impacted wisdom tooth bad, tree pretty

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I actually missed three days of work with this thing (fortunately, the place I work has an early-out list, and if the boss has enough extra people scheduled- which he usually does, as no-call no-shows are common and he likes to be prepared- it’s pretty easy to get the day off without getting a sick call on your record, so I only had to call off once). It hurt, it really hurt a lot. I couldn’t chew, swalloing was painful… I was generally miserable.

Thursday I went to an oral surgeon and had it removed. Under local anesthetic- I didn’t know in advance that this would require surgery, so I had eaten lunch that day. No nitrous- a lot of dentists won’t give it these days, because of the health risks involved, which can include miscarriage (like that’s going to be an issue for someone who hasn’t had sex in five years). Like it’s not my decision whether I want to take that risk… I really didn’t want to know what was going on, but, barring that, I really didn’t want to care.

So, I took my walkman along, pre loaded with some nice, relaxing new-agey music, and, while I was waiting for the Novocaine to kick in, I listened to it, breathed deeply, and went to my happy place. Then the dentist came back and tapped me on the arm and asked if I was numb. Once he ascertained that I was, in fact, numb, he propped my mouth open with a big plastic thing and went to work- and believe me, Dopers, when you’ve got a guy going medieval on your jaw with a drill, there is no finding your way back to your happy place.

The tooth came out in five pieces. I peeked under the cover of the tray he put them on and counted. I have stitches in my gum. Thursday night and all of yesterday, I was in a Lortab coma. Finally, this morning, I woke up and realized that, while still a bit sore, I was no longer in hellish pain, and laid off the Lortab. I’m actually healing up quite nicely- been dosing heavily with MSM- which a few years back rescued me from a career-threatening hand injury. I can even eat actual food now!

So, I’ll be back to work tonight, hopefully tokes will be good, I have a few days of lost wages to make up.

2

Any other risks with nitrous? I hope that’s it. I just had my wisdom teeth removed and was put under because one had to be cut out. It was absolutely the coolest visit to the dentist/oral surgeon I’ve ever had. I’d go again. All I remember is watching some kids playing at a Kinder Care and then they went double.

Before the surgery, the techs there told me I’d better get to the drug store to get my pain medicine within an hour afterwards. I could have done without it and only took two pills at it was. I passed out at home though. I was trying to make an ice pack and then woke up on the floor with my head against the oven.

3

I’m glad things went well for you because I had my nightmare of all nightmares when my impacted wisdom tooth was pulled.

Fully awake, not enough novacaine, and done by an Army sadist/dentist right out of Little Shop of Horrors. Intense pain for two days afterwards, even loaded down with narcotics and barbituates.

I wish I could stand nitrous oxide, but it makes me feel like I’m being electrocuted.

Dental phobia? You betcha.