As with most people, I started getting my wisdom teeth when I was a teenager. My dentist recommended that they be pulled because I have a small jaw but normal size teeth. In other words, there wasn’t much room for these new teeth to fit! I was young so I didn’t think much of it at the time, although I had many friends getting it done. My mom decided not to have my teeth pulled, and I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to deal with the surgery. Later on, I would regret that decision.
If you are going to have teeth pulled, the earlier the better! As you get older you wisdom teeth can form around nerves making complications easier. Wisdom teeth can cause problems when they come in crooked – they can crowd the other teeth and the jawbone. They can cause problems with the teeth that they are next to, cause alignment issues and decay. Sometimes wisdom teeth are impacted, where they are partially or completely trapped in soft tissue or bone. These teeth are hard to brush and also allow for infections to come in thru the openings they create.
I recently saw my dentist again, who is a fairly new one. As I got older I got my own insurance but had other bills to pay, and so the surgery was put off again. Really, I let it go to the back of my mind. I never paid much attention to my wisdom teeth. I figured I’d had them this long, so it didn’t matter. I didn’t realize what kind of complications could be associated with them. A few months ago, when I saw my dentist, he recommended I have my wisdom teeth pulled. At this time I was surprisingly getting another tooth. I thought I was done, considering I’m 25! So this was my 4th wisdom tooth. My dentist said he would send a claim to my insurance and I would hopefully get to see a specialist soon and have the teeth taken care of. No rush, I told him. The thought of having teeth yanked didn’t thrill me. I thought back to my best friend from high school how had it done and ended up looking like a chipmunk for over a week. School is a lot easier to make up that work is! I would have to take time off for this, as well as pay the bill!
Well, the claim went thru and I was approved to have my 2 lower wisdom teeth pulled – one of each side. The left was impacted into the jawbone, and the right was the one barely peaking out. Time to put on a brave face…and then turn into a chipmunk. I spent a couple weeks scaring myself by reading stories online about people who had already had it done, as well as going to question and answer sites. Maybe ignorance is bliss, but I wanted to be prepared!
I made my appointment and informed my work what was going on. Luckily I have a good job with leave benefits and decent insurance. The bill would still be almost $300.00, but that was a lot better than paying out of pocket. I set my appointment for a Friday morning, figuring I could use the weekend to recover. They asked me my preference for the procedure – basically, did I want to be awake or not. I could choose to have an intravenous sedative, where I would be put to sleep for the procedure, or nitrous oxide (laughing gas), where I would be aware but have the feeling that I didn’t care what was going on. I chose the latter, to the dismay of my friends, who thought that it would be better to not have a clue what was going on. I have been knocked out in a car accident before though, and I don’t like the feeling of time passing and having no memory. My dad said that if the nurses thought I would panic, they would still want me to be put down, but I said I could handle it!
The morning of the surgery I was allowed a light breakfast but no dairy. My dad drove me to the appointment because I had a feeling I would not be up to driving afterwards. I wasn’t restricted, because I wasn’t being sedated, but I figured better safe than sorry. The first hour I was there I had a lot of paperwork to fill out – my medical history, agreement to trust the dentist’s judgment, understanding that there could be complications, etc. I also watched a video about what was going to happen and it explained what types of complications that could happen and I had to initial a checklist about everything I saw. Then, after reassuring the nurse I was okay with only having laughing gas, I was sent back to the waiting room to pay the bill up front. A few minutes later, I was escorted to the surgery room.
I laid down on the bed and the gas mask was placed over my nose. It took affect fast – a strange feeling of calm and dizziness. The nurse was talking to me, asking me silly questions, and seeing how I was feeling. I started to feel nauseated so she gave me more oxygen and less laughing gas. Soon they put some numbing gel on both sides of my mouth and let that sit for a few minutes. The dentist came in and checked on me and left for a couple minutes. I wasn’t feeling completely numb and was starting to worry about that. I let the nurse know as well as I could, and more gel was put on. Soon the dentist came back, and the procedure began. I felt a bit of it, being that I still didn’t feel completely numb, but it wasn’t terrible. He started with the tooth that was only peaking out. I felt a lot of tugging and wetness in my mouth. They used a little hose, like at a regular dentist, to clear my mouth out. The other side was the tooth that was impacted into my jawbone. I knew from the video that I was about to be drilled. It was loud and uncomfortable but it wasn’t awful. It actually went fairly fast. Once that tooth was out, gauze was placed over each hole and the oxygen was fully put on so my head could clear.
The nurse walked me back to the waiting room. I stopped and glanced in a mirror on the way out. I had to be honest with myself – I looked terrible. My cheeks were puffy from the surgery as well as the fat amount of gauze in my mouth, I had blood on my lips, and I looked dazed and trashed. They handed me a prescription for pain medicine and my post-operation instructions and then my dad and I were on our way. All I wanted to do was go home and hide from the public, but we had to head to Kaiser for my medicine first. All right, I thought, let’s get this over with. We went to the pharmacy on the 3rd floor because it’s usually not as busy and I tried to ignore the looks I was getting. Once my name flashed on the screen, I tumbled over to the counter and found out that Kaiser didn’t cover the particular medicine my dentist wanted me to have. At that point I just wanted to leave, so I handed over my VISA and we went on our way. My dad stopped at McDonalds on the way home for a couple of milkshakes, since that was one of the only things I was allowed at the moment, and then we finally got home.
The first couple of days were brutal. I followed the instructions carefully. The first thing I did was change the gauze. They had given me a pack and I was supposed to change it every 30 or so minutes. I then tried to take a pill with the milkshake. I was still numb, so most of it went down my face. I held ice packs to my cheeks for 30 minutes on, 30 minutes off for the next few hours. I tired to sleep, but was bleeding so much that I was choking. My parents went and bought me more gauze because I went thru the pack so fast. The instructions also stated to only eat soft food once I was able to, for the first few days. I was not supposed to use straws, smoke (I don’t anyways), and I had to rinse with warm salt water 3 times a day.
I was extremely miserable throughout the weekend. I was so sick to my stomach that I couldn’t keep the pain medicine down. I also developed a migraine, which I am prone to, but I couldn’t take anything for it. I bled a lot, and even tried the tea bag remedy they mentioned – put tea bags in place of the gauze and it would help clot the blood. My face was swollen and sore. I couldn’t talk, since my jaw didn’t feel like moving. The dentist had stretched my facial muscles out in order to drill my tooth out.
I called in sick to work on Monday. Once I was able to, I spent most of the weekend sleeping. I was still exhausted when Monday rolled around, and I was barely starting to eat again – still only soft food. My mouth had a nasty taste in it, and I was still bleeding. They had told me that I should only bleed for a couple days, and also to look out for signs of infection. I was a bit worried but stuck it out.
Tuesday I went to work but I still wasn’t running at full capacity. I was tired and every movement made my face hurt. I was still bleeding too. My follow-up appointment was scheduled for Friday but I didn’t want to wait. I called and let them know what was up and they said to come in the next morning. Wednesday I went back to the clinic and saw a different dentist since the man that preformed my surgery was on vacation. He mentioned that I probably should have been given stitches, but the other guy didn’t like to do that. He said that the nasty taste was just from all the blood, and that I was probably going to have a slower recovery since my holes didn’t seem to be closing very well. He said to come back the following Friday and see the other dentist, and then I was sent on my way again!
The next week, as I recovered, I started to branch out and eat some actual food. My jaw was still pretty sore, so I took Motrin to help with the pain (I was out of the other medicine by then). I was started to talk better, now that my facial muscles were working again. I was in for a surprise a few days later, when my mom and I went out and I actually got some real food. In the middle of having lunch, I got a Chinese food noodle stuck in one of my holes! I had heard that could happen, but was in shock! I had no idea what to do! I couldn’t pull that slimey thing out and I didn’t have any tweezers or anything. We went home right then, and I spent a few minutes messing with it until I was able to pull it out. I was so embarrassed! Later I found out from a couple of my friends that I should have been given a syringe to help clear out the holes. Figures I wasn’t in the know!
Once Friday rolled around I was pretty irritated. Two weeks had passed since my appointment and I still had fat holes in my mouth and I had to buy my own syringe. When I was the dentist, I asked him why I hadn’t been given stitches or a syringe. Well, basically he told me that it wasn’t his preference to give stitches and then handed me a syringe. Now, I know I’m no expert about dentist procedures, and I signed those papers saying I trusted their judgment, but I wonder if I wouldn’t be healing better if things had been done differently!
At the moment I’m typing this, it has now been 2 and a half weeks since I had the 2 teeth pulled. I still have a little bit of jaw pain here and there, but it is bearable. The holes are still back there as well, but it’s become a common part of my day to just use the syringe and clean them out. I can eat just fine, brush my teeth just fine, and am sleeping better. The worst part is done, and now I will just sit back and wait for the holes to close!
