One less wisdom tooth = one less unit of wisdom

[whorlichan]

OW MY FACE.

My wisdom teeth have always been more like those annoying wannabe wise men who kind of dance around and don't actually do anything, and then curl up and scream in pain when they try to, say, walk barefoot over hot coals. I had one removed (lower left) 3 years ago, and was told at the time that the other 3 shouldn't need to come out for 10 years or so.

Imagine my surprise then, when the lower right one started screaming in pain several times a day, to the point where I added 3 advil to my pharmaceutical collection every morning, noon, and night. Dr. Yerro (the scary Filipino holistic dentist dude) said it had to come out and he could do it, but I'd have to be in California for at least 2 weeks after the surgery. Uh, NO. I came back home and talked to my dentist here, who doesn't touch wisdom teeth (direct quote: "The last time I even SAW a wisdom tooth was in my residency...several hundred years ago.") and who referred me to an oral surgeon. According to the dentist though, the tooth could come out under a local anesthetic rather than a full sedation, which is good because my insurance doesn't cover sedation and my parents don't have $5000 to pay for full anesthetic and surgery.

I scheduled it for this morning, because I need at the very minimum 2 days of going nowhere, hopped up on Percocet type resting. I get there--and the guy says I need full sedation after all. A lot of talking and whining about money and he agrees to do it under a local + laughing gas, and be done within an hour. Mike's in the waiting room to drive me home so all is cool, and I sit down in the scary chair.

They let me have my mp3 player on during everything. I asked because I've read somewhere that music makes it easier to handle pain. The truth is, I think the music gave me something else to concentrate on while my mind was kind of out of it from the laughing gas--I think more than anything that getting my mind off of what they were doing helped a lot.

The laughing gas made me feel kind of drugged up (which I guess I was?)--time seemed to go very very slowly, it was hard to focus, and when I did focus it was very pointed--like, when the music was playing it was what Eyal Golan was saying at that very moment, rather than music + outside stimulus. My eyes were all unfocused (admittedly, they did make me take my glasses off) and I kept feeling like my whole body was very warm and very tingly. I think the doctor and his assistant were talking during the surgery--to each other that is--but I couldn't hear them although I could see their mouths moving. I could be wrong though, because when they talked to me I heard them clearly.

He was done in less than a half hour. They made me sit there with gauze in my mouth for like 10 minutes and left it there when I left--I was to keep it in for another 45 minutes to make sure I wasn't bleeding to death out of my tooth. He gave me a script for Percocet which I filled immediately because me and pain medication are great friends

Mike keeps saying I look deformed and funny but he says that when my face ISN'T entirely swollen and/or hidden by a towel full of ice too, so I'm not taking it too hard. The ice stays on for 20 minutes and off for 20 minutes, and I think I'm supposed to do that until the meds put me to sleep.

Today I'm not allowed to eat, only drink clear liquids and NEVER through a straw because straws are DOOM. Tomorrow and for the next week I'm allowed ice cream, mashed potatoes, yogurt and the like. By next Friday I'm allowed soft pasta. And by next Monday I should be fine, but still careful about eating stuff that's crunchy or leaves crumbs.

Overall it was not nearly as bad as I expected. The only pain I've felt so far is when he injected me with the anesthetic before the laughing gas took full control of me. I've not yet taken my medication because I don't think it's necessary yet. I'm sure I will be screaming and crying at some point though.