The last of the wisdom teeth

It was time. My original pain started just before the summer and I had attributed it to my impacted wisdom teeth. But when I went to see the Dentist and got a full mouth of x-rays, she had told me that I also had a deep cavity in a tooth that might require a root canal, on the same side. As the pain got more localized, I got the root canal and the pain went away.

So this is good, right? I don't need my wisdom teeth removed? Except they're impacted and they *will* hurt sometime in the future. Maybe not now, but sometime. So I said screw it and scheduled it for after the summer so it wouldn't interfere with any travel plans I had (Louisiana and Mississippi, W00t!)

I went to the office today and got hooked up, but good. I had had a full set of x-rays done a while back on my mouth but they didn't get far enough back to see the wisdom teeth so the first thing the doc ordered me was another x-ray. This one is cool though. You stand up and bite down on this little plastic thing and they lower these bars on four corners of your head to keep it still. Then they tell you to *hold*, with your arms, a lead vest over your chest. Um...won't my arms still be affected. Hope I don't get arm cancer. And then they stand aside and press a button and this thing sweeps around you and takes a panorama picture of your whole skull. Sweet. Instantly, the image comes up on the monitor and what I found out was that I have two impacted wisdom teeth. Ok, I already knew that. What I didn't know is how impacted they are (or aren't in this case). Both teeth had a gap between the molar, which is why I hadn't felt any pain. The doc said he thought they'd be easier to get out that way even though he'd still have to cut into my gum to make room and possibly break my lower tooth and take it out in chunks. Yummy.

They started an IV drip (an extra expense and worth every damn penny). Within 5 minutes, I couldn't recite the numbers one through 5 and even though I was awake for part of the procedure, I had no clue what was going on and only remember an accumulated 1 minute of things. It was beautiful.

I woke up to the most gorgeous site of Ali (who had come to take me home and take care of me) and my regular dentist (not the oral surgeon) standing over me. Ali is hotter, because she's my girl, but my general dentist is also a super hottie. Wall Street rocks!

I was sent home with pain pills, antibiotics and care instructions. Luckily, my dentist's office is about 75 feet from my apartment, so the walk was just fine, if slow because of the haziness. Ali went out to Duane Reade to fill my prescriptions and buy me some soft foods (Oatmeal, Cream of Wheat, Pudding, etc...). She's pretty much the best, I know.

So far so good. After 7 hours of having gauze in my mouth, it looks like I've formed a nice clot and the real healing can begin. I have swelling and a little bit of pain, but the Advil is helping. I'll keep the Vicodin on tap for when I'm *really* bad. At this rate, I'll be at work on Monday and perfectly fine by next Friday. Crossing my fingers...