Wisdom Teeth
Subtitle: Sparrow's first and only taste of Valium
another essay by Sparrow
The drugs are worth it, I just wish I still had my wisdom teeth so that we could do it again. I was very poor when I had my wisdom teeth extracted so I went to a "dental college" and had a group of students (they were overseen by a professor) do it for me.
The kids used a Valium I.V. as a sedative and after the first injection they "checked" me by asking, "Okay, we're going to yank your teeth out, do you mind?" I was a little hesitant so they said, "Let's take him down a little," and gave me more. About a minute later I could care less what they did to me. They injected lidocaine to numb the tooth and I heard the "CRACK" when the tooth left the tooth socket but there was no pain. NONE. After I was sore and yes, there was some bleeding. I couldn't afford "proper" gauze pads so they told me to use "feminine products". Yeah, I put cut up tampons in my mouth. It worked.
40+ years later and I can only remember how great it felt to be on that level of Valium. My thought at the time was, "I can understand why so many housewives are addicted to this stuff."
If you're overly concerned about pain they can "pre-numb" the area where they will make the injection. Sometimes that means they will put a Q-Tip (coated with a mild local anesthetic) in place, other times they can "paint" the injection site area. Just talk to your dentist (or Oral Surgeon) beforehand so he can let you know what to expect.
To get the good drugs, you'll probably need to go to an Oral Surgeon instead of a general Dentist. The drug choice is mostly made according to how much anxiety you show, so if I were doing it again I'd be sure to let them know I was really, really anxious [See footnote]. The only "hurt" that I felt was during the 3 days healing process and it wasn't that bad. Your tooth is called "impacted" because it is growing on a collision course toward or into another tooth. Basically since tooth pain is one of the worst kinds (all bone pain is) you can know for certain that it is more painful to leave it in there without doing anything about it.
Here's a link for you to check out: Wisdom teeth removal
Your upper left molar is numbered (by a tooth numbering system) as #16, your lower left third molar is called #17. If it is growing toward the front it is called a 'mesial impaction', growing toward the back would be a distal impaction. When you go to the dentist they will ask you what you're there for. Answer them by saying, "I suspect a mesial impaction on #16." They'll get a big kick outta that. Dentists are easily amused.
:rolling
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Footnote: NOT TRUE.
When I had my upper teeth removed years ago, I was also poor but not so much so I could afford to go to a regular dentist/denturist for the extraction. By that time, I had forgotten my promise to myself, and was a little confused about the pricing and my out of pocket expense so I told him that I'd rather not be put under, that he could numb me, and that I'd like to stay awake for the process.
Half way through the procedure (just like the wisdom tooth extraction but without any Valium) he said, "How are you doing?" to which I nodded and mumbled, "Mmmm, Yi y'ammm m'okay."
To which he replied, "I've never done this with a patient awake before."
---> "Now he tells me."