I Have Surgery Tomorrow
My lower right jaw started aching on Monday out of nowhere. My guess was that I had a wisdom tooth pushing its way through, because I remembered when another one came in I had experienced a bit of discomfort in the area. By Tuesday, however, the pain had radiated into my ear and throat, although it was still mostly concentrated in the one area. Let's just say that things were inflamed to the point of ME taking Ibuprofen to get the swelling to go down.
My dad called me about lunch, and I eagerly accepted with the suggestion of Wong's sizzling shrimp soup. Turned out, though, that he was more specifically checking my schedule for the rest of the week because he had a meeting that day at 2 pm (we eat lunch a little late). He proceded to ask me how everything else was going, and I told him that I was looking for a dentist. Preferably one that catered to people without any form of health insurance. And then explained to him what I was experiencing.
Long story slightly shorter - he agreed to pay for me and I scheduled an appointment with his dentist for the following day. They took a panoramic x-ray of my entire mouth and everything looked good at first glance. So poor ol' Dr. Diquattro had to do things the old fashioned way by sticking a little mirror and metal hook in my mouth to check things out. Those tiny instruments were in and out in two seconds before he claimed he knew what was wrong. And I was right that it involved the wisdom tooth.
All four of my wisdom teeth had already erupted, which shocked me. I thought I only had the one I had felt years ago and then this one that was bothering me. So it was exciting news that the other three were straight, had plenty of room, and therefor happy. This particular one, however, was a little crowded. It still came in nice and straight, but the back part of the crown didn't completely break through the gumline creating an operculum. This soft tissue flap that extended over the biting surface created a safe-haven for food debris to hide from my toothbrush, causing a case of pericoronitis (read: giving me one hell of an infection).
It was agreed upon that I needed an extraction. Now for the even more fun part - he wanted to send me to a specialist for the procedure because the roots of said wisdom tooth weren't straight. They curled sideways toward the jawline. He sent me away with a prescription for amoxicillin and a referral.
So I got an appointment set with the oral surgeon today. Another consultation and another panoramic set of x-rays...because they can't use someone else's (grrr). My curly roots are dangerously close to the nerves in my jaw, so I have to go under anesthesia for the surgery. They are going to put me on laughing gas, then anesthesia, then inject novacaine in my mouth (talk about comfort!) The actual procedure once I'm out cold is only supposed to take 15-20 minutes. They have to cut away part of my jawbone, crack the tooth in half, and negotiate both halves out while keeping the roots straight. Then I get to continue to not be able to drive for another two or three days while I take Roxicen for the pain.
Send good thoughts my way tomorrow at 6:30 am AZ time (which was originally noon...don't ask how it got pushed nearly 6 hours ahead of schedule!)
My dad called me about lunch, and I eagerly accepted with the suggestion of Wong's sizzling shrimp soup. Turned out, though, that he was more specifically checking my schedule for the rest of the week because he had a meeting that day at 2 pm (we eat lunch a little late). He proceded to ask me how everything else was going, and I told him that I was looking for a dentist. Preferably one that catered to people without any form of health insurance. And then explained to him what I was experiencing.
Long story slightly shorter - he agreed to pay for me and I scheduled an appointment with his dentist for the following day. They took a panoramic x-ray of my entire mouth and everything looked good at first glance. So poor ol' Dr. Diquattro had to do things the old fashioned way by sticking a little mirror and metal hook in my mouth to check things out. Those tiny instruments were in and out in two seconds before he claimed he knew what was wrong. And I was right that it involved the wisdom tooth.
All four of my wisdom teeth had already erupted, which shocked me. I thought I only had the one I had felt years ago and then this one that was bothering me. So it was exciting news that the other three were straight, had plenty of room, and therefor happy. This particular one, however, was a little crowded. It still came in nice and straight, but the back part of the crown didn't completely break through the gumline creating an operculum. This soft tissue flap that extended over the biting surface created a safe-haven for food debris to hide from my toothbrush, causing a case of pericoronitis (read: giving me one hell of an infection).
It was agreed upon that I needed an extraction. Now for the even more fun part - he wanted to send me to a specialist for the procedure because the roots of said wisdom tooth weren't straight. They curled sideways toward the jawline. He sent me away with a prescription for amoxicillin and a referral.
So I got an appointment set with the oral surgeon today. Another consultation and another panoramic set of x-rays...because they can't use someone else's (grrr). My curly roots are dangerously close to the nerves in my jaw, so I have to go under anesthesia for the surgery. They are going to put me on laughing gas, then anesthesia, then inject novacaine in my mouth (talk about comfort!) The actual procedure once I'm out cold is only supposed to take 15-20 minutes. They have to cut away part of my jawbone, crack the tooth in half, and negotiate both halves out while keeping the roots straight. Then I get to continue to not be able to drive for another two or three days while I take Roxicen for the pain.
Send good thoughts my way tomorrow at 6:30 am AZ time (which was originally noon...don't ask how it got pushed nearly 6 hours ahead of schedule!)