So, my wisdom tooth in the bottom right corner has not been growing straight. The root right next to a nerve and the upper part of the tooth not coming out in a good way. Even though my dentist in Spain told me I should take care of it – and with care, it wasn’t until recently it started to get painful.
Fast forwarding to now, me and my wife booked an appointment for X-ray scan and then were sent to the surgery specialist at the university dentist. Let’s just say none of us expected what a ride this would become.
We come in, finish the formalities and explanation of the issue and get ready to sit down and starting the process of taking shots of anesthesia. Moments later, due to needing to many shots, and due to being so scared of syringes I got pale, almost fainting and almost getting a fever. I was cold sweating all of a sudden. On my arm I could see sweat all over it even though the room was very well air conditioned. This happened to me before in Kyrgyzstan when I took a blood test. Back then I opened my jacked in the cold minus-degrees weather and kept my head low as everything was spinning for 10 minutes. I knew I needed 10 minutes this time.
My amazing wife went to buy me water while I kept telling the dentist “wait wait”, “I need 10 minutes” and so on when he asked me if I’m ready. Seeing my wife again somehow made me feel better and drinking the water helping too. I was ready for fight in the matter of seconds.
This is where it really started. They cut open all the meat of my gums to get a good view of all of the tooth, they broke the crown off, which I noticed later they do because breaking the teeth into many pieces makes it less dangerous to pull out the last part that’s near the nerve. After having pulled out about 3 pieces of the tooth in brutal battle, they were sweating, telling us that my bone is really strong and root is really deep. This is about 1 hour into the mission to get the tooth out, with constant trying.
Last phase was the frustrating part where the dentist lost hope. He didn’t want to try harder to get the last bit of the root near the nerve. It was dangerous he said. My ferocious wife told him strictly he can’t give up. Leaving a part of the tooth in there will just lead to more problems in the future she said. Besides I would still be left with the same pain but no solution. He gained confidence and kept trying with the assistant who kept guiding him, and him guiding her in what started to become a battle of truth.
They kept pulling, changing sides, pulling more and “sighing” and remove sweat from their foreheads. We had all lost hope, but it was actually the dentist who stepped up with the challenge and actually managed to get the last bit out after about 1,5 hour of continuous work.
I thought the dentist was not doing a good job when he broke the tooth into pieces, as I thought he could get a better grip on the tooth if it was whole. I only thought about it later that he did it to protect the nerve. I also thought he didn’t do a good job giving us assurance that he’d be able to do this successfully, but looking back it was all so difficult that you need to be world class to pull it off. I thought he wasn’t patient enough when I was feeling sick in the beginning, but he did that only because the anesthesia will slowly go out. In the end I has severe pain even with the anesthesia, so it’s fair to say his calculations were right. The dentist and his assistance did a great job. I joked with my wife and said they could even put this experience on their CV after this. Seriously, true heroes.
I got everything stitched up and continued about, feeling really horrible for the remainder of the day. The valley they had dug wasn’t small to say the least. One thing I learned that day is that I’m actually not scared of the dentist or anything, except the syringes. It’s clearly the worst part of it all.
They also gave us the best prescription drugs. This is the best antibiotic I ever tried, which actually doesn’t give me bad stomach pains and doesn’t make me too groggy or sleepy. The pain killers are also doing their job. Last time I pulled a wisdom tooth I was bleeding for over a week since they didn’t stitch it, and it was a horrendous pain for over a week that extended to over 2 weeks as the pain reduced.
Looking back these experiences has been absolutely crazy. Wild experiences I almost can’t believe I’ve been a part of. That I am the “victim” and that I have been so close to disaster. I will be suitable to end this article with a “LOL”.