Wisdom Teeth
Posted by Nathaniel.
I had one of my wisdom teeth pulled out almost exactly a year ago. To figure out where exactly the roots of the tooth were going, they did a panoramic x-ray (which showed that it was a simple tooth to extract) and the surgeon said “did you know that you have a huge cavity in your other top wisdom tooth?” In my visits to the dentist over the summer, she confirmed that I was going to have to get that tooth out too, but since it wasn’t hurting and since the removal would hurt, I put things off. (Also, she wants me to get the remaning three wisdom teeth taken out all at once and that requires more recovery time and my bottom ones are doing just fine.)
So, I could have gotten things taken care of last year, but selling the house and moving too precidence. I could have done it over the summer, but I was watching Sarah full time and just didn’t feel like it. I could have gotten it done a couple weeks ago during “October break”, but I had better things to be doing.
Now though, it’s kind of hurting. Well, more than just “kind of”. My mouth hurts! And, of course, now I can’t get an appointment. The surgeon I was referred to does all of his extractions on Fridays, which would work with my schedule. However, he has to do a consult with you first and he only does that on Mondays and Wednesdays when I’ll be out of town. The semester is rapidly coming to a close though and I don’t want to miss any classes because we need to get through all the material for the semester. Of course, if I’m crying and rolling on the ground in a week or two, I’m not sure how effective of a teacher I’ll be.
Now I’m thinking that I should maybe find a doctor here in Walla Walla. Make an appointment for early Thursday afternoon. Get the tooth extracted, give myself 2 hours to clot, and then hop on the plane home. That, however, strikes me as being somewhat insane.
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:19 am Using
Um, yes, getting your wisdom teeth out and then hopping on a plane sounds insane. I’m pretty sure I don’t even remember the 24 hours after I had mine removed, which included throwing up twice, dragging Jerod around Wal-Mart looking for a smoothie & absolutely insisting that we watch Little Miss Sunshine. I don’t remember any of this.
Anyway…I hope you get it figured out and that your mouth stops hurting!
November 4th, 2009 at 7:57 pm Using
Wow, that’s a pretty crazy story Jules – mine was nothing so exciting, but I do agree that there should be a larger time interval between teeth removal and flying. On my brother’s advice I was awake during the process, so as to be able to provide feedback to them and also be less groggy afterwards. Even then it was no picnic and I was apparently pretty goofy for 18-36 hours following the procedure.
But, if the suckers hurt, get them out now. Hopefully you’ve already solved the problem – I’m a little slow to post, being on jury duty kinda limits my interneting. It’s not even that exciting a case, though I’m pretty sure it’s good for at least one post when everything is all done.
November 4th, 2009 at 8:12 pm Using
For the upper ones, I definitely think that novocaine is good enough. It’s a pretty quick thing. When I had the other one taken out I was more scared about the anesthesia than I was the actual pulling. Doing them one tooth at a time, like I’m doing, probably isn’t a great plan. Uppers though only require a few days of recovery, bottoms more like a week. At the moment, I just don’t have a week. The semester is coming to a close and I have stuff I have to cover.
The good news is that I have an appointment with a surgeon to consult on Friday, and then potentially just pull the sucker. If that’s what I do, I have plans for my class on Monday to do an in-class lab activity. I’m going to be a little bit screwed though if I can’t talk for extended periods of time by Tuesday.
Oh, good news number two is that Motrin is very effective on this sort of pain.
November 5th, 2009 at 3:24 pm Using
Ah, shit. It would be my lower ones that seem to be trying to make an appearance. I’m getting twitchy I’ll have to have mine out. I’ve been getting little flashes of pain in my jaw here and there that seem to come from the vicinity of my wisdom teeth, and I can feel them under the gums. On the other hand, sinus pressure can cause toothaches, and my sinuses have been effed for awhile now. Not to mention the occasional pain I’ve had in my ears. Hard to tell. The dentist said a couple years ago that as long as they stay below, I shouldn’t need them out. I need to get in to replace a filling, so I should probably ask if that’s still true.