The last time a guy started an Ask Me Anything (AMA) thread about working at a cai png stall on Reddit, we learned that chiobus get more ingredients:

Now, redditor u/singaporedentist has opened his own AMA thread, accepting queries from this particularly endearing corner of the internet.

Save for personal dental advice and his identity, he covered all kinds of grounds from toothpaste recommendations to personal experiences with patients.

Here are some of the more interesting questions:

1) The grossest patient he's encountered

"Only posting this story because a few of you asked for it. WARNING: not pleasant.

I remember back when I was working in the UK I saw this young patient in her mid 30s already with a good number of missing teeth. She was given a denture to wear around 10 years ago. Thing is it never dawned on her that she needs to take out the denture to clean it regularly. It also didn’t help that her mouth has barely seen a toothbrush over the years. So you can imagine the amount of food and gunk rotting in there. And yea it smelt like death.

It got so so bad and the food gunk build up so much that the denture was now stuck.

She finally came to see a dentist (yours truly) simply because her kids said her mouth was smelly. (Yes I know what you’re thinking... I was thinking the same thing as well)

So yea I was in charge of prying that denture out and cleaning the mess.

That was the one and only time I gagged and retched in front of a patient and was unable to hide it well.

Recalling that case gave me the chills

There you go Redditors, you asked for it."

Imagine that.

[related_story]

2) What happens if you haven't visited the dentist in a decade

"The sad truth is that a lot of the time, problems can arise in your mouth and not cause pain, either because the problem isn't severe enough, or you happen to have a very high pain threshold.

I'll give you an example. Gum disease is when you have an accumulation of bacteria hidden between your teeth and under your gums which subsequently cause your gums to slowly peel off from the teeth and your bones which normally anchors your teeth to shrink. Truth is that this normally does NOT hurt and only starts hurting when it's too late and your teeth becomes loose. Sad fact is that once the bone shrinks, I cannot grow it back. I can only stop it from getting worse.

I'm not saying you DEFINITELY have something wrong, you could be lucky and everything is fine. But then again that's what we're here for, to give you a professional opinion if all is good and well or if something unknown to you is brewing in the background. This could be something as small and simple as a tiny cavity, or something as severe as oral cancer! (Yes we check for that as well)

So yea I would take your friends' advice and have a check once in a while, you could be paying your dentist to check and only say 'All's good' which gives you peace of mind, or for them to let you know something is getting damaged and best get it fixed when it's not yet complicated.

Thanks for your question. Keep smiling :)"

TL;DR: Your gums could be rotting and you wouldn't know it, so best to visit your dentist once in a while.

According to u/singaporedentist, gum disease doesn't hurt until its later stages.

However, the accumulated bacteria between your teeth and under your gums will gradually cause the gums to peel off from your teeth, while the bone structure that anchors these teeth weakens. Eep.

We didn't think the next question would be that interesting, but three people asked it:

3) Electric or normal toothbrush?

"It's not about what you use but how you use it. Electric brushes are great as in it does most of the movement for you, but if you don't get the brush far back enough or near enough to the gums, you will still end up with areas not cleaned properly and neglected.

I was given an electric toothbrush to try out but got too lazy to recharge it, so back to the manual ones and it's still perfectly fine :)

Thanks for the question, keep smiling :)"

4) If he can smell patients' bad breath

"About the bad breath, yes I can. and I am proud to say that by now i am able to determine if the smell is coming from the gums, the teeth or the gut."

When asked how he differentiates the source of the smell, he simply replies that they all "smell different". None of them pleasant, of course.

5) His recommended toothbrush/tooth paste

"I don’t really have any recommendations really. I personally use Colgate only because it’s always easily accessible, but I always tell my patients get whatever is on offer in cold storage or NTUC.

As for toothbrush, frankly it’s not what you use but HOW you use it. As long as it can reach the furthest back tooth and get to the gums, then great! If not, get one with a smaller head.

I usually avoid the soft brushes because it doesn’t brush off the sticky plaque as effectively.

Finally it is important to change your toothbrush REGULARLY. Around once every 2 months, or whenever you use up your tube if toothpaste chances are you may have to change your brush as well.

Thanks for the question! Keep smiling."

Or any toothpaste that is on sale, he goes on to imply. Now we know.

Top photo via Pixabay