Braces 2nd month - Jumping the bite

woah woah woah I have another week till my 2nd month of tightening and this is the progress I have of my braces journey. I remembered coming out of the dental clinic trying to bite over my lower set of teeth and barely touching it 3 weeks ago and today I've successfully jumped the bite! First picture was taken today, the 2nd pic a week ago and the third pic was taken on my first day having my braces on. Now I can close my teeth fully without much gaps! 

My eating habits haven't changed much. Food wise I could generally eat anything but just noodles I find it a bit harder to break. Bigger chunks of food and meat weren't that bad! If I were to eat chicken chop it's possible too just have to cut it to smaller slices! Strangely just noodles, especially those thin wanton noodles I find it more distasteful to eat with my braces because I'd end up just swallowing them without biting.

I think I've been lucky not to feel much pain during my treatment so far. Though I think the pain should be coming soon when I put on my lower set of braces and those dreaded rubber bands to align my two jaws more properly.

twenty eight

This year in summary I generally continued doing the things I set out to do - learning japanese, urban sketching and.. travelling to places I haven't been to! Like Thailand! That's something new for a change. Another big decision I made this year was to get braces which after a week of donning it only got me more excited to see what are the changes to come. What was uncomfortable at first, I've gradually adapted to it for now. It may be too early to say that because the painful stuff's yet to come.

I'm quite happy with my life currently. I'm generally happy with my job though I wish I could earn more money and learn more things from it. I had an awesome birthday weekend which I spent sketching and made new friends. I also met my awesome bunch of friends whom I'm happy to spend the day just watching a funny movie (ghostbusters) and eat japanese food and cakes. Today I also randomly decided to spend the day with my family at the River Safari. It just so happens that everyone is free today - a very rare occurrence. Life is great.

The only thing I'd like myself to improve on is to consistently work on the things I set out to do and take action! I've had so many ideas to start something creative but didn't because they either get forgotten or I just didn't feel like it anymore. That way I'll never get started...

Braces for Underbite

Many things went through my head when I thought about whether to get braces.

Firstly cost: The cheapest price you can get for metal braces would be $3.8k and that’s usually without the gst. So you’d have to pay at least about 2k for a 50% downpayment while the rest can usually be paid by instalments when you visit the dentist every month. 

2nd: How much pain am I willing to go through to get this done. 2 teeth less? 4 teeth less? I was more afraid of having teeth extracted than going through the monthly tightening. Technically speaking this is a kind of plastic surgery that is more widely socially accepted with some benefits other than just looking aesthetically pleasant - eg. easier to brush, food don’t get stuck in teeth as much. Can I take the pain? 

3rd: Do I really need it? This was the question that troubled me the most. Whether I really need it. My parents have never supported me in doing braces. They’d say why would you spend money to feel pain? You look great! Whenever I visited the school dentist when I was young I was always probed to do braces but I’ll always happily decline and say that I’m happy with my teeth. Generally my crooked teeth didn’t really bothered me except for my bite – my protruding lower jaw that makes my mouth look pouted. That’s the only part that irked me from time to time. I’d be very self conscious and would try to take photos only from the front. There were times I didn’t think much of it till one day in a changing room when I saw myself with three other mirrors reflecting my side profile then I realise how crooked my jaw looked. Of course all of these aren’t exactly big issues and I can live with them but what if I had the power to change that?

I was daunted of the prospect that I had the power to change it and I didn’t because you should always accept how you look! It’s not necessary! Your teeth are fine! ..when it in fact it still bothers me. I wasn’t being honest with myself. In recent months I actually dreamt of braces and woke up with this strong feeling of regret that I didn’t had courage enough to do it. So I decided that morning to call up and seek consultation.

The case I have here is called a class III malocclusion a.k.a an underbite, where my lower jaw closes over my upper jaw. The correct bite should always be the upper teeth covering the lower. 

Here's a look of my bite

6 months ago, my first consultation with the dentist suggested extracting 4 pre molars to make space for the overcrowding I have on my upper jaw. The prospect of losing 4 teeth to make my teeth straight daunted me from proceeding. So I decided to seek a 2nd opinion. It took me months before I did because I wasn’t really hopeful that I’ll be getting any less extractions. I finally decided to give it a try again thanks to my dream reminder. To my surprise, this 2nd dentist told me that I don’t need to remove any molars! So I said yes to start treatment. 

He proposed, to solve my underbite problem, my upper jaw would have to expand in order to cover up my lower molars. My overcrowding actually is a good thing because when it expands, there will be gaps and thus my overcrowded teeth will have space to align. So it’s not actually wise to extract any tooth in this case. In severe underbite cases, usually one would need jaw surgery and braces to solve the problem. It’s not a guaranteed 100% that just braces alone would solve my underbite but there have been a lot of successful cases. For example there’s a blogger Jean Gan who had a similar underbite problem as mine and managed to solve the bite just by braces. Reading her case had me inspired to undergo braces treatment to get my bite right too. 

Unfortunately for my case, I do not have a choice to choose my braces. I could only go for the metal stainless steel ones. It’s said to be the most effective and cheapest choice but also the most unsightly. Well I get to have colour bands on my teeth as consolation! That’s exciting.  

So a week after I had my braces put on! The dentist will be doing my upper molars first to align them before doing my lower molars. Here’s how I look: 

The first instalment took about 1.5 hours. I took some small x-rays of certain parts of my teeth, after which the dentist proceeded to cleaning and started to pump in fillings at 4 of my molars. I couldn’t clench my teeth entirely after that. When asked he said it was on purpose so that I have space for my upper molars to expand. The entire process didn’t hurt at all contrary to what I expect. Just a little bearable uncomfortableness. 

What I miss most already, is the ability to bite my foods. My teeth can barely touch so generally I can’t chew or bite solid food much. It was hard to even chew on thin sliced boil cucumbers. Ban mian was hard too. I haven’t felt much pain so far other than this constant slight pulling force on my mouth which is neglect-able. The dentist said I might feel more pain tomorrow. I’ll see how it goes.. 

I hope this long post would be able to help people who are planning to get braces. Just like how other bloggers have helped me made this decision. :) stay tuned for updates!

我们唱着的歌 The Songs We Sang – A documentary about Xinyao

记得两年前的一个下午，我正好要到百盛楼的画友买点画料，竟看到了似乎刚散场的演唱会。当时想着哇，这股人朝从哪来，从来没看过百盛楼有那么热闹！事过两年后终于在“我们唱着的歌”目睹了这股演唱会的风采。好庞大的感染力。好感人。

Xinyao (Chinese: 新谣; pinyin: Xīnyáo) is a genre of songs that is unique to Singapore, where the songs are composed and sung by Singaporeans and are often about life within the country. Xinyao can be clearly identified by its distinctive style of clean acoustics, with a group of people singing and harmonizing together, usually accompanied solely by the guitar. As the movement grew and became semi-commercialized in the early 90s, more sophisticated accompaniments with drums, castanets etc. were adopted.

— from wikipedia

My impression of Xinyao (新瑶）before the movie was just a label coined for Singapore home made songs in the late 80s and 90s. I didn't even think that there was a history that brought about the movement.

The film shared a very personal part of Singapore's history that wasn't covered in our textbooks — the transition of adopting English as Singapore's first language; what happened to the students who had to suddenly adapt a different language in their studies. Imagine I had to use mandarin to learn mathematics, I'd be at a huge loss too. The first Chinese University in South East Asia – Nanyang University had to be closed to merge with the then University of Singapore to form the current University of Singapore (NUS). What a huge blow that was to mandarin speaking intellectuals! It's like telling straight in your face that there's no need to use or learn so much mandarin anymore. I felt really sad seeing the man teared talking about it.

Xinyao's origins go way back to the late 70s- early 80s just before the merger, it formed when someone turned poems into songs reflecting sentiments felt at that time. Being an alumni of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) , I'm glad to have learnt a part of my school's history. 原来我曾经在好几次在中秋晚会演出的云南园，曾是前辈学生们演过他们自创自写的舞台啊！

This spontaneous surge of energy and expression in songwriting inspired more students to form their own groups and write their own songs that thus formed and popularised the Xinyao songs we know today like 细水长流，邂逅，还有三年前刚解禁麻雀衔竹枝。

其实我真正接触新瑶是在2013年的那一部“我的朋友,我的同学,我爱过的一切" (That Girl in Pinafore)。 这些新瑶都从新编配跟上现代的节奏和乐感，让之前的新瑶又hip了起来，配合现在年轻人的旋律。可见创造新瑶的前辈们真的非常非常非常努力的在推广新瑶，把这创作心声的精神传承下一代。

As someone born in the very late 80s, I must say that I'm really touched by this generation of songs and the spirit behind it that I feel inspired to make and create something I can call my own. Anyway what first drew me to the film was the film title design. I thought the typography of the film was done nicely and then when the credits rolled, I saw that the graphic design was done by Foreign Policy. No wonder so nice!

(This is the effects of being bilingual, I had to use 2 languages to fully articulate how I feel about the film!)

Old Grandpa stories

Today I was just watching my routine jdrama of the day and chanced upon this scene where there was this old man shovelling a few white carrots into his basket in a snowy rural mountainous town. He then walked slowly yet proudly back home with his vegetable produce. Something about this scene just tugged my heartstrings. I’ve watched so many dramas and shows but never felt this strong about a scene; a short yet unrevealing scene of an old grandpa working hard and doing his best on his own being the proudest thing ever. I was very touched. 

 I was reminded of my very own grandpa who used to award me 20 cents for running small errands like bringing him his spectacles or towel. My dear grandpa Schmid whom I’d visit whenever I went Japan. We’d always meet at the same station and same time, eating the same lunch at the same restaurant. It’s all cool, this little consistency we have whenever we meet. I loved chatting with him. His eyes would open wide when I asked him a question and I’ll listen in awe when he tells me what he’s up to. There was also this old 80+ year old professor whom I respected a lot. I’ve always loved attending his classes because there was this warmth of him sharing his wisdom that I couldn’t feel from others. The kind of slow thoughtfulness only an old person would have. 

The mandatory reflection post of the year

Being the "reflection pusher" fumblies said that I am and because of my records of year end reflections since I started blogging. Here's it, my mandatory reflection post of 2015:

I've finally left my dreaded workplace and am in a place with greater freedom to create and have ample time for myself. There are some down sides but I think I'm happier than before! I have much more time to create and watch more dramas. Without feeling so tired all the time, I had more energy to pursue my hobbies. I picked up Japanese where I left off. I pursued my drawing hobby and went on more sketchwalks and sketched more on my free time. I'm glad to say I've improved tremendously this year and indirectly it helped me in my job too. I understand perspectives and composition a lot better now.

I also went to japan and experienced some hints of autumn for the first time. Gotta say it’s my favourite season to visit! I took 40% less pictures than I took the last time. 600 instead of a 1000. That’s an improvement ain’t it? I always take so much photos and they take up so much of my disk space when other than posting them on fb, they do nothing much..

These are pretty much it for the best highlights of my year.  In 2016, I want to be doing more things that I’d like myself better for. So whenever I find myself dreading to do something / lacking the courage to do something, I will just think to myself, will I be more proud of myself if I did it? I think it’s a good way to persuade myself to try more new things out of my comfort zone. 

For a better 2016!