Very lame but anyway, yup, I took out my last wisdom tooth this morning!
Went for my usual scaling and polishing with Dr T last Tuesday and took an X-ray. Dr S looked at it and into my mouth right after and decided it would not be difficult as the molar had one root and was fully erupted. Then we talked about my kids and her dogs ^_^
I like this clinic - Dr T was my Singapore orthodontist, recommended by my UK orthodontist who was his mentor. I also like this clinic cos it's cheaper than the one downstairs by a good $50! But I must say I like it even more when it was in Orchard.
So I took a smaller than expected breakfast - $3 shrimp dumpling noodles - this morning and headed for the clinic. Dr S went through the X-ray again and started injecting LA. She said the bone was very hard and I thought, you mean the LA goes into the bone?? I could feel her pulling the needle out of the crown later and tried not to think about it.
She said I wouldn't regret taking it out. In between rinses, I told her my only regret was not doing it earlier, like with the other three!
And then the test-pushing... Any pain? No... So she went all in. I was trying to keep still against the strength of the extraction. Some time in, she told me to take a rinse. There was a little blood but I could feel that the tooth was still firmly embedded. Turned out that it was more difficult than it seemed on the X-ray. But eventually, the tooth moved, and once that happened, it came out soon enough. As Dr S stuffed a piece of gauze in, she agreed that I was right - I should have taken it out earlier!
My third molar, about 1.5 cm
I took some painkillers after the LA and before the extraction. But that and the LA seemed to wear off together! I was in pain two hours later and I wasn't sure whether it was the extraction or the ache from biting on gauze. I had naively thought that I could stay on the computer but I had to lie down with a can of cold Coke on my jaw to sooth the pain cos it was still early for more painkillers.
I dozed off and woke to an alarm telling me to change the gauze. Took the opportunity to down more painkillers and the antibiotics. It got less painful in 30 minutes but I could only vegetate in bed. Even child birth was not so unbearable!! I think any issue in the mouth is my biggest bane - extraction, ulcers, nightmares about moving teeth...
I forgot to ask the doc when I took out the other three... Must be before this blog was born? My last X-ray was 2001 so it might have been then though I don't recall extracting them while I had braces... But now that I think a little bit more, I also don't recall taking MC for tooth extraction so 2001 was very probable!
But I remember those extractions! I was lucky enough to have all four wisdom teeth fully erupted instead of impacted. But I had ulcer problems. Dr T found that my upper right wisdom tooth was hurting the gums behind the lower right wisdom tooth, and I had an infection on the gums behind my lower left wisdom tooth.
I took out the infected lower left, which necessitated the removal of the upper left as it would keep growing out without a lower tooth to bite on. Not sure whether I took them out one side at a time or on three separate occasions but I do remember that when the lower left was out, Dr S found that the infection had eaten 2 mm into my gums, hidden by the tooth! Yucks! And she got Dr T to come have a look too *.*
I didn't need to remove the lower right when I removed the upper right so I let it. So for all these years, I had an odd number of teeth: 32 minus four for braces minus three wisdom teeth = 25 teeth. Now I have an even number at last, woohoo!
The biggest challenge, I thought, was dealing with the kids. Dr S told me to try not to talk too much for three days. How to with the kids?! I was able to talk through clenched teeth when the gauze was in. After the last piece was taken out just before the kids came back, I realised that I was so scared that bleeding would come back that I spoke even more funnily *.*
ZK wanted to see the inside but I couldn't open my mouth too big and he didn't know where to look. So I showed him my tooth :p He seemed to be thinking - why does the tooth come out? That doesn't look like a tooth (with its root)... I'm quite sure he'll come into our bed again tonight. Hope he doesn't roll onto my face or kick me!!
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