EXTRA Difficult Wisdom Tooth Extraction
So I get to the oral surgeon this morning and he puts my Panorex X-ray up on the board and starts to plot out his strategy for conquering my wisdom teeth.First he starts thinking pretty much along the lines I have been thinking since scanning and scrutinizing this thing for several hours since it fell into my possesion on Monday - the tops look like an accident waiting to happen.
Yes, he can pull them, and, in fact, it is generally easier to get out the tops than the bottoms because the bone is softer ...
HOWEVER ...
They're definitely up in the sinuses and they're also somewhat intertwined with the adjacent teeth. Now he said if they ever develop cysts themsevles they might need to come out, but at this point he pretty much concurred with me that the dangers of taking them out now outweighed the potential benefits, so we're leaving the tops in for now.
That was a relief.
Interesting that we reached the same opinion.
"Axinar, DDS" ...
Scares the F*CK out of you doesn't it? :)
Now - onto the bottoms.
Well, the left one looked like it was going to be easier. It was mostly errupted - the front half was way above the gum line.
The right one he had some concern with. It was deeper in and partially entangled in one of the major nerves, but he thought he could get them out.
They hooked me up to an IV and also gave me some nitrous. That hit kind of hard right at first but wasn't all that bad.
Then they started giving me hits of Versed.
I LOVE Versed.
If any of you have the good fortune of ever having to take me through my last days in a hospice-type setting, just have them keep bringing six-packs of Versed until I'm not here any more.
He also gave me a sh*tload of local that knocked out my entire jaw and my tongue.
He started on the left lower wisdom tooth first. There was drilling and pulling and all kinds of rude noises, but, quite honestly, with the heavier level of sedation it was pretty much comprable in discomfort and overall "dentist freak-out factor" to having a large filling. I'm guessing a root canal would actually be a bigger deal.
However, off he went to the right lower.
Now by this time I think the Versed had really hit and I don't remember much of it - but I remember him saying he had to leave part of the tooth because it was so entangled in the nerve.
Of course the right one was actually the higher priority because it had the cyst. Let's just hope in that time that it was open that it didn't have time to pick up some freaky organism that lands me on the news or something.
The right one was SUCH a difficult extraction that he charged me extra for it! Something on the order of $175 extra!
Because they didn't have to give me the stuff that makes you stop breathing, recovery was a little better. It was better even than when I had the steroid shots in my back.
However, I was pretty thoroughly disoriented.
They gave Mrs. Axinar all the recovery directions and off we went for home, stopping at the nearby pharmacy to pick up 'scripts for Amoxicillin, Vicodins, and a Prednisone pack.
Now, I tried to replace the gause but couldn't because I kept gagging. Mrs. Axinar said it was time for them to come out anyway.
A couple of hours later she forced me to eat some angel hair pasta so I could take my Vicodin.
That went pretty much okay, but I can't really CHEW at all just yet.
Worst of the pain so far is that when I try to drink water it gets into the empty sockets and ...
How can I describe this?
Ah, yes ... have someone shove a couple of ice picks in both ears simultaneously and you'll get the general picture.
Bleeding has not been terribly severe - much less than I expected in fact.
So overall we're off to a good start. Hopefully we can avoid dry socket and the rarer complications and be back up and running in a few days.
If not, ladies and gentlemen, it's been a privilege blogging with you ...
Related:
Badly impacted wisdom tooth extraction (not mine) - YouTube
Update:
Wisdom Teeth Extraction And Dry Socket Update - Axinar's
Labels: Dentistry, Wisdom Teeth
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