Wisdom Tooth Chronicles: Part II

As I was mentioning in an earlier article, the accounts people relay concerning their wisdom teeth almost always seem to have focus on pain, a bad recovery process, or fear going into the chair. I wanted to right the ship in sharing my story that really had almost zero negative aspects other than my own neglect of one wisdom tooth which began to rot. And as you should all agree, this was solely on my shoulders and had nothing to do with the actual extraction process.

So, once I got around to calling my dentist to square away a date and time for my wisdom teeth removal, I felt quite relieved to know that I was FINALLY penciled in to someone’s schedule to take care of this abomination of a tooth.

And then the day came. And it was time.

I’m the type of person that loves to research anything and everything, so I had done my due diligence in poking around the internet for details on the extraction process itself. I asked my dentist everything I possibly could once I had arrived, from things like how it would be removed, what my options with local numbing and even anesthesia were, and how long the recovery process would take. More than anything, I wanted to get those questions out of the way before having my teeth removed because I was fairly certain that I wouldn’t be able to speak afterwards.

That’s one thing that kicked in a lot sooner than I would have ever guessed during the process, though. The numbing. I chose not to go with anesthesia and instead received local and acute numbing around the area and then in the teeth’s roots themselves.

You see, I wasn’t aware that I would have the numbing administered and then have to wait 15 to 20 minutes on my own before the process began. And that was probably the most uncomfortable part of the whole thing to me: having a very numb mouth that felt swollen while I had to wait.

I felt like I couldn’t breathe very well since everything felt fat and swollen and numb. And I felt like anytime I wanted to swallow my saliva, I had a very hard time doing so because everything was clunky. While I knew to stay calm and that it was all a part of the process, I really would emphasize that this was the most unpleasant part of it all that I didn’t really have any warning about.

Wisdom Tooth Chronicles: Part 1

Wisdom teeth stories almost always end up mentioning horror accounts from the chair itself in the dentist’s office. You’ll hear about extreme pain in the extraction process. You’ll hear about people being afraid of the anesthesia if they choose to have it administered to them. You’ll hear about a 2 week long recovery process eating nothing but soft foods and soups, and then you’ll hear more about dry socket syndrome and having to go back in to the dentist to have that looked at.

Basically, you’ll always hear about stories that have really scary implications for those who haven’t yet had their wisdom teeth pulled. And as such, all high schoolers seem to be afraid of the dentist and their wisdom teeth coming in.

But today, I’d like to add a “it really wasn’t bad” story to the pile of accounts if not to reduce the fear everyone seems to have surrounding the topic.

If anything, the worst part of my wisdom teeth was something that I brought upon myself, and that was tooth decay. My bottom right wisdom tooth saw the most action in eating food as it grew in (because I always seemed to chew on the right side of my mouth). Over the years, I wasn’t great at reaching it with my toothbrush and really focusing on it. So, it began to develop a cavity right in the center. I didn’t worry too much about it.

That is, until it started breaking off piece by piece over time. It would become chipped, jagged, and even start to cut into my cheeks because I let it get sharp from it breaking off and not having it taken care of.

It got to the point that it would hurt all the time simply because it was dying tissue. And every single time the tooth cracked off more, it scared me that I would eventually swallow a piece of my tooth, cut my gums or cheeks more, or that the tooth would break off in a way that would be agonizing to me.

So I finally realized that it was time for me to call the dentist, set something up, and go in to have all four of my wisdom teeth extracted. The funny thing was, none of those teeth were impacted or below the gum line. Every single one grew in straight and had erupted just fine. All “should” have been on track to not needing to be pulled.