Monday, March 9, 2009

My Wisdom Teeth

Last I heard of them, they were rattling around in a tin can at the dentist's office. Well, the bottom 2 anyway.

So I had them extracted Thursday afternoon, and the dentist had a bit of trouble getting the left one out. It was "stuck" in the back "somewhere", maybe on a bone...? After much twisting (and a little grinding / cracking), both teeth were out. Actually, the right one came out fairly easily. I cried quite a bit (especially for the needles), but Pat was there to hold my hand (or foot, since there wasn't room for him at the head of the chair). And both him and the dentist were very reassuring.

But big fat liars! They told me the worse was over once the needles were done! Which actually weren't all that bad, despite all my tears (most of those were in fear and uncertainty anyway). And, in truth, the pulling wasn't so bad. But about 20 minutes after leaving the dentist's, OH THE PAIN!!! My mouth was still frozen solid, but my jaw and head were aching.

The Tylenol 3's I was prescribed certainly helped dull the pain, but my jaw ached pretty much non-stop Friday and Saturday. There was a bit of infection, so I'm on antibiotics (I nearly died when the dentist told me some pus came out when he poked the gum to see if I was frozen). All these drugs, and hardly any food, was hard on my stomach - and I was sick early Saturday morning. But by Sunday, I was starting to feel much better. I can't see much at the back of my mouth, but it seems to be healing just fine - no gaping holes or festering wounds. And no dry socket, thank heavens!

So it was quite an ordeal... I never want to go through that again! We'll have to see how it goes for my top ones... Those wisdom teeth probably won't break through my gums because they're so far back. And one is sitting on the edge of my skull... With any luck, they won't have to come out at all!

2 comments:

Tia Colleen said...

Oh my gosh you poor thing! I'm scared to death to have mine out. They've almost completely grown in on the bottom, and finally the pain from THAT has gone away. Christopher had his pulled out shortly after joining the air force. I stayed home with the baby. A coworker took him. When he brought him home to me, Christopher approached me with a big bloody smile (so gross), and asked me if I wanted to makeout. No. Wow. No I don't want to makeout. He then passed out face first on the bed for 2 hours.

I hope your mouth is feeling better now, and the worst is over. :(

LiPeony said...

o gosh... that sounds horrrrible glad you're feeling better I really dislike the dentist. =(