Wisdom Teeth Pulled Today...discuss

Thursday, March 23, 2006 4:54 AM

Hey all

In January, I went to this oral surgeon place to get an estimate on getting my wisdom teeth pulled. I had gone for a check-up a few months back, and along with a filling, I found out that one of my wisdom teeth had a cavity. They said it would be easier just to pull it instead of drilling it and putting in a filling. So I go to this oral surgeon and he tells me that it would cost about a thousand bucks (the health care plan I'm on at the university should cover about half that) and that the earliest I could get in was May 12th. It was this date that bummed me out because it would mean I'd have to take a day off of work from whatever summer job I got. And we all know that if you're gonna take a day off, it should be near the end of your time, not your beginning.

Anyhow, the place called on either Monday or Tuesday to say that they had a cancellation and that I'd could get in today. I had a lab today around the time they could get me in, but I decided "better now than later" and went for it.

So this morning, dragging my brother along with me (you can't drive yourself after the operation. You need someone to drive you since you'd be pretty out of it), I got all four of my wisdom teeth pulled. When I got out, the bottom half of my face was completely numb, I had gauze shoved in my mouth to bite down on and a bunch of pills to take. As of right now when I type this, I feel pretty good. The numbness and swelling is completely gone, the bleeding's stopped, I can move my jaw around a bit, not sure about the talking, but I can move my jaw around pretty well and was able to talk on the phone. I just have to lay off the solids for a few days and try not to tounge the stitches too much (the stitches themselves are degradable).

But this is the thing I'm most miffed about. At the estimate, the doc told me that I could listen to music and that I'd be under anesthesia. He said that I wouldn't actually be asleep. I got excited, since I figured that this would be probably the only legally sanctioned drug trip I'll ever be on. So today, I came prepared. I had a "psychidelia" playlist on my iPod with The Beatles, Pink Floyd and a bunch of other stuff on there to mix it up. I start the playlist when he administered the anesthesia. I wasn't even done with the Beatles song when I was out like a light.

Or maybe I wasn't. I don't remember a single thing. I remember him taking my glasses off and putting on some bigger ones, looking into the overhead light as I was listening to "Within You Without You", I blank for like a second, I'm on Stevie Wonder's "Superstition", the guy is taking those glasses off and putting my actual glasses back on, there are two things of gauze shoved into my mouth and that's it. The nurse got me up and walked me to a room where I slept off the anesthesia. I don't think I was there for too long, and then they gave me a prescription and I waited in the car while Matt got it from Shopper's Drug Mart. I felt more out of it and trippy on the car ride home than the operation.

I know he said that I probably won't remember a thing, but I was determined to remember and to make the most of it. And that I don't even have a trace of a memory of it is what ticked me off. That I slept through a whole Pink Floyd album while on drugs.

So how about you guys. Any horror stories (or stories in general) on getting your wisdom teeth pulled.

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