The Saga of the Wisdom Teeth: Delays, Delays
In the past six months my wisdom teeth have been giving me headaches like mad. So, I decided that I should probably have them removed. Doubly so when I found out that several had decay, and since they're so far back in my mouth that they'd be extremely hard to repair.
So, my attempts to have them removed went something like this:
- Late March -- got an appointment to have them removed in the dentist's chair. I get in, my x-rays get looked at a second time, and "Oh, we didn't look closely enough at this. Turns out you have your lower two near a nerve in your lower mandible, so we'll have to refer you to the VG". Though I could have the other two removed there, I wanted them all out at once. So I decided to wait for the VG referral.
- Early June: I arrive at an appointment for a consultation (two consultations about my wisdom teeth: I thought that was rather strange). The first thing the resident oral surgeon says is 'This should have been your appointment to have them removed'. So, I get another consult, and make an appointment for the surgery at the end of June (e.g. yesterday).
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Yesterday: Appointment is in the afternoon, so I do as I was told: standard breakfast and a light lunch. Arrive at Oral Surgery, and give my name, then I'm told Oh, your appointment was at 8:00 this morning, we marked you as a no-show. What? was the first thing from my mouth. Tasha promply walked out of the room in disgust. They asked if I'd had the letter I'd been sent earlier. A jaunt out to the car failed to find the letter, so I returned and made the argument: No, I don't have the letter, but I do remember it saying to eat a regular breakfast and a light lunch the same day, and I can't see those being the instructions for a surgery in the morning.
Not looking forward to another month of on-again, off-again migraines, I was dreading having to make another appointment. The only reason, it seems, I managed to have them extracted, is the because the Resident remembered me and that I had to have them extracted soon. She managed to find me room in the schedule. Granted, it was a different surgeon performing the procedure, but under sedation I really didn't care.
So, here I am sitting at home waiting for my jaw to heal. The discomfort and swelling is about equal to having four simultaneous fillings in my Molars, and the pain is managable: at no point has it been worse than the migraine headaches that the teeth caused me. Good riddance, I say.
Comments
Don't try to argue logic....it never works becuase if they could follow the logical argument they are smart enough to not have made the silly mistake in the first place :P
As far as pain goes, each person is different for getting their wisdom teeth removed. My cousin looked like a chipmunk she was so swollen and in pain. I on the other hand didn't even have to take any pain killers.
Heh, seems like you've been through a lot. For me, I just had all four wisom teeth removed today and everything went very smoothly. For the 2 bottom wisdom teeth, I was referred to a specialist due to a possibility of losing my sensation in the lower jaw since the main nerve that runs along the side of my jaw was fairly close to the roots of the wisdom teeth on both ends.
I got my appointment really quick, after seeing a dentist and having the x-ray reviewed, I was to see a specialist 3 months after, but after calling different specialists (since there is almost no difference), I decided to go for the speicialist who could match my schedual and BAM! Dr. (Disclosed)~ I got my appointment the very next day, and after talking with him for 5 minutes or so (Since he knows what he's doing, and I have my knowledge from 'Das Internet') he gave to 'ok-go' for the surgery. Intentionally, I was only suppose to have bottom two removed since the top two caused no problems (yet) but what-the-hay, I just told him to pull out all four. I don't know where you live, but the Medical Care System in Canada is next to trash. It takes months to book in an appointment to see a specialist for 10 minutes and even that doctor does a half-ass job, then if you want to prep for surgery, oh-boy, that's another couple months of waiting...
I guess I was lucky. I had my doubts about this 'Dr. (Disclosed) since he was a certified doctor from another country (Europe) Ahrggg! But my thoughts about him changed after the surgery. The complex, difficult, and stressful surgery took around 30 minutes. 13 minutes each for the two bottom teeth and 2 minutes each for the top two. He was very nice and is on hell of a surgeon~ Some people take 1-2 hours to pull out 2 teeth, but I got all four pulled out in under 30 minutes. Don't know how much it usually costs, but for me it cost 1.1k CDN which is around 950 USD (approx). The bottom cost me about 100 dolalrs more than the bottom. (I had no insurance).
Post to the surgery, my lower jaw was swollen, and I usedsome ice packs to slow down the circulation of blood, so that I could reduce the swelling. This works, but it's temporary satisfaction. My bleeding stopped within 4 hours post to the surgery and the only problem I'm having now is the pain and a little bit of the swelling. Most doctors recommend T3, but that is just public bull~ I was discussing with the doctor, and he said that it's not very good and that its just something standard that the doctors must use. *I'm assuming this gets into politics and business. ANYWAYS, he says its best to take some advil or a mix of both (Of course, we know how well mixtures work in terms of alcohol =D ).
Since I have a slight case of GERD (Gastro Esophical Reflux Disease), instead of T3, he perscribed me some pills that I take up the ass... and Frankly, I'm no down with those, being homo-phobic and all. I used it once today, and I plan on never taking it, unless if it was a matter of life and death. People with Acid Reflux like me shouldn't use T3 for many reasons: stomach pain! but another big common side effect is the constipation. My mom used T3 and it didn't help with the pain at all, and she was always having stomach aches, along with constipation... T3 is jsut an over rated drug and I saw ADVIL all the way!
I was also perscribed Dexamethasone to help with the swelling, and Novo-Pen-VK, aka Penicillin for prevention of possible infection. I feel better having my teeth removed and thanful that everything is over. The surgery was almost painless, and if it did hurt, I always asked for more freezing. If anyone is looking for one advice during the surgery, my advice to you is that:
When he is putting on the sedative (needle) on your upper teeth for your wisdom teeth, watch out for the one where he punctures your hard palate (top of your teeth cavity). I assure you that this one will hurt, and I'm not joking around.
PS. for 24 hours post operation, rinse your teeth with slightly warm salt water after every meal. This helps with the infection too!
I can't imagine that it is much fun but I am sure you are glad that you got them out after the healing you will have a much better day at work. Now if there were no more Monitor headaches we would all be happier.
Yes, I'll be glad to see the multi-day migraines that are barely affected by conventional painkillers go away.
Now, if I could get the sockets to heal over, I'll be fine. I jammed the sharp point of a chip into one yesterday: that started it bleeding again.
Ah well, such is life.
I hope you don't get any more nasty operations like these. It's always best to take care of your teeth from now on. However, don't forget to visit your dentist once in a while for a check-up and cleaning.