The Extraction of My Wisdom – Day 1

So, today I extracted all 4 of my wisdom teeth. Initially, I was prepared to remove the bottom 2 that were giving me problems. During my routine dental checks a couple of months ago, the dentist told me they were decaying. So I thought, ah might as well… it’s time to remove them. So we took X-Rays of my teeth with a fancy machine that played music and we found that one of them was pressing against a nerve while the other one was growing horizontally and about to hit the last molar. It was weird seeing that.

We scheduled the surgery for today and the plan was to get it paid for by Medisave, since it was to be a surgical procedure. All was well and good, but I was quite nervous. I’ve never had a surgery done under local anesthesia… what’s more they were going to operate on my sensitive mouth and gums! I am usually calm about medical procedures, but this time I did feel a little frightened.

After consulting with the principal dental surgeon, he suggested that I remove all 4 teeth, because although the 2 upper teeth did not grow out of the gums, they were pressing against my molars… and that would eventually give me problems later on in life. It’s cheaper to remove all at one go, rather than spacing it out into 2 separate surgeries. What’s more, once I suffered through this recovery period, there would not be a “round 2″ in future. He was very confident of his skills and of course, he had plenty of experience with this procedure.

So I bit the bullet and said yes to removing all 4 wisdom teeth. The dental surgeon, quite a young fella… didn’t wear his scrubs when he spoke to me. I don’t know if he did put on a plastic apron or what, because my eyes were masked. Just felt a little strange, that’s all.

My heart pounded so hard as the team got themselves ready. They covered my eyes for good reason, I thought. They didn’t want to have a patient freak out on them halfway and run out screaming, I supposed. The blood and drills could curdle the blood of any brave person… I was wondering if physical restraints were needed for me.

The dentist slowly injected local anesthesia into my gums, always checking if I was feeling ok. There was pressure and some sharp sensation occasionally, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. I think my tiny mouth was straining to keep itself open and I was rather worried my lips will tear from all the handling.

The LA worked pretty quickly, numbing my entire mouth and cheeks. I can feel my throat getting dry as well. And then the dentist did some tests on the spots to be operated on… and then it was GO! He started on my upper right tooth it seemed.

The drilling was fine, just a little loud and the vibrations was a little unnerving… nothing really scary there. My lips were pried open and stretched in ways that felt a little uncomfortable, but I guess some dental work required some rough handling here and there. There was a part when the dentist had to apply a lot of pressure to crack and break the tooth, which he described as “a click”. Nope, definitely a crack there. The pressure he applied was rather strong and I thought my jaw was going to break or something. But no sharp pain there, not surprisingly.

I had to place my trust in modern medical technology right? The local anesthetic held up well so far. I had my hands gripped tight throughout the process.

So after the sutures and all, he told me 1 was done! But then he did some drilling again and all, which puzzled me a little. After he took a break of about 10 minutes or so, he started on my upper left tooth. I could tell this one was a little less complicated, but unfortunately I did feel some sensitivity at some point when he drilled into the tooth. So I held out my left hand to signal to him. I think he had to top up some more LA before continuing.

Then he told me, “See! Doing 4 is the same as doing 2. We’re done now!” Whaaaat? You mean you are done with all 4? How come I didn’t know that?! I thought after the 2nd one there was going to another 2 more… but no… they took off my eye mask and was guiding me to sit upright soon after. I guess that was THE pleasant surprise of the day.

So it was fast and somewhat painless. My mouth was still swollen and numb but that was to be expected. Another X-Ray was taken of my “after” teeth and I was good to go home. Jeffwee came to pick me up and he was somewhat amused at my swollen face. The dude had 2 of his wisdom teeth taken out under General Anesthesia many years back. Hmmpf. He said I was brave and was surprised I removed all 4 instead of just 2.

I’m thankful of my friend Justin who was working at the clinic and was very reassuring the whole time. He took good care of me and the paperwork needed… and I appreciated that. He was the one who recommended this dentist to me as he has been a long-time customer as well. I guess such recommendations and kind treatment could really help calm the nerves of a terrified patient.

The trip home was not uneventful though. There was a jam on the AYE and then my mouth filled quickly with a yucky mixture of drool and blood. I wasn’t too sure of what to do, but I swallowed once the amount was too much. I couldn’t feel it but I was bleeding from my mouth and nearly onto my t-shirt. The colour of the blood was pretty dark. Had to wipe like mad to prevent staining.

After getting home, I sat down on the bed for a couple of hours, making sure I didn’t lie down, as instructed. So I kept myself awake by surfing the net and trying to keep myself from drooling onto my bedsheets, but before long I felt really sleepy. I dug out my inflatable travel neck pillow to support my head while I dozed off in a sitting position.

The cats came to sit with me, but I suspect they wanted food more than to comfort me.

I woke up feeling really hungry and I could feel the anesthesia wearing off. My chin was numb with pins and needles and I had to keep checking if I’d drooled bloody drool anywhere. All was good. So I went to throw out the 2 pieces of soaked gauze… it was gross but for us girls, it’s nothing awful that we’ve not seen.

Then I was really starving. There wasn’t any food at home, I was ill prepared for this. In order to down the painkillers, I’ve got to have food. So I made some Quaker instant oats cereal drink to stave off the hunger pangs. Jeffwee won’t be back from work until 6pm or so, I’ve got to help myself, isn’t it?

Then I took some Ibuprofen as prescribed, but bleah, it’s still painful. But the hunger pangs felt worse than the pain in my jaws. I nearly threw up a few times, but fortunately for me the food stayed down. I guess it was a slight reaction from the wearing off of the anesthesia. I somewhat knew it would happen, this nausea. But it still felt like crap.

Jeffwee came home and made me porridge as the stall downstairs was closed. I wouldn’t be able to withstand all of these if it weren’t for him taking care of me. I slurped my porridge appreciatively and he went to play his game.

I took my medication… and 1300 words down. I am feeling much better. Less pain for now.