My Wisdom Tooth Extraction Story
It's been a while since I've posted. I've had my wisdom teeth out..
On July 9 at 1 in the afternoon I went in to have my wisdom teeth out. I'd chosen general anesthesia, so I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything for 6 hours ahead of my surgery. To accommodate this, I stayed up very late so that I woke at noon and didn't have to suffer for too long without a glass of water.
William drove me to the surgery office. They had called me the day before to tell me to bring my X-rays. Unfortunately, I'd recently changed my phone number to finally account for moving out of good ol' 937, so I didn't get the call. Why would have my X-rays anyway? Why didn't my dentist just send the X-rays to their office? Luckily, it was no big deal, just a chance for the woman at the receptionist desk to be a bit bitchy. They took X-rays and that only added maybe 5 minutes to the ordeal.
William was allowed back into the surgery area with me while everything about the procedure was explained. Everything happened very quickly - their explanations, signing of forms, hooking me up to machines. The surgeon (or whatever he's called) came in and said congratulations, you have conical roots! pointing at my X-Ray. Roots that form as cones, rather than as separate prongs, are much easier to pop out, since there doesn't have to be as much manipulation of the tooth. My guess is that they didn't have to hammer away at the teeth to break them.
Then William left the room and they put me on oxygen. It all happened so quickly and if the oxygen was supposed to help me relax, it didn't. The surgeon man was explaining how the anesthesia would work just about a step ahead of everything he did. "So I'm going to poke you and then-" Poke! I was very panicky. I do not like the idea of being knocked out. I wanted to know how many people would be in the room - I didn't want to be alone with surgeon man. They didn't tell me. He just said the drugs would take effect in thirty seconds, and I would start to feel pleasantly relaxed just about now. He was right.
Next thing I knew I was lying on my side in a dimly lit space. I was in the recovery area as they said I would be. As I came to I became aware of people talking about me coming to. I don't have much sense of how time passed, but soon William was there, and they gave me back my glasses (which they'd taken off for the surgery). When I was more coherent the nurse told me to tell doctors in the future that I am one of the one in four people who has a reaction to anesthesia. It took me a long time to wake up, and I was very, very groggy.
I had gauze in my mouth, and they changed the gauze once before I left. When I was ready they wheeled me out to the car. William drove to my nearby HMO to pick up my prescription Ibuprofin and Vicodin. He gave me the stuffed Cheetah that he bought in the hospital gift shop. It is now named Molar.
When we got home he put the futon down and made a nest of pillows. He crushed ice cubes and I was soon sucking down ice chips, which made me hungry. It was very touch and go for a while, but I never threw up. I applied ice packs to my face to reduce swelling, and William changed my gauze once. Just once.
Later that day I was eating pudding, apple sauce, yogurt, and ice cream. I also drank a large amount of ginger ale. The carbonation helped with the nausea and with my lactose intolerance. I remained lying down all day. I couldn't stand up for long periods of time. I was very weak, but I stayed awake. A while after William changed my gauze we checked the sockets again and the bleeding seemed to have stopped. I slept on the futon that night. My head was to remain elevated, but I didn't keep it elevated enough and one socket started to bleed in the middle of the night. I was taking the Ibuprofin every six hours, and I had to up in the night to take it anyway, so it wasn't so hard to be awake to put gauze in.
My energy continued to increase the next day and the day after. I think I was very affected by the anesthesia, and with the soft food diet I wasn't getting much protein or iron. But I think two days after the surgery I was able to take a walk around the neighborhood. My face swelled a bit, but I did not bruise. I was scared of the swelling and the bruising and figured that I'd hide at home for a few days. I'd heard about dry socket and I was terrified about that too. But thanks to the ice packs that I intermittently applied to my face during the first 24 hours, but more to my conical roots, I think, my swelling was barely noticeable, I had no bruising, and the pain was completely managed by the Ibuprofin. Really, I encountered very little pain. The pain I did feel was no worse than what I felt from my wisdom teeth, and the pain from the extraction was more fleeting. The worse things I experienced was the grogginess, but really, it wasn't so bad have a legitimate reason to lie around all day. Made me realize that left to my own devices, when I'm in the best of health, I don't really like to lie around.
I stayed away from straws and smoking and was very careful to follow the post-procedure instructions. My clots stayed in place and I have not encountered any of the pain associated with dry socket. I have a bit of pain eating sweets, which my dentist attributes to the tooth in front of one socket. He says that the gum has temporarily receded, exposing the root, and that can be sensitive.
All in all, there's not much of a story to my wisdom tooth extraction. I was luckily to have conical roots, lucky to have a caring partner, and unlucky to have a strong reaction to anesthesia. But I didn't throw up, swell much, bruise at all, or experience strong or lasting pain. It really wasn't all that bad. It wasn't fun, but from what I've heard it could have been much worse. I wanted to report on this to show that it isn't always worse.
Now I'm just waiting for the holes to close and having fun with that left over Vicodin.
On July 9 at 1 in the afternoon I went in to have my wisdom teeth out. I'd chosen general anesthesia, so I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything for 6 hours ahead of my surgery. To accommodate this, I stayed up very late so that I woke at noon and didn't have to suffer for too long without a glass of water.
William drove me to the surgery office. They had called me the day before to tell me to bring my X-rays. Unfortunately, I'd recently changed my phone number to finally account for moving out of good ol' 937, so I didn't get the call. Why would have my X-rays anyway? Why didn't my dentist just send the X-rays to their office? Luckily, it was no big deal, just a chance for the woman at the receptionist desk to be a bit bitchy. They took X-rays and that only added maybe 5 minutes to the ordeal.
William was allowed back into the surgery area with me while everything about the procedure was explained. Everything happened very quickly - their explanations, signing of forms, hooking me up to machines. The surgeon (or whatever he's called) came in and said congratulations, you have conical roots! pointing at my X-Ray. Roots that form as cones, rather than as separate prongs, are much easier to pop out, since there doesn't have to be as much manipulation of the tooth. My guess is that they didn't have to hammer away at the teeth to break them.
Then William left the room and they put me on oxygen. It all happened so quickly and if the oxygen was supposed to help me relax, it didn't. The surgeon man was explaining how the anesthesia would work just about a step ahead of everything he did. "So I'm going to poke you and then-" Poke! I was very panicky. I do not like the idea of being knocked out. I wanted to know how many people would be in the room - I didn't want to be alone with surgeon man. They didn't tell me. He just said the drugs would take effect in thirty seconds, and I would start to feel pleasantly relaxed just about now. He was right.
Next thing I knew I was lying on my side in a dimly lit space. I was in the recovery area as they said I would be. As I came to I became aware of people talking about me coming to. I don't have much sense of how time passed, but soon William was there, and they gave me back my glasses (which they'd taken off for the surgery). When I was more coherent the nurse told me to tell doctors in the future that I am one of the one in four people who has a reaction to anesthesia. It took me a long time to wake up, and I was very, very groggy.
I had gauze in my mouth, and they changed the gauze once before I left. When I was ready they wheeled me out to the car. William drove to my nearby HMO to pick up my prescription Ibuprofin and Vicodin. He gave me the stuffed Cheetah that he bought in the hospital gift shop. It is now named Molar.
When we got home he put the futon down and made a nest of pillows. He crushed ice cubes and I was soon sucking down ice chips, which made me hungry. It was very touch and go for a while, but I never threw up. I applied ice packs to my face to reduce swelling, and William changed my gauze once. Just once.
Later that day I was eating pudding, apple sauce, yogurt, and ice cream. I also drank a large amount of ginger ale. The carbonation helped with the nausea and with my lactose intolerance. I remained lying down all day. I couldn't stand up for long periods of time. I was very weak, but I stayed awake. A while after William changed my gauze we checked the sockets again and the bleeding seemed to have stopped. I slept on the futon that night. My head was to remain elevated, but I didn't keep it elevated enough and one socket started to bleed in the middle of the night. I was taking the Ibuprofin every six hours, and I had to up in the night to take it anyway, so it wasn't so hard to be awake to put gauze in.
My energy continued to increase the next day and the day after. I think I was very affected by the anesthesia, and with the soft food diet I wasn't getting much protein or iron. But I think two days after the surgery I was able to take a walk around the neighborhood. My face swelled a bit, but I did not bruise. I was scared of the swelling and the bruising and figured that I'd hide at home for a few days. I'd heard about dry socket and I was terrified about that too. But thanks to the ice packs that I intermittently applied to my face during the first 24 hours, but more to my conical roots, I think, my swelling was barely noticeable, I had no bruising, and the pain was completely managed by the Ibuprofin. Really, I encountered very little pain. The pain I did feel was no worse than what I felt from my wisdom teeth, and the pain from the extraction was more fleeting. The worse things I experienced was the grogginess, but really, it wasn't so bad have a legitimate reason to lie around all day. Made me realize that left to my own devices, when I'm in the best of health, I don't really like to lie around.
I stayed away from straws and smoking and was very careful to follow the post-procedure instructions. My clots stayed in place and I have not encountered any of the pain associated with dry socket. I have a bit of pain eating sweets, which my dentist attributes to the tooth in front of one socket. He says that the gum has temporarily receded, exposing the root, and that can be sensitive.
All in all, there's not much of a story to my wisdom tooth extraction. I was luckily to have conical roots, lucky to have a caring partner, and unlucky to have a strong reaction to anesthesia. But I didn't throw up, swell much, bruise at all, or experience strong or lasting pain. It really wasn't all that bad. It wasn't fun, but from what I've heard it could have been much worse. I wanted to report on this to show that it isn't always worse.
Now I'm just waiting for the holes to close and having fun with that left over Vicodin.