The Day of Judgement is Upon My Teeth!!
So I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed on Wednesday and what a trip it was. Since I know a few people who are going through it after me I thought I’d write down my personal experience of it in a new light since most people are scared of the general operation and the pain.
When someone thinks of having their wisdom teeth removed they instantly think of someone having to cut into their gums, drill bone away, remove the tooth while being careful of not damaging nerve centers or naval cavities. Well I won’t lie to you, that’s exactly what wisdom teeth extraction requires.
My personal experience is a bit different from most because I’m a lot different from most people. When I arrived at the surgeon’s office and sat down there was another guy waiting to have his taken out as well. We got to talking and it was a tad nerve-wrecking to see this dude who appeared to lift weights all jumpy and nervous about the pain that it’d bring. He stated that they were going to knock him out so he didn’t feel a thing; I was tempted since I found out that my insurance would also pay for this however that story is a tad bit later.
In about an hour I was called into the room and sat down in a simple dentist chair while I waited on the doctor. The view of the city from my location was wonderful especially in the middle of downtown. It was foggy and dark on one side looking like a storm was about to come in. If you know me you know that I love rain so it was relaxing.
Eventually nurses started coming into the room and started explaining my x-ray to me. Apparently I had 2 impacted teeth, 1 was normal, and the last was stuck half way in my gums. Also for my top left tooth my tooth roots were really close to my naval cavity. What this means is that it would be possible if the tooth damaged that cavity I’d be able to blow from my nose through my gums and out of my teeth.
AKA – Holy **** Batman! The pain!!
Also my lower right tooth – the one I went in for to begin with because it felt as if someone was punching me in my face every 2 seconds appeared to have a few other problems. 1 the nerve center was very close to my tooth roots; meaning that if the roots were far enough and it damaged my nerve center then I’d never be able to feel the bottom of my chin again and if I were to bite my lips I’d never feel it either.
I was told that there was only a 5% chance of this happening but they were forced to warn me so that I couldn’t sue. I agreed to this and then we went over paper work and all was set; it was time to begin.
Now let me go ahead and state that I’m one of the most complicated medical patients in the world as they would soon find out.
The first step was to hook me up to the machine that would continuously take my pulse so they were sure I didn’t die during the entire thing. Well, the machine couldn’t feel it. The people themselves could clear as day, however the machine? Nah; this guy isn’t alive, he’s a friggin vampire, he’s not here for wisdom teeth removal – his sharp teeth keep stabbing himself.
Well after 30 minutes the machine finally decides to give in and find my pulse and as I’m sure some of you are glad to hear I am alive and well and not a zombie vampire of some sort.
They started to put oxygen into my system and I admit that stuff is awesome; talk about fresh air. Then they started with the sleeping gas however it seems that I am immune to the stuff for they tried pumping it into my system for 20 minutes and I didn’t even get a tad bit dizzy. As they started to try a stronger brand I told them to stop and said I’ll just do the entire thing while awake; after all it was a once in a lifetime (hopefully) experience and I was intrigued to see what the heck was going on.
I didn’t regret it; it was an interesting experience.
After looking at me like I was crazy they said okay and thus I was awake for the entire operation. I had them explain everything that was going on as they did it so I was completely alert and clued in onto what they were doing. As I stated, I’m odd.
Also let me go ahead and state that laughing gas is one of the oddest things I’ve ever experienced. In most people it makes them laugh uncontrollably, in others it takes all their worries away and basically puts them on cloud nine. For me it simply made me more alert and aware of everything around me. In all honesty it was kind of cool and I enjoyed the feeling.
After a few minutes on the gas they started to numb my mouth completely. Let me state that that needle is friggin sharp! Since I had them explain everything to me as they went in they should me the needle and honestly I wouldn’t touch my worst enemy with the thing. I was injected 4 times and the feeling as it pushes against your gums and jaw is kinda painful for a few seconds but the medicine really kicks in pretty quickly.
Now at this point I’m hooked to 5 different machines and there are 3 doctors in the room along with 4 interns. I also forgot to mention that I was the case study material for 4 female college interns – I think I may have messed up their study slightly since where most people are nervous I instead spent the time before them numbing my mouth flirting with one of them.
With all these people over me it finally begins. They started with the top left tooth and they cut into it slowly while making sure the blood didn’t build up in the cut. This one they had to be careful with because it was the one in my naval cavity so they slowly cut into the tooth itself while drilling it down (that is one hell of a smell by the way) so that it would hopefully not damage it. It took a few moments but the tooth was finally out in about 5 different pieces covered in blood with the roots exposed.
Onto tooth 2!
Bottom left was simple enough. It wasn’t exposed however it was impacted so it required them cutting through my gums to actually be able to see the tooth. Then it required the drilling away of the nerves and it was a simple extraction taking something that looked like a flat head screwdriver and then they just put it under the tooth and moved it side to side and then grabbed a pair of tweezers and pulled it out in all its white/red awesomeness.
I won’t bother with tooth 3 because it was too simple. It was cut and grab; no complications at all.
BUT – tooth 4, the beginner problem truth was a tad bit more complicated than originally thought. Apparently the tooth was further down than normal and they may have had to break my jaw in order to fully get it out. It was at this point that I gave my first complaint – a garbled “WTF NO!”
They ignored me (jerks) and began with the operation. The main issue with this tooth was the fact that it was directly against the tooth next to it meaning that there was the possibility that they could accidently break the second tooth in the process of extraction.
Slowly they began to cut into the exposed gums and dig around trying to figure out exactly where everything was; the 4 interns laughed at the “GTFO” look on my face. Digging into the gums using a scalpel they were finally about to judge the distance between my roots and my jaw. I life my jaw up as asked and the doctor pushed against the edge of my jaw where the tooth was while the other rocked the tweezers holding my tooth back and forward to loosen it.
The oddest sound you’ll ever hear is the cracking of something coming from your jaw and even sedated it’s an interesting feeling. Thankfully though they were able to remove the tooth without removing my jaw and thus all 4 of my wisdom teeth were removed and all was well.
They took a fish hook and self dissolving stitches to sew up my mouth and finish the job.
Because of my oddness an operation that should have taken 80 minutes (on average 2 0mins per tooth) it ended up taking 3 hours, but no one else will go through that.
Aftermath
I honestly felt no pain going through the operation itself and I’m glad I didn’t go to sleep during it because it was an interesting journey and I recommend not taking the knockout gas for it because it’s kinda a fun ride when you’re completely sane for it. However…
After the operation? That’s where the “fun” really began.
The numbing lasts for about 2 hours and it was not the dentist’s fault more than it was Walgreens for not getting my stuff together; however since they were delayed I was unable to get the pills before it wore off.
GET YOUR PILLS BEFORE IT WEARS OFF!
I had just made it home when the numbing fully wore off and the pain, unbearable. I honestly fell to my knees crying from the intensity of it all and remained that way till the pills were ready and they made their way through my system. It was honestly as if someone has just taken a sledge hammer and continued to beat the heck outta my mouth while a drill saw dug through my gums from each side.
It was so bad that I took a nap. If you know me, you understand just how bad it was.
But now its day 1 after the surgery and the pain is being managed by pills and such. There’s huge swelling on the side of my mouth and I can’t talk or really eat. In the beginning it was like I had a Botox injection and couldn’t stop smiling but now I just can’t close my mouth fully without it hurting. (PIC: http://kotad.com/Domination/SNV10366.JPG) The recovery time is normally about 2 weeks so I should be well by my birthday (yay) but yea it was an interesting journey.
The actual surgery was kinda cool to go through awake since I was able to learn more about it and it didn’t hurt a single bit; and the pain afterwards was because Walgreens is slacking on their game. But all in all, it was a heck of a road trip that I hopefully won’t be doing again but I had fun with it and learnt a lot.
I’ll be appearing in a few college papers so that’s cool too.
Advice
Don’t fear the surgery or anything because it’s not painful in the slightest. Don’t watch any videos on how it’s done before or afterwards – before because you’ll probably go in screaming; afterwards because you’ll get the phantom pain. If you’re like me then stay awake for it but you may want to take a pair of headphones along with you. It’s interesting enough of a ride and painless.
If you’re scared then opt for the laughing gas before the knockout; it’ll save you money and it’s kind of a quick procedure for going to sleep.
