Your Dental Questions, Answered

We are on the first floor of Jalil Link, up a staircase from street level. If you or someone you are bringing uses a wheelchair, a walking aid or simply finds stairs difficult, message us on 018-246 0800 before your visit — we will plan the easiest way up, allow extra time, and have a member of the team meet you at the entrance so you are not managing the climb alone.

The clinic is at 8-1, BLOK 5 JALIL LINK, Jalan Jalil Jaya 6, Bukit Jalil, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, on the first floor above the ground-floor bank — take the second staircase along from the bank entrance and our signboard is at the top. There is open, on-street parking along Jalan Jalil Jaya 6 directly outside Jalil Link; it fills at lunchtime and in the early evening, so allow a few extra minutes at those hours. We are a short drive from Pavilion Bukit Jalil and the Bukit Jalil LRT station.

We fit conventional metal braces, tooth-coloured ceramic braces and self-ligating systems including Damon and Genius, as well as Invisalign clear aligners — we are an Invisalign Platinum Elite Provider. At your consultation the dentist looks at how your teeth and bite sit, and at how visible you want treatment to be, before recommending the system that will get you the result with the least fuss.

There is no single Invisalign price, because the fee follows the case: how far the teeth have to move, how many aligners that takes, and whether attachments or refinements are needed along the way. What we can promise is transparency — after a 3D scan you receive a full written plan with the complete fee before you commit, and the figure you are quoted is the figure you pay. There are no hidden charges and no pressure to start on the day.

Three things mainly: how many implants you need, whether bone grafting or a sinus lift is required first, and the type of crown or bridge that goes on top. Because every implant case here is planned from a 3D CBCT scan, our implantologist can give you an itemised quote at the consultation rather than an estimate that changes later. Single teeth, implant bridges and full-arch All-on-4 and All-on-6 restorations are all handled in-house.

Yes. Root canal treatment at Lau & Su Dental is carried out by Dr. Queenie Tan, our endodontist, who works under a dental operating microscope for every case. If you have a toothache that will not settle, sensitivity to heat, or have been told elsewhere that a tooth is difficult to save, you can book directly with her — no outside referral is needed.

Yes. Dr. Tan Sze Jun, our periodontist, treats receding gums, bleeding or swollen gums and advanced gum disease, and performs gum grafting and deep cleaning under the gum line. She consults on selected days each week, so it is best to book ahead — message us with a note about what you are experiencing and we will put you into her next available session.

WhatsApp us on 018-246 0800 — it is the fastest route and you can send it at any hour. You can also call the same number during opening hours. Tell us what you need and we will match you with the right dentist, whether that is a routine check-up with one of our resident dentists or a consultation with a visiting specialist such as our implantologist or periodontist.

Yes. Invisalign has versions designed for younger patients whose adult teeth are still coming through, and they can be used to guide jaw growth as well as straighten teeth. Because a child's mouth changes quickly, the dentist checks progress more often than with an adult, and the aligners are made with a small indicator so parents can see they are being worn for long enough each day.

Not in the way braces can. Each new set of aligners feels tight for the first day or two — that pressure is the aligner doing its job — and then settles. There are no wires or brackets to rub the inside of your cheeks, so the mouth ulcers that come with fixed braces are largely avoided. Most patients describe the sensation as an ache rather than a pain, and it fades before the next set is due.

The complexity of the case: how far the teeth have to move, how many aligners that will take, and whether attachments or a refinement stage are needed to finish. A mild crowding case and a full bite correction are very different amounts of treatment. After a digital scan you are given a written plan with the complete fee before anything starts, and that figure does not change part-way through.

For most people, yes. The aligners are made from a smooth, thin medical-grade plastic moulded to your teeth, so there is nothing sharp to catch on your lips or cheeks and nothing to adjust with a wire. You take them out to eat, so there are no food restrictions, and cleaning your teeth is the same as it was before treatment because there is nothing fixed in the way.

Briefly, if at all. A few patients notice a slight lisp on certain sounds for the first day or two with their very first aligner, while the tongue gets used to the thin layer over the teeth. It corrects itself quickly — usually within 48 hours — and later aligner changes do not bring it back. Reading aloud for a few minutes on the first day speeds the adjustment along.

In most cases, yes. Modern Invisalign treats crowding, gaps, overbites, underbites and crossbites, using small tooth-coloured attachments and, where needed, elastics to produce the movements that clear aligners on their own could not. A small number of severe jaw discrepancies are still better treated with fixed braces or a combined approach; that is a judgement the dentist makes from your scan at the assessment, not something to guess at in advance.

Twenty to twenty-two hours a day, every day. The aligners only move teeth while they are in, so the two hours out is for eating, drinking anything other than water, and brushing and flossing. Wearing them less than that is the most common reason a case runs late or needs extra aligners, so we are honest about it at the start: Invisalign suits people who can commit to keeping them in.

Yes. Your treatment begins with a digital scan of your mouth rather than a tray of impression putty. From that scan the treatment-planning software builds a 3D model of your teeth and maps the movement stage by stage, so you can see the projected end result on screen and the dentist can adjust the plan before a single aligner is made.

Conventional braces hold the wire in place with small elastic ties, which need changing at each visit and create some friction as the teeth move. Self-ligating braces such as Damon and Genius use a built-in clip instead of elastics, so the wire slides more freely: teeth tend to move with less force and less soreness, and appointments are usually shorter and less frequent. Both get to the same result — the choice is about comfort, visits and budget, which the dentist will talk you through.

Most cases take between 12 and 24 months. Mild crowding can finish sooner; correcting a bite or closing large gaps takes longer. The system you choose plays a part too, as self-ligating braces often shorten treatment a little. Your dentist gives you a realistic estimate at the consultation once they have seen your scan and X-rays, and reviews it at each adjustment.

You are given the full fee for the whole course of treatment at the consultation, so you know the total before anything is fitted. Braces are not paid for in one go — the fee is spread across the treatment, with a portion at fitting and the rest across your adjustment visits. We will set out exactly how that works for your case before you decide, and the total does not change once agreed.

Very little. A veneer covers only the front face of the tooth, so the preparation is a thin layer of enamel from that surface — a fraction of a millimetre — to make room for the veneer to sit flush. This is nothing like a crown, which reshapes the whole tooth. Because so little is taken, the tooth underneath stays strong, and in some cases a veneer can be placed with almost no preparation at all.

Because they are not veneers. Salons and online sellers are not trained in dental anatomy or infection control, and what they fit is typically a block of resin glued across several teeth at once. That traps food, makes flossing impossible, and pushes on the gums, which leads to inflammation, gum recession, decay under the resin and eventually loose teeth. Real veneers are made and fitted one tooth at a time by a dentist who has examined the teeth and gums first.

Treat them like your natural teeth and they will last for years. Brush twice a day with a non-abrasive toothpaste, floss daily, and keep up your six-monthly check-ups so the edges and the gums around them are monitored. Avoid using your front teeth to bite hard things — ice, hard sweets, pen lids — and if you grind your teeth at night, wear the night guard we make for you; grinding is the most common way a veneer chips.

Usually, yes. Sensitivity is the most common side effect of whitening, so we plan around it: the strength of the gel and the length of each session can be adjusted, and a desensitising treatment can be applied before or after. Tell us at the consultation that your teeth are sensitive and the treatment is tailored accordingly. Any sensitivity during treatment settles within a day or two.

Anywhere from six months to two years, depending mainly on you. Coffee, tea, red wine, curry and smoking bring the shade back faster; good brushing and regular scaling keep it longer. A top-up treatment or a set of home-whitening trays extends the result when it starts to fade — it does not need to be repeated from scratch.

Anything that would stain a white shirt, for the first 48 hours: coffee, tea, red wine, cola, soy sauce, curry, dark berries and tomato-based sauces. Immediately after treatment the enamel is more porous than usual and picks up pigment easily, then closes again over the next two days. Stick to pale foods and water in that window and the result holds.

No. The gum is numbed with local anaesthetic before the excess tissue is reshaped, so you feel nothing during the procedure, and it is usually finished within the hour. The area feels tender for a few days afterwards as it heals — about what you would expect from a mouth ulcer — and ordinary painkillers are enough. The new gum line is visible straight away and settles fully within a couple of weeks.

A gummy smile is often caused by the muscles that lift the upper lip pulling it too high when you smile, exposing the gum above the teeth. A small, precisely placed dose of Botox relaxes those muscles slightly so the lip rests a few millimetres lower over the gum. It takes minutes, there is no surgery and no recovery time, and the effect shows within about a week. It lasts three to six months, after which it can be repeated.

Often, yes — provided the bone around the tooth has not been lost too far. Loose teeth in gum disease are loose because the infection has destroyed the attachment between gum, bone and root. Deep scaling clears that infection from the root surface so the gum can heal and re-attach, and the tooth tightens up as the inflammation resolves. Our periodontist assesses how much support remains before advising; caught in time, most of these teeth can be kept.

Placing the implant is done under local anaesthetic, so you feel pressure and movement but not pain. It is usually less eventful than patients expect — a single implant takes under an hour. Afterwards, some soreness and swelling for a few days is normal and is managed with ordinary painkillers. Most people are back to work the next day.

Full-arch implants suit people who have lost most or all of the teeth in one jaw, or who are struggling with a loose denture. The main requirement is enough jawbone to anchor four or six implants securely. Our implantologist assesses that from a 3D CBCT scan at your consultation; where bone is thin, grafting can often make the treatment possible. Age on its own is not a barrier.

Implant treatment happens in stages over several months, and payment follows those stages rather than being taken up front: the surgical placement, then the crown once the implant has integrated. You receive the full itemised cost before the first appointment so there is nothing unexpected later. We accept cash, Visa and Mastercard and the common e-wallets.

Typically three to six months from placement to finished tooth. The implant itself is placed in a single visit. It then needs around three to four months to fuse with the bone — this waiting period is what makes an implant strong enough to last for decades. Once it has integrated, the crown is made and fitted over one or two further visits. If bone grafting is needed first, add a few months.

A bone graft adds bone material to a part of the jaw that has thinned, usually because a tooth has been missing for a long time and the bone underneath has shrunk. It gives the implant a solid foundation to sit in. Whether you need one is decided from your CBCT scan, not guessed at: many patients do not, and where it is needed it is often done at the same time as the implant.

The material and the work behind it: zirconia and ceramic crowns are milled to your tooth from a digital scan and cost more than metal-based crowns, and a front tooth that has to match its neighbours exactly involves more laboratory work than a back tooth. Whether the tooth first needs a root canal or a core rebuild also affects the total. You are given the fee for your specific tooth at the consultation, before anything is prepared.

Usually two, about one to two weeks apart. At the first, the supporting teeth are shaped, a scan is taken and a temporary bridge is fitted so you leave with teeth in place. The laboratory makes the permanent bridge from the scan, and at the second visit it is tried in, checked for fit and bite, and cemented. Implant-supported bridges follow a longer timeline because the implants need to integrate first.

No. The supporting teeth are numbed with local anaesthetic before they are shaped, so the preparation is painless — most patients find it no worse than a large filling. The teeth may be a little sensitive to hot and cold for a few days between visits, which the temporary bridge helps with, and fitting the final bridge involves no drilling at all.

Front teeth and many premolars have a single straight canal and are within a general dentist's scope. Molars are different: they typically have three or four canals, often curved and sometimes hidden, which is where treatments fail if a canal is missed. At Lau & Su Dental, root canal treatment is carried out by Dr. Queenie Tan, our endodontist, who treats every case under a dental operating microscope — so complex molars and re-treatments of previous root canals are handled in-house.

The infection inside the tooth does not clear on its own. Left alone it spreads into the bone around the root, causing an abscess, swelling and, at times, facial infection that needs urgent treatment. The bone loss also weakens the tooth's support, and a tooth that could have been saved with a root canal may reach the point where extraction is the only option — after which replacing it costs far more than the root canal would have.

Because a tooth without its living pulp becomes drier and more brittle, and a back tooth that has been opened up for treatment has lost a good deal of its structure. Under normal chewing forces it can crack, and a crack running below the gum usually means losing the tooth. A crown covers and holds the tooth together so the root canal you have invested in lasts. Front teeth sometimes manage with a filling; molars almost always need the crown.

How the tooth is sitting. A wisdom tooth that has come through and can be lifted out is a simple extraction. One that is tilted, still under the gum or partly in the bone needs minor oral surgery, which takes longer and involves more. An X-ray at the consultation shows exactly which you are dealing with, so we can tell you the fee for your tooth before booking the surgery.

A simple extraction is for a tooth that has fully erupted and can be loosened and removed with forceps. Minor oral surgery is needed when the tooth is impacted — trapped under the gum or angled against the tooth in front — so the surgeon makes a small opening in the gum and sometimes divides the tooth to take it out in pieces. It sounds more dramatic than it feels, and it is routine work for our surgeon.

Because the important part of a wisdom tooth is the part you cannot see. The X-ray shows the shape and angle of the roots, how much bone surrounds them, and — for lower teeth — how close they run to the nerve that supplies feeling to your lip and chin. Planning the surgery around that picture is what keeps it safe and predictable; no surgeon should remove a wisdom tooth without one.

By their first birthday, or within six months of the first tooth appearing, whichever comes first. That sounds early, but the first visit is not about treatment: it lets the dentist check that teeth and jaws are developing normally, show you how to clean a toddler's teeth, and get the child used to the room and the chair while there is nothing wrong. Children who start early rarely develop a fear of the dentist.

Yes. Baby teeth hold the space that the adult teeth will grow into; if one is lost early to decay, the neighbouring teeth drift into the gap and the adult tooth comes through crooked or blocked. Untreated decay is also painful, can lead to infection, and — because children learn from experience — teaches a child that the dentist is somewhere you go when things hurt. A small filling early is far kinder than an extraction later.

Keep it light. Talk about it as a normal, slightly fun outing rather than something to be brave about, and avoid words like pain, needle or drill — even 'it won't hurt' plants the idea. A picture book about visiting the dentist, or playing dentist at home by counting each other's teeth, works well. On the day, let us do the talking in the room; our dentists are used to children and will go at your child's pace.