Well, my 20+ year streak of not having seen a dentist has been broken. Extreme toothache pain forced me to go in and have a molar extracted. It wasn’t a pleasant experience by any stretch of the imagination, and for the first few hours afterward, I wished an errant meteorite would obliterate me while I practiced tying a noose. Ok, not really, but it hurt like a sumbitch! But now, six hours later, and the pain is all but gone (thanks, Vicodin!) and I’m enjoying my bowl of lukewarm mac and cheese. I have to go back in a week to have the sutures removed. I’m not looking forward to it.
At least the toothache is goone for good. Three days of that was driving me insane.
Three days? Three days? Try three months. I got a toothache back in January. I went to the dentist immediately and they could find nothing wrong with my tooth - even after an x-ray. They sent me home with some antibiotics, and I lived with that pain for three months. It would come and go, but it always came back. The dentist didn’t want to drill into my tooth without knowing the problem, and I wasn’t too keen on that idea either. Finally I couldn’t take it anymore, and they did a root canal. It was a horrible, nasty experience. I hate root canals above anything else. I just had the crown put on Monday, ending my four month long, $2000 journey to the deepest depths of tooth pain horror.
You have to get them removed? When I had teeth pulled (wisdom teeth) they used stitches that dissolved slowly, and they fell out by themselves in a couple of weeks. After all the ouch of the first time, you have to go back to have them dig at your gums again?? That’s just cruel!
Actually, I think it’s a clever ploy by the dentist to force you to go back for the followup visit. Considering I was about ready to do a Castaway (only I couldn’t find any ice skates), it seems a small price to pay!
And Boscibo, I don’t know how you went three months if the pain was as bad as mine was! On at least a couple occassions, it had me on the verge of tears. I can’t imagine enduring that for three months! I’d have been reduced to babbling insanity.
Having the sutures out is no big deal. They just snip them - it does’t hurt. Sometimes they’ll even come out on their own. The worst part of your extraction is over and done with.
As for putting up with toothaches, after the first 2 or 3 one learns how not to irritate the exposed nerves. :o
Mmmm hmmm, my decision to run like the wind when my dentist suggested pulling my wisdom teeth is looking more and more wise. Stitches?! Exposed nerves?! No no no!
I dodged a bullet about 2 months ago. A few days before my 6-month checkup, a crowned tooth became extremely painfully sensitive to pressure, heat, and cold. My dentist referred me to an endodontist for evaluation. I had to wait 2 weeks for an appointment, but in that time, the tooth returned to normal. Had the endodontist check me anyway, and his verdict was “no symptoms, no treatment, keep an eye on it.”
and (((( everyone else )))))
I had problems with my wisdom teeth when I was pregnant with my son. I had to wait until after he born to have them removed. It was a long few months.
As I sit here my body has switched into hyper-sensetive mode. It’s like someone’s scratching fingernails down a blackboard. I can’t touch fabric (I just pulled the end of a fingernail off so now it’s worse) and my teeth are feeling very sensetive.
It could be the teeth causing all the other hypersensetivity. When I leave work I am going to buy sensetive toothpaste, and think about going to my non-NHS dentist.
The title of the post reminds me of that hilarious scene in a Frasier episode where Roz was trying to read the part of a radio play that Frasier had written. She’d had her wisdom teeth pulled and a mouth full of cotton and the phrase that cracked everyone up was “mulppabow murberber” (multiple murderer).
Now, now, ya big baby! Tust me when I say getting ot done sooner rather than later will save you a world of suffering. I could have avoided this whole thing by getting the cavity filled years ago when I first noticed it. Hindsight really is 20/20. sigh
Eek! I’m going to the dentist tomorrow for the first time in 5 years, so I wish I hadn’t read this. Hopefully it will just be a standard check-up and cleaning.
Is this where I sign up for the “Had a tooth pulled this week” club?
No, seriously, I had one pulled yesterday as well. It had BROKEN IN HALF (yeeech) and had an exposed nerve that was driving me utterly INSANE (well, more so than usual, anyway). Called the oral surgeon’s office at 10:00, and they had me in the chair by 1.
They gave me about 10 minutes for the novocaine to take effect, and then started hauling at that tooth with what looked in my state to be a pair of bolt cutters. Bits of the tooth kept breaking off, so they had to go in again and again until, 20 minutes later, they said I was done.
Another 5 minutes to peel my disengage my fingernails from what was left of the armrest and I went to recovery. I finally relaxed enough that I was able to get back on the road by 2:30.
I elected to forgo the prescription that was offered to me (I don’t like to deal with the strong stuff) and came home, doping myself up on a fine cocktail of Tylenol and Benadryl.
Woke up this morning with no pain at all. I consider myself one of the truly fortunate ones.
Yikes, you win! I called around 11 AM, was told to come right in. I got there about 11:20 and was done just before noon. It was just that easy.
Probably the worst moments during the procedure were discovering a couple spots that the novocaine hadn’t managed to seep into. But once those were taken care of it was merely unpleasant.
