Thursday, November 6, 2008

Wisdom Teeth

Tomorrow I will be four teeth less wise. I'm a little worried about what this downsizing of wisdom will do for my aspirations to host an advice column someday, but I'm pretty relieved about the whole Not Having Too Many Teeth thing, because those suckers can be cruel, what with the crowding and pushing and aching and abscessing and all.

I'm not getting the general anesthesia (probably a very UNwise move, but in the spirit of the operation, I think it's appropriate.... and also $600 less expensive, which, you know, wisdom is subjective at that point). I feel that if laughing gas doesn't do the trick, it's only 45 minutes of torture. Put that up against the overtime Eric would have to put in on an already packed workday schedule, and I think you'll see where I'm coming from on this one.

Still, I'm scared about the idea of removing four teeth, the bottom two of which may or may not have nerves wrapped around the roots, and I'm seriously reconsidering the whole thing. I don't know what to expect, and since I've been banned from WebMD or really ANY googling of operations or medical procedures (refer to last pregnancy), I'm just kind of going into this blindly (ha ha).

So maybe, if it's not cheating too much, can any of you now-wisdom-toothless veterans please put my mind at ease with words of encouragement and maybe step-by-step specifics of how the surgery goes down? Bonus, if you did it without being put under. I'm mostly looking for, "You probably won't die, and here's why...."

5 comments:

diane said...

I got mine out when I was 18 over senior year spring break. The oral surgeon asked me "Would you like novacaine, laughing gas, or Demoral?" I emphatically answered Yes. To all three.
The recovery sucked but the procedure itself was fine. It went much easier than when I got my nose fixed after breaking it, which they put me under for and I peed myself. Just noticing a bit of a pattern.
You'll make it. Then you'll be worried about "dry sockets" and sucking from a straw for about a week. The plus size, I mean plus side, is that you have an excuse to eat as much ice cream as you want for an entire week. Then you can be plus size at the end.

Katy said...

This is coming from a recovering hypochondriac. It's a breeze. I was not put under. I only had laughing gas. I think I fell asleep during it, I was so relaxed. I probably snored too. No pain, fast and easy. Then I was worried about dry sockets. I got them after like 2-3 weeks when I thought I was out of the woods. They're not as bad as people make them out to be. You just have to go back to the endodontist and have them checked. No biggie. The worst part was the night after they were taken out. The medication they gave me for pain made my heart race like a hooker in church. That caused anxiety which made it worse (hypochondriac and anxiety attacks are so sexy, don't you think?) So, I just took advil and the like. I realize I'm writing this a day late, but still. You'll be fine, trust me. Don't believe the hype. Oh, and I didn't even swell that bad either. I had all 4 out at the same time and all 4 were impacted. WHEW...

Anonymous said...

I was put under but mine were impacted and I believe there was some cutting going on.The recovery took about a week and I became a big fan of percocet and also got some of the best sleep of my life. I oddly became obsessed with the godfather and coincidently the mafia in general and have no idea if that is a side effect of the drugs given. I also lost eight pounds having to live off of jello, pudding and mashed potatoes.

witticism here said...

Please don't become addicted to pain pills...It happened to Michael Jackson, and you saw what became of him.

Ern said...

Renee, I'm so glad you survived your wisdom teeth extraction. I couldn't read your fans' comments because I got a little light-headed. Scarlet, there was some cutting going on? I feel like I'm going to barf.

I had my wisdom teeth removed and I became significantly smarter since then, in the love-department alone. Is there a correlation between the two?