Dentistry
Last Monday, I came home from work and was greeted with a teriyaki steak kabob and lo mein noodles, which is always a good dinner. I sat down to eat and as I was chewing there was a sharp pain on the left side of my mouth, specifically, from my bottom wisdom tooth. I felt around and couldn’t reproduce the pain, thinking it might be a fluke, I continued chewing. For a moment everything was fine, and then the sharp pain happened again. And again. And again. Soon it wasn’t just the sharp pain, but a dull consistent pain as well.
It got to the point that I couldn’t finish my meal, I instead got up and brushed my teeth, thinking that maybe something got stuck between the teeth or something. After brushing, flossing, and taking an aspirin, I felt much better. I watched TV, did some reading, then went to bed.
At 2:00am I woke up, my wisdom tooth sending waves of pain through my mouth. I tried to sleep through it, but at 2:30 I gave up and got some aspirin. The aspirin did absolutely nothing for me, and I ended up spending the whole night in ten and twenty minute fits of sleep. Needless to say, as 5:15 rolled around, I gave up and got ready for work. I ended up getting to work twenty minutes early, and used the time to see what dentists were around the area.
I called around to five different places until I reached one who could get me an appointment the next day. I was hoping for the same day, but with everyone else making me wait at least a week, I decided to make the appointment. A co-worker handed me a couple Advil in the meantime, which worked much better than the aspirin did, nearly killing the pain completely.
When I got home, Zai made me some ginger and clove tea. Cloves are supposed to be a natural remedy for toothaches, and as after having that tea I had no more pain, I am willing to agree with that.
Myth confirmed, as they say.
The next day I went to the dentist and was greeted by a very friendly staff, who walked me through every step of the process. The office itself was very high-tech, they had digital x-rays that were much more comfortable than the standard ‘put cardboard in your mouth’ variety. Granted, it was still uncomfortable, but much less so.
They found out my wisdom tooth had become impacted and needed to be removed. On top of that, I had plaque buildup under the gum line and needed to get that taken care of. Being as neither the periodontist (gum doctor) or oral surgeon (tooth-pulling guy) were there, I needed to set up follow up appointments. The next day I was to have ’scaling’ done, Saturday I would have my tooth pulled, and Monday (today) I would have a couple cavities filled.
I had one heck of a week ahead of me.
Wednesday I had the scaling done, which was not the most pleasant experience of my life. Basically, they take one of those dentist’s picks, and then start scraping plaque off under the gum line. Even with some topical anesthetic, it hurt. I was offered Novocaine, but I declined on the ground that the concept of a needle in my mouth freaks me out. Though I guess the needle should freak me out less than when the dentist had to use the other end of the pick, and the end that was previously in my mouth had a tiny piece of what I can only guess was blood-soaked plaque on the end.
After I was done, the dentist informed me I had gingivitis, and gave me some steps on how to properly treat it.
Saturday I was to have the tooth pulled, which was a bizarre experience being as I’ve never had a tooth pulled before. I was very nervous before going to the dentist, and downright on edge when I was sitting in the dentist’s chair. Most of that came from the fact that I had no idea what to expect. I could only imagine what a needle in my gums would feel like, or what sort of pliers they would yank the tooth out with. Then I started asking myself questions:
What if he pulls the wrong tooth?
Many times I’ve tried to pull something with pliers and slipped, what if he slips?
How much blood will there be?
How long will it bleed?
What if the tooth slips out of the pliers and goes down my throat?
What if halfway through, the Novocaine stops working?
When the dentist finally came in, it went a lot faster than I thought it would. I saw the needle, but didn’t even have time to think. In a way that seemed almost reckless, he jammed it into my gums about four times in different spots. It was, in fact, a little painful, but I suppose that can’t be helped. He let it numb up then came back and came back and injected some more Novocaine. I only felt one of the injections the second time. After that, he set to work, and it was nothing like I expected.
He took a tool with resembled a nail punch, one of those metal rods that you place one end on the nail and stroke the other end with a hammer to get the head of the nail below the surface of the wood, and set to work pushing my tooth with it. I had no idea what was happening, it felt like he was trying to push the tooth further into my gum, with what felt like enough force to shatter the tooth. I was waiting for the telltale crunch and for blood to start spurting from my mouth. After a few moments of that, he dropped the first tool and switched to what looked like simple forceps, and grabbed the tooth out as though nothing held it in place at all.
I learned later that a common method for extracting is to use pressure to rock the tooth back and forth, loosening it in the socket before pulling, leading to a much smaller wound.
I asked to see the tooth and it was surprising just how long the root is, about three times longer than the visible tooth. I also saw the infection on the tooth, which was not pretty, I was a little sickened to see that that had been in my mouth for that long.
The dentist prescribed me some antibiotics, and some vicodin for the pain. I got the prescription filled at Dominick’s. It was an interesting feeling, for it was the first time in my adult life I had a prescription filled. I ended up not needing the vicodin. As the Novocaine wore off, I took an Advil, and that killed any pain I had. Afterwards, other than a little soreness when I moved my jaw, there was no pain at all.
It’s a good thing I went to the dentist when I did. If I waited much longer, I’m sure I would have been in a much worse state. The dentist told me that an infected tooth could form an abcess, which I’ve heard of people dying from.
So, I encourage everyone reading this, if you haven’t been to the dentist lately, look one up. Even without dental insurance, a checkup is only a hundred dollars (at least mine was pre-insurance). Small price to pay when your health is at stake. Don’t be like me and wait eight years.
Zel-kun out.