Wisdom Teeth

After my dentist appointment, I scheduled an appointment with the oral surgeon for the following Monday (MLK day if you're keeping up with the exact schedule of events).

When I got there, my doctor said that the pain was in fact, NOT from my wisdom teeth. He said, in not so many words, that dentists get it wrong about wisdom teeth ALL THE TIME. But that I probably should still get them out for these reasons:

1. I was at the prime time in my life to do so. Young enough to not have any extended healing times and to not have any health issues.
2. My bottom teeth were half erupted, so there still was some gums over top of part of them. This makes it really easy to get an infection or something if food gets trapped under the gum. He could have just cut the gums (gross :( ), but they would grow back anyway. (Side note: does this remind anyone else of a lizard who can grow back their tails? It didn't then, but it does now)

So I scheduled an appointment to get them out (I wasn't that attached to them anyway) on Friday (today, for those of you who are still keeping track).

The only thing I was really debating on was whether or not I should be sedated or not. The nervous part of me really liked the idea of being sedated. I wouldn't feel anything. Holland would have to baby me. I would make a really nice viral wisdom teeth YouTube video with all the crazy things that would come out of my mouth. I digress.

But Holland told me that it really wasn't that bad without being sedated. After confirming with Facebook, I decided that I, too, would not go under sedation (mostly to save us approximately $450 - not because I thought it wouldn't be that bad. Plus by saving us $450, I feel PRETTY entitled to buy myself something nice, if ya know what I mean).

The really nice receptionist recommended I not eat or drink anything starting the night before JUST IN CASE I couldn't handle it and wanted to be sedated. It sounded reasonable, so I played along.

To make a long story short, I was really nervous, but I went in today, went under local anesthetic, and got those suckers out.

It was a lot easier than I imagined in my mind. Plus I don't think they even messed with the nerves in my face and left my mouth partially paralyzed. Score for the doctors.

All four teeth took about half an hour to get out. There was some pressure, but all in all, a pretty easy experience for me.

My doctors were really nice and tried to do as little damage as possible. Instead of cutting away the bone around my wisdom teeth or making an incision, they were able to get them all out with relatively little effort. This means that I should have little swelling and perhaps no bruising (although, we'll see on both accounts. I haven't seen anything that would suggest otherwise, but I'm still a little numb).

As you can see, my mental facilities are about the same as they would be had I not had any procedure at all, which is another bonus of not going under.

The doctor, his assistant, and the receptionist were all REALLY impressed that I was able to just take the local anesthetic and not freak out. Apparently, they told me, people around here are prone to the dramatics when it comes to these situations. And obviously, I'm NOT dramatic at all. ;) They even gave me a gold star.

Or maybe I just gave that to myself for the purpose of this post. But... tomato... tomatoe.