And It's Outta Here!

Warning - if you're squeamish about the dentist, don't read any more.

Today was the day that the dentist extracted that troublesome tooth. It has caused me so much trouble over the years and I was glad that he wanted to take it out. I had wanted it gone for years but my previous dentist wanted to leave it in. I don't know why. I understand wanting to keep your teeth for as long as possible but with all my troubles I think I would have been better off without it.

I was a little nervous going into the dentist's chair this morning but I thought everything would be okay. He said it would be fairly easy to get the tooth out. HA! My tooth had other plans for him. First, it took forever and pretty much the maximum amount of "freezing" (aka Novocaine) for me to get numb. I had two shots (two top, two bottom) in the back of my mouth and we all thought I was numb until he started poking the gum around the tooth. Then he discovered two spots where I wasn't numb so he injecting his freezing stuff directly into those parts. Sounds fun, eh?

So once I was finally numb he started out by removing the crown. Oh yeah, that was fun. It didn't want to come off at first. He did a lot of pulling until finally it popped off. Next he had to remove the tooth. Since the tooth was broken, he had to take it out in pieces. He used the drill on it although I'm not sure exactly what for. With the drill and a mirror in my mouth it was hard to ask questions. The first part of the tooth he removed came out fairly easy so we all expected the rest of it to be the same.

Alas, no, that was not meant to be. He had to pull and drill and it still wouldn't come out. He was beginning to think the root was wrapped around my jawbone. My mom said my dad had that happen with one of his teeth - the root was hooked on to the bone. Finally, just when I thought I'd be stuck with part of my tooth still in there, the damn thing came out. I think the dentist cheered but I'm not sure. At that point I was trying very hard not to cry because even though there wasn't any pain there was a lot of pressure and pulling.

Once he got everything cleaned up I was given gauze to bite on, which is fun to do with a numb mouth and an open wound in the very back of my mouth. No hard foods or hot liquids for today (at least), no straws, no swishing or mouthwash for a while, and an antibiotic to make sure it doesn't get infected. No pain meds - just over the counter stuff unless it gets really bad. I have been trying to eat what I can - yogurt, soft fruit, stuff like that. I did have some soup at supper and that was a mistake. Even though I didn't make it very hot, it was still too hot and made the injection area hurt. Or that could have been because my pain med was wearing off. Either way, I will have to avoid hot things for a bit. Ice cream, anyone?

As far as I can tell, it's actually where he stuck me with needles that hurts. The pain seems to be focused at the back of my mouth where my jaw flexes. Ice seems to be helping until the pain med kicks in. So, what I think both of us expected to be easy turned out to be a pain in the ass. I'm glad that this is the last major work I have to have done - at least for now. In a few weeks I go in to have some fillings redone but he looked at them and said they should be a piece of cake. Mmmm...cake. I think we have some cake. Yes, I'm hungry. This stupid soft food/liquid diet is not fun. I can't wait until I can eat a big, juicy burger again. Hopefully that will happen in a few days.