Yesterday I was finally able to get to a dentist to have my right wisdom tooth taken out. Due to immune issues and medications my teeth quickly degrade. I will notice a problem and then
sometimes within a month it's a much bigger problem. Anyway, my back tooth developed a cavity then it got worse from there. I haven't been able to get to a dentist until now. I went in and was so excited to have it pulled because it had just started really bothering me. They took the x-ray and did an exam. I could tell by the way the Dentist was looking at his assistant that things were not going to go as planned. He sighed and said that this wisdom tooth is a little tricky. The root has kind of hooked down and around another root and it was right above a main nerve. Not something he would mess with. So he said he was referring me to an oral surgeon. Maybe I should have started out with we were paying for this out of pocket and hearing the words 'oral surgeon' I assumed this would become a MUCH bigger bill. So I was internally panicking that this would not be getting done any time soon.
I was surprised when the dental assistant came back and said they could see me today. They would give me the pricing there but they didn't expect it to be too high. I had to wait 4 hours before I could be seen and in the mean time I was worried I was going to have to pay for them to do an exam then be told it was going to cost $1,000 or something like that and I'd have to leave without having my
tooth pulled (I worried over nothing!). The oral surgeon explained more about what was going on with my tooth. There is a nerve running just below that wisdom tooth (right above the red line I've drawn). It is the nerve that controls the feeling in that side of my face and tongue. The reason the other Dentist doesn't deal with this is because it could get tricky when pulling out my tooth especially if it broke, which they were expecting it to, because they'd have to use a drill and it would be too close to the nerve. It is just something that an oral surgeon deals with. He showed me how much my tooth had degraded - reason A they thought my tooth would break while being pulled. Where it's suppose to be white on the inside like the tooth on the right, mine was almost completely hollow and broken which you can see (where the grey arrow is pointing) because it's black and grey. Reason B is my root had grown down and around another root. The nerves in your teeth should make a H shape which the on on the right does but the one in the back doesn't (see the yellow area). Because of this they assumed that the roots would break off and they would have to end up using the drill. Nothing can be simple right? haha.
Once they numbed my mouth (by the way OW to the needle that went into the exposed nerve!) it took maybe 10 minutes. The tooth didn't crack or break apart so it was super simple. No drill, no stitches! It ended up only costing a little more than I expected but that's because I had to go to two places and not just one. NOTHING like I was terrified of.
Last night I was up every two hours or so because my jaw was hurting so badly. The pain was breaking through the pain medicine and I had run out of advil to combat the in-between medicine pain. However, this morning I am feeling MUCH better! It is amazing how much the pain from a wisdom tooth can radiate. My ear, head, and neck have been hurting for a month or so and already the pain is lessening. I'm sure once I'm all the way healed it will diminish completely. I am so glad this is done and over with!
I was surprised when the dental assistant came back and said they could see me today. They would give me the pricing there but they didn't expect it to be too high. I had to wait 4 hours before I could be seen and in the mean time I was worried I was going to have to pay for them to do an exam then be told it was going to cost $1,000 or something like that and I'd have to leave without having my
Once they numbed my mouth (by the way OW to the needle that went into the exposed nerve!) it took maybe 10 minutes. The tooth didn't crack or break apart so it was super simple. No drill, no stitches! It ended up only costing a little more than I expected but that's because I had to go to two places and not just one. NOTHING like I was terrified of.Last night I was up every two hours or so because my jaw was hurting so badly. The pain was breaking through the pain medicine and I had run out of advil to combat the in-between medicine pain. However, this morning I am feeling MUCH better! It is amazing how much the pain from a wisdom tooth can radiate. My ear, head, and neck have been hurting for a month or so and already the pain is lessening. I'm sure once I'm all the way healed it will diminish completely. I am so glad this is done and over with!
Comments
Post a Comment