My first appointment was at the Dentist for my Invisalign! I’d gotten my mold made and wisdom teeth extracted previously for this so I was gonna get the aligners fitted today! I thought I’d take a before-and-after picture.. So here’s the shot I took at home..

eh.. me. Heh. (note the non-protruding lips!)

Of course, I got a little trigger-happy and took some more pictures.. Lol.

Trigger-Happy 1

Trigger-Happy 2

Oh yeah, forgot you have to SEE my teeth before the trimming and stuff.. haha. Here’s one..

Take a look at the teeth.. Haha

Yup.. I don’t have a perfect smile, orthodontia-wise.. I dunno how many thousand times I’ve been told (by random strangers, no less) that I have a nice smile.. Haha. I got very suspicious of these people because I have some NASTY teeth haha so anyhoo, after MUCH (annoying) prodding and nagging from my Kor, I finally got off my ass and went to get my Invisalign journey started.

It costs a lot to do Invisalign because it’s truly invisible.. You’ll see my pictures later.. Anyhow, after an x-ray and diagnosis by your doctor and the people in New York (takes about 3 weeks to get their response), you’ll get a detailed breakdown of how your teeth are going to shift and how the final product looks. My entire process will take about 40+ weeks.. 38weeks for my upper jaw and 40+ weeks for the lower jaw .. I have to change a set of aligners every 2 weeks to shift my teeth..

So I went down to the dentist’s today and had to get my teeth trimmed.. I was worried that it was going to hurt but I didn’t feel a thing.. Save for the usual discomfort at the dentist’s, like having to open your mouth for really long and hear some drilling sounds etc.. The only pain came from having to put my aligners in and out and in and out so that my dentist could put my attachments on.. Then again, my dentist said at the end of the session that my threshold for pain was quite high (meaning I’m quite tolerant of pain) so don’t take my word for it.. I deal with massive menses cramps every month so pain is slowly becoming a non-issue to me.. (though I’m still terrified of pain)

Anyhow, here’s what I looked like at the end of the day (fast forward a bit because I only took these pictures at the end of the day lol) with my attachments but WITHOUT aligners.. (to brush teeth first, before I went to bed) WARNING: quite fugly picture haha.

teeth trimmed.. and can you see the attachments? (pardon the fug)

You can sort of see the attachment if you look closely but otherwise, you can’t since it’s tooth colored..

my nifty invisalign case to store my aligners!

aligners!

lower aligner.. kinda like dentures lol. TRANSPARENT FTW!

Yup that’s what they look like. Here’s how I look after fitting them on!

with aligners on! tada! can u see them?

So? Do you notice any difference? Oh by the way, I’m wearing a TUBE dress so I’m not naked or anything like that haha. Anyways, there isn’t really a difference when I smile but when I close my lips I look like I have a jutting out jaw (since I have to close my mouth over additional stuff), which displeases me but I have to live with it I guess.. =(

By the way, pardon the lousy pictures.. Used my phone’s camera to take them haha.

After getting my aligners, I went down to City Hall to pick up my book that I’d pre-ordered months ago… Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol!!!!

I got it, YAY!

Yay!! I’m quite a fan of Dan Brown’s books so I was excited to pick up my book today..  At MPH I also bought another book — The Eight by Katherine Neville.. Sounded interesting so I bought it using vouchers provided by a good friend =D Hee. I also bought a book called Almost Impossible Word Puzzles.. I had bought a similar book of Logic Puzzles earlier this year and quite enjoyed it (plus the cover is really pretty and “posh”) so I bought this one since I love word puzzles..

Siying met me at MPH and we headed off to Paya Lebar MRT to get to our Volunteer meeting at CDAC.. We picked up some finger food on the way and got to the CDAC building safely. Lol. Then came the tough part. I had to remove my aligners by myself in the public toilet before I could eat…

This was horrible and well, bloody. My dentist had taught me to put in and remove my lower aligner and just to put in my upper aligner but not how to remove it.. He went through it theoretically with me but we didn’t actually do it because he wanted to leave it in longer..

I now have a phobia of removing my upper aligner.. Everything else I can do.. Just removing the upper aligner scares me. Haha.

Anyhow, our briefing (part of my project onv olunteering =)) was informative but boring and unnecessarily long at times.. Siying and I were glad to find that we were placed in the same group. We’re excited to be part of this project. We’ll be helpers at an event organized by Project CARE – a joint event by Lions Befrienders and CDAC..

What we’ll be doing is accompany (what the CDAC calls) “vulnerable” elderly to do some grocery shopping at NTUC at Jurong Point.

NTUC Fairprice

FairPrice has kindly sponsored $30 worth of vouchers per elderly participant for use at their FairPrice outlets. Us volunteers will be helping the seniors carry their things around, pick out stuff for them, helping them to budget and basically keep them happy =)

I find that this activity is really meaningful and I really hope that the seniors can benefit from it. At the end of the event all participants (volunteers and elderly) will be having lunch together at Safra Jurong and enjoying some activities and games there too. What I really wish is for the elderly people who may have been neglected to have a chance to feel cared for and enjoy themselves in their golden years.

When the briefing was over, Siying and I went to Mac’s for supper (remove aligners again, less bloody, slightly less painful) and took the last train home! We had a nice long chat about all sorts of things (mostly boys, haha)… And we talked about how we were going to WIN A LOT OF MONEY tomorrow at Mahjong!! Woots!

MAHJONGGGGG

I’m not looking forward to the pain my dentist cautioned about that should happen tomorrow but I’m looking forward to a day of MAHJONG!!!

So this was my day. How was yours? =)

Volunteer!

I’ve always had a latent desire to volunteer in some way. Well maybe not always, but since at least a few years ago. When we were still in school, we had chances to volunteer and have it contribute to our Community Involvement Project (CIP) points and those were definitely fun times. Somehow, though, that didn’t really feel like volunteering. I guess it’s because we were doing it to gain the points we needed to graduate from school.

I remember being involved in Flag Days, Bake Sales, visits to Old Folks’ Homes and all.. Volunteering as a docent in the Asian Civilizations Museum was also one of the best experiences I had, and the craft-day volunteering we did at the National Day Istana Open House was also very enriching. It didn’t, however, give me the same sense of satisfaction and fulfilment as it would have if I weren’t doing it for school.

I once went with my church to a nearby Old Folks’ Home to give out food and gifts during the Christmas season. The church choir performed for them and the residents were all smiling and grateful. That, I must say, was definitely the best experience EVER. Being able to do something to make someone happy without a selfish thought for yourself is probably the best thing in the world. Well, maybe not the best, but it definitely ranks up there with all sorts of other pleasures.

I want to be able to help these people in need, because I feel so lucky in so many ways. In my previous blogs I’ve mentioned several times how lucky we are to be healthy, whole individuals with much of our needs cared for. The fact that you are on your computer reading this right now goes to show that life isn’t all that bad for you. You can read, you have electricity, you have a computer (or have access to one somewhere). You can use your fingers, you can understand what I’m saying. All the above are things to be grateful for.

So let’s give what we can to the people who are not as privileged as we are.

My special areas of concern (I can’t think of a better way to phrase that, but I’d say these are my soft spots) are the Elderly and underprivileged children. I am especially passionate about these 2 groups of people because

Elderly people need our love

1) I love my grandma and I know she has led a hard life. A lot of people at that age have led a tough life and most of them who have ended up in homes have been abandoned by unfeeling children or maybe have no children to support them in their sunset years. I know I don’t want to see my grandmother in any situation except being loved and cared for after all she has gone through. Similarly, I think many of the elderly folk deserve love and care, if not from their families then from complete strangers who can make them smile and realize the world isn’t that harsh after all.

Beautiful, innocent, sweet little children

2) Children, especially young ones, are the most innocent creatures on Earth (despite being born into a debt of sin.. yada yada.. lol).. I don’t think they have to suffer for things they haven’t even done. What’s more, what you could do for them in their childhood could go a long way in nurturing and shaping their futures. What greater joy is there than helping a poor child find his/her place in the world and seeing him/her succeed? Even just a smile and a hug is enough to brighten anyone’s day. I dare you not to be moved by the innocence of a young child in need.

So I’ve signed up with the NPVC (National something Volunteer something i think) and registered for a whole bunch of volunteer activities.. The only thing stopping me from going all out and volunteering is my fear of committment (to anything that requires my time).. Still though, I’m gonna make an active effort to try

Volunteers - a Gift to the Community.. Are you?

How about it guys? Anyone wanna join me? =)

(filed under Projects coz it’s a project I’m embarking on wheee!)