Get Even More Visitors To Your Blog, Upgrade To A Business Listing >>

Wisdom Teeth

My wisdom teeth have been bothering me off and on for years but I have never bothered to get them out. About a year ago after starting work at Scotiabank and going to the dentist for the first time in about 4 years my dentist advised me that my lower right wisdom tooth needed to come out. I apparently didn’t have one on the lower left. I was scheduled in to a dental surgeon to have it removed about a month later. After rescheduling a few times and then being booked into the hospital to have all 3 out. II finally had it done March the 28th of this year. I booked it for a wednesday because I was already on a week of vacation and would have a few days to recover. I sick the week before and was concerned I would have to cancel again but as I was feeling better by the time the appointment was scheduled they said I could go ahead. It was a stomach bug about a week before.

My husband only has his learners permit and after booking the day of a few times only to be canceled/rescheduled this time he was unable to come with me. So my mother took me because they have to have someone there with you who can drive the whole time. We got there, parked and went downstairs to the basement of the hospital where the oral and maxillofacial surgery department is located. I am a worrier so the night before I had virtually no sleep and was tired.

We went to see the nurse who asked me about my diabetes, what meds I was on and gave me Amoxicillin and Flagyl (antibiotic) and 600mg of Ibuprofen and sent me to another waiting room. We waited for about an hour past my appointment time when they finally called me for an x-ray.

The nurse then took me back to the room with my mom following and sat me in the dental chair. The doctor came in, he was the head of the oncology department as well as an oral and maxillofacial surgeon. He pretty much got right too it after asking me a little bit about my blood sugar control and if I had my meter with me which I did. He explained the risks which I will be honest I only paid half attention too. I had heard them at my other dentist before they were supposed to do them and then couldn’t. I signed the papers and then he got to work putting in the IV because I chose sedation. From there it is a bit of a blur until I woke up in recovery. I remember asking if the room was supposed to spin and him chuckling and then that was it.

At least I never felt the needles which is my worst fear I hate needles in my gums, it hurts so much and I hate the freezing I have even opted sometimes to go without for some dental work. Anyways next thing I know I wake up in recovery after drifting in and out a bit. They asked if I could walk I said yes and then my mom walked my out and upstairs and I walked to the car which was 5 min away. I felt perfectly fine. I went to my parents place that evening and my parents picked up my husband later at midnight and took us both home. At mom and dad’s I wasn’t the least bit sore as the freezing wore off. I iced my face anyways and took the Pain killers (Ibuprofen and tylenol 3) when I was told to every 6 hours, first one and then 3 hours later the other, staggered like that.

We got home that night I propped myself up on a pillow and slept the whole night, the 2 tylenol 3 I took probably helped as I only took 1 at a time up to that point but following instructions I took 2 around bed time like they said. All the next day, thursday I felt fine. I stayed home, I relaxed on my own, Edward was at work. I watched TV, dosed a bit and played the Sims 3 and 4 some. Friday I was fine I was up moving around drive to get Eddie at work as he worked that Friday. By the time I got home from getting him I was starting to get sore but was still taking the ibuprofen and regular tylenol, switching the regular tylenol up with tylenol 3 only at bedtime at that point. I woke sometime in the night in extreme pain all down the length of my bottom jaw on the right. Top ones were fine throughout.

Next morning, Saturday we called the on call oral surgeon and met him down at the hospital. He said he thought I had something stuck in the socket in the bottom and he irrigated it with a syringe. Up till then I was never told to do that. I think your not supposed to for the first 3 days because of the clot forming. I spit out a lot of blood and I am assuming now looking back that that’s when I spit out the clot, cause apparently I did at some point. He said it looked good to him but because of my diabetes, the fact I was on insulin which makes you more susceptible to infections and the fact I was hospitalized a few months before for a nasty infection for 4 days that he was going to put me on Amoxicillin and Flagyl and told me to keep taking the tylenol/tylenol 3 and ibuprofen and sent me home.

The pain never went away. It radiated up to my ear and all down my jaw and into my throat. I made it to Monday but was in so much pain I was throwing up which was not helping. Monday (Easter Monday) which was a holiday I called the on call oral surgeon again and got a woman this time who told me to come on down and she would talk a look. She said I had an infection still but since I was on antibiotics to keep on them. She also said I had what could have been a slightly Dry Socket. Which she said is really painful but all they can really do is pain management till it heals on it’s own.

She wrote me a note for 10 days off work and packed my socket with something that tasted like cloves and sent me home with instructions to ice it for the swelling, heat for the sore jaw which she said was a combo of the fact my jaw was open during the surgery much farther then it normally would be for a while and also the dry socket and infection and to keep taking the Pain Killers and finish my antibiotics and to come back friday to have the packing removed. The worst of the pain seemed to subside within a few hours but my jaw was still sore, I was on a soft food diet and the antibiotics and ibuprofen were doing a number on my stomach so I stayed home, relaxed and tried to eat what they told me too which I had been doing all along.

All through it the soft diet was a bit challenging because sometimes I could not get enough to keep my blood sugar above 4.6 mmol and sometimes I would have something really sugary like ice cream or yogurt (the non-healthy sugar laden berry flavored kind) which would spike me to 10, 11 or 12 mmol or higher. I felt like crap. But by Friday I was finally feeling better. I went back, saw the same woman, she took it out the packing and sent me on my way saying to still take it easy. I had a doctors appointment for something unrelated with my family doctor but I mentioned everything with my tooth. He looked and said he thought it still looked slightly infected and put me on another round of Amoxicillin and Flagyl just in case.

I was scheduled back to work sunday. All friday and saturday I was fine, slightly sore but okay. Saturday night I got a really bad ear ache which went down again into my throat and I was having an issue swallowing. Looking it up it was the signs of a dry socket acting up which I know I had but thought it was getting better. So I left it, went to bed and work up about 3am in so much pain I was doubled over and could not even touch my face. So sunday morning I called again. Same woman. She told me to come back down.

I did and she said yeah definitely a dry socket and she packed it again with the clove tasting grossness which actually helped a lot. I told her I was still on antibiotics because my family doctor had put me on another round so she said good finish it completely and she gave me another 2 weeks off work. By this point it was 3 and a half weeks since I had been to work. Slowly over the next week the pain and swelling subsided and I went back to work only after one week not two and I worked all week last week with no major issues. A little swelling, bruising and soreness and still now I have to irrigate and watch what I eat but I have not had any pain killers in 3-4 days and am sleeping again through the night (well as much as I did before anyways). I am feeling 98% better. If I move my jaw the wrong way or eat the wrong thing (been eating solid food for the last 5-7 days again) then I get a bit of pain.

I am so thankful they took them all out. I never want to have to go through that again. Good news was was that my work is great and my benefits are great and I got paid for the whole 4 weeks and the whole thing only cost me about $120 for the surgery and all the drugs after because of the benefits.



This post first appeared on A Story About A Girl, please read the originial post: here

Share the post

Wisdom Teeth

×

Subscribe to A Story About A Girl

Get updates delivered right to your inbox!

Thank you for your subscription

×