Wisdom Tooth Extraction

Major announcement. After over a month of pain and suffering, I'm glad to announce that I got rid of the rascal. Hip hip hooray! I've been suffering from severe pain on my face and skull because of the rascal that grew in the wrong direction. The root was so long that it was very near the nerve and was possible touching the nerve (as per the dentist's explanation), which is why I felt pain. So after over a month of taking painkillers and antibiotics, the swelling sort of subsided. Due to my fear of the surgery and the effects that follow, I decided after massive research and oceans of advice, to get it done at the hospital.

Finding a good dentist was the next problem. I wonder how people in this forsaken land deal with teething (dental) issues? Or do they not have any? So I asked around and did a lot of lookup online and found some reviews that said that the doctor at Adventist Hospital is good. So I muster up my courage to go to the dentist for the surgery the minute the swelling subsided. I admit I'm a wuss when it comes to dentist. I am scared of the whirring sound that the equipment make. I'm scared of being lowered backwards on the chair (don't ask me why. I'm just scared. I'm scared of rocking chairs too). I'm scared of the pain that follows the drilling and whatever procedure that they do to the teeth. I suppose my teeth are just extremely sensitive and it hurts like crazy when the dentist are rough and unprofessional. It could also be a phobia that was developed since small due to horrible experience with lousy dentists.

I made an appointment and headed to the hospital. The hospital is seriously messy. Not to mention parking is horrendous. I circled the area four times and finally found a spot outside the hospital grounds and had to walk quite a distance to get to the hospital. The receptionist at the dental department were seriously inefficient. They took donkey years just to register. Like how hard is it to type as per the form that patients were make to fill up? It's not like they have to come up with programming language to key in names. That took over half an hour.

When it was my turn, I walked into the dentist's room. The dentist was still talking to the nurse about some other patient's file when I walked in. He briefly greeted me and carried on with his conversation. The room was tiny and there wasn't much room to move about. There was a big door that is quite a nuisance cause when I was standing there waiting for the dentist to entertain me, a woman presumably a nurse from the hospital from an earlier case dashed in. She didn't knock on the door or anything but just pushed open the door. As I was standing there I had no choice but to move further towards the end of the room because she decided to just barge in. After seeing me standing like a lost child in a crowd in front of him, he turned his conversation to me. He asked me some questions. I told him about my severe chest pain as a result of taking the medication prescribed by another dentist. He asked to see the medicine and was rather perplexed as to why I had such symptoms after taking them.

After some talking, he asked me to get on the the dentist chair. Gulp. He took a look at my tooth and then the nurses started bringing out a box wrapped in green paper, and placed it on the chair rest (table? whatever that thing is called). The part where the dental tools are. He asked me " So do you want to get it done today? Before I could answer, he added, "Since you are here, might as well get it done. I don't want to do halfway. I want to go all the way". I just sat on the chair and obeyed and let them do whatever they have to. The nurses started to drape my chest with a piece of tissue. The dentist told me to open my mouth and he took up a small bottle and sprayed into my mouth. He explained that it will sting a little. Immediately, I felt my gums and tongue sting and it got really bitter. that was only on one side. He propped the chair upright and started talking about the earlier case to the nurse. After a while he asked if I felt numb. I said yes. He asked something which I can't remember but I asked if I can rinse. He said after the jab. He then lowered the chair again, he picked up a metal syringe and injected my gum. He explain that it might hurt a little while injecting. I felt a little sting on the first jab but not the subsequent ones. After that he propped the chair up again and said I could gargle. After a few minutes he asked if I felt numb. I told him just a little bit. He touched my lip and ask do I feel it. I told him yes. He touched the other side of the lip which wasn't injected and then touched the side that was injected and ask whether i can tell the difference. I said I can still feel and it is not numb. He told the nurse to get another dose of anesthetic. He lowered the chair again and injected the gum again.

After about five minutes or so, he started the surgery. Panic. He opened the green wrapper and took out the tools from the metal case. The clanging sound of the equipment make me panic but I tried to remain calm. Kept telling myself not to be a wuss. Just close your eyes. He the placed this rectangular piece of plastic on the other side of my mouth and told me to bite on it. I did and told but i find it hard to breathe so I told him I can't breathe. To which he replied, "Your nose so big you can't breathe? This is just psychology". He removed the plastic piece from my mouth and proceeded with the extraction. I could feel him tugging hard a few times with some metal tool. Then I heard whirring sound. He said he is going to cut my tooth. Panic. I heard whirring and sound of cutting. I felt the pressure but didn't dare move a cell. I clench my eyes shut. Then I heard suction sound, whirring, tugging and some fluid got into my throat so I said to him "water in my throat". He told me to spit it out and gargle. When I did as told I saw some blood. The nurse quickly told me to wipe with the tissue. She saw some blood on my face and wiped it for me. Luckily there was no mirror around. Otherwise I would have had a panic attack. When I lie back down, the nurse console me by saying "Just relax". Then the dentist said " Just swallow". He seemed a little annoyed. He continued tugging and digging. All the while I heard was the tugging, digging, sawing and suction. I dare not open my eyes. At some point, I did feel something. I was possibly pain but I couldn't quite tell. I was mentally telling myself that it will be over soon, just bear with it and don't be a coward.

After a while I felt something brushing against the side of my lip. I brushed several times. Then I felt and heard something hit my upper tooth. The dentist continued whatever he was doing, which I wouldn't know and would never know since I closed my eyes the entire time. The he stuffed something into the now "vacant" area and told me to bite hard. I finally felt some pain. He then propped the chair up. And it was out. He didn't show me the extracted tooth. I saw him throw stuff into the dustbin. I presume it was my tooth or should I say fragments of my tooth since it was sawed into pieces in order to be extracted. I never got to see the rascal that was nestled in my gum for so long. We didn't get to say hello nor goodbye. A part of me was just thrown into the dustbin. All that was done in under 30 minutes. He then told me that he would prescribe me some painkillers and antibiotics to prevent infection. I asked him what time should I start taking the the medicine. He said not so soon since I have extra jab of numbness. He said after about two hours and another before I go to bed. With that I thanked him and head to the payment counter.

The whole extraction took less than 30 minutes. The wait for the payment and medicine though took almost an hour. By the time I got home, it was time to take the medicine. So I took the medicine, Shortly after, I felt pain on my gum. The pain got serious. Screw those who say that I doesn't hurt a bit. It hurt like hell. I had to keep using Ice pack and kept spitting out pools of blood. It was torture. I couldn't swallow as the motion of swallowing affect the wound. I went to the dentist with a half empty stomach because I couldn't eat. I ended up not eating anything after the extraction because it was so painful. I even teared. The remainder of the evening was spent spitting out pools of blood and sticky saliva and changing gauze. I even swallowed medicine while biting onto the gauze. It's fortunate I didn't choke. I could hardly sleep the entire night due to the pain as well as the drool. Each time I lie down, I would drool pools of bloody saliva. I used up all the face towels to soak up the bloodied drool and had to resort to using bath towels, as there weren't any face towels left.  The following day was the same cycle.

After four days, I still couldn't chew properly and am still in pain. I took my medication and did everything diligently but don't know why it still hurts like a bitch.I haven't been able to eat before the extraction due to the extreme toothache. Yet after the the extraction, I still couldn't eat. I have not had a solid meal for over a month. How much longer must I suffer? Not only am I suffering from the pain and being unable to eat, I'm also a thousand  $$$ poorer because of this tooth extraction.

At times like this, insurance is of absolutely no help as dental is not covered. Wonder why we bother getting insurance?