She couldn't eat with this, but look, her bite is back

By 45, she had lost teeth and her jaw bone had shrunk. Now 51, Madam Loh Ee Hoon (left) has a full set of teeth

WHEN she was 45, her smile looked like that of a woman in her 80s. Madam Loh Ee Hoon had been losing her teeth gradually since she was 21 and by her 40s, her jaw bone had eroded significantly as well.

She had dentures but she still could not eat properly.

Madam Loh was desperate for a solution and a chance to eat better, more solid food. So she scouted around for dental surgeons who could give her a "better bite".

Instead, she found a doctor who could ''grow" her jaw bone back, so she could have teeth implants.

Madam Loh, 51, said in Mandarin: "Everybody I saw said okay, let's take an X-ray and see how we can help you.

"But after the X-rays came out, they said they could not help me because I had so little jaw bone left."

It had shrunk due to lack of use. If left untreated, it would have shrunk further, affecting facial contours, appearance, speech. Finally, it would reach a stage where it would be difficult if not impossible, to have a good set of dentures made or have implants.

Said Madam Loh: "The holes in my jaw bone made it very difficult for the dental surgeons to fix me with permanent teeth, which was what I wanted.

"I wanted proper teeth to be able to eat properly. But without good jaw bone, they could not fix the titanium rods to make implants."

By 1998, she had only a few teeth left on each side of her jaw. Her dentures were loose fitting and not enabling her to eat her favourite foods like chye sim and apples.

Then she was referred to Dr William Chong.

The dental surgeon in private practice said he could "grow" her jaw bone back in order to fix the implants. The process took two years.

Said Dr Chong: "She only needed jaw bone regeneration in her upper jaw. We placed a titanium mesh under the front gum and on top of the bone. Bone needs space to grow. The mesh created the space. Artificial bone chips were placed around it to provide support. We also added artificial bone chips to the sinus space in the upper jaw that created the right situation to let the cells near the surgical site regenerate bone. Essentially, the body's own cells can regenerate bone and we just help it along."

Madam Loh has put on about 5kg because she now eats anything she wants!

"For years, I could not bite or chew or taste food properly. I ate mostly soft food. It was a terrible existence," she said.

Her nightmare with her teeth started soon after her first childbirth in 1971, when she was just 21. She believed she ate poorly, which caused her teeth to weaken. Her family was poor until the early 1990s.

"Then my husband and I started a business, which became very successful," said Madam Loh, who is divorced. She gritted her teeth when pressed for details and declined to elaborate. The money allowed her to seek treatment.

"Having implants is like having real teeth. I can eat everything. I don't have a single real tooth left in my mouth. Actually the dental surgeon wanted to help me save two or three of my real teeth. But they were causing me pain. I told him, no point leaving two or three in my mouth to give me trouble. Just give me implants for the whole lot," she said, grinning broadly.

Source: The New Paper, 5 August 2001