes the molar bands

So I have put on the separators in the previous week. After giving it about little less than a week's time to create enough space around my molars, it was time to take the separators off (also known as spacers) and put the molar bands in place.

source: http://mksforum.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2977

I had put on 6 such molar bands.

• on 1 lower left molar
• on 1 lower right molar
• on 2 upper left molars
• on 2 upper right molars

Settling the molar bands seamlessly around the molars is quite tough. My mouth always felt a little heavier and something stuck around the inner teeth. It was not very comfortable the first few days. And around these times I really appreciated the beauty, the slickness and the fine-features of God gifted teeth which we the humans have.

However, i took some shots after putting the molar bands in place.

Disclaimer: If anyone is disgusted by these pictures, please press Ctrl+W (or Command+W on Mac)

Racism in Islam - Race is Not an Indicator

On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 11:06 PM, Daily Hadith <dailyhadith@adaptivesolutionsinc.com> wrote:

Race Not an Indicator
The Messenger of Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: "An Arab is no better than a non-Arab. In return, a non-Arab is no better than an Arab. A red-raced man is not better than a black one except in piety. Mankind are all Adam's children and Adam was created out of clay." [Bukhari]

In the time of the Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) the term "red-raced" referred to those who had white skin. The fairer "ruddy people" included the Levantines, Persians, Turks, North Caucasians, South Caucasians and Europeans.

This hadith informs us that race is Allah's creation and no indicator of Allah's favour, past or future. The sooner we free ourselves of this delusion the better off we will be insha'Allah.


This hadith has been sent to you by dailyhadith.adaptivesolutionsinc.com

The separators before the molar bands

In my last post, I put up some pictures of my BEFORE shots before i started of with the 3 years long procedure to take care of my dental displacement. Here starts the first step.

Step 1: put separators on the two sides of my molars.

As the name 'SEPARATORS' suggests, they will basically be kept in my teeth for few days so that a separation is produced between my molar teeth and the surrounding teeth. After developing the required space around my molars, the separators would be taken off and molar bands would be put into place [check my next blog post for molar bands].

The molar bands are metallic and they are a bit thick. For these molar bands to fit around the molar teeth, some separation between the molar and the surrounding teeth are required.

After putting on the separators (small green rings), my teeth looked like this:

Disclaimer: If anyone is disgusted by these pictures, please press Ctrl+W (or Command+W on Mac)

They might look like small discs which can be slipped into the gap between the teeth. But no my friend. My dentist used some heavy clippers like tool to push these discs into the gap and it was not painless.

BEFORE shots first

So, have you been following my blog where I said "It's not 32... I have 30 of them...."? And the one before that where i said "I still got a baby tooth"?

Hmm........ I feel like the troll faced guy is taunting me.

However, I have decided to go ahead with my orthodontics which, my dentist says, would be a course of about 3 years. So, before I proceed, I wanted to take some photo shots so I can admire my pretty looks before I began the makeover.

Disclaimer: If anyone is disgusted by these pictures, please press Ctrl+W (or Command+W on Mac)

Racism in Islam - The Colour of Skin

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Daily Hadith <dailyhadith@adaptivesolutionsinc.com>
Date: Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 11:06 PM
Subject: Today's Hadith from Daily Hadith
To: you_cant_see_me@some-domain.com


Colour of SkinThe Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “He who has a white mother has no advantage which makes him better than the son of a black mother.” [Ibn al-Mubarak in Al-Birr]

Some disagreement occurred between Abu Dharr and Bilal (radi Allahu anhuma). As a result, Abu Dharr (radi Allahu anhu) said to Bilal (radi Allahu anhu), “You son of a black woman.”

The Messenger of Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) was extremely upset by Abu Dharr’s comment and rebuked him saying, “That is too much, Abu Dharr. He who has a white mother has no advantage which makes him better than the son of a black mother.”

This rebuke had a profound effect on Abu Dharr (radi Allahu anhu), who then put his head on the ground, swearing that he would not raise it until Bilal had put his foot on it.

This hadith tells us that there is no place for racism in Islam. It also shows us the lofty character of the Sahabah: When they would make a mistake they would repent immediately on realizing it and not insist on their sin.

This hadith has been sent to you by dailyhadith.adaptivesolutionsinc.com