Wisdom Teeth - The Extraction

I ate a light breakfast, as the dentist ordered, and went with my father to NDC (National Dental Centre). My father went with me as I was still young to sign the consent form. It was to acknowledge that there's a small risk of permanent nerve damage. Along the way there, thoughts of the previous extraction came to my mind; the pain, the inconvenience and the bloody pillow that I will wake up to. Hopefully this time it will be much better.

After reaching there, it looked like I was the first one. My name was called and we went to see the doctor. I was asked to wear this garment, shoe covering, and head covering. Appearently, this is to minimise the amount of bacteria that may go into the air and enter my mouth during the extraction. My father signed the form and waited outside. I went into the surgery room...

The seat was familiar. I was asked to lie down on it while the nurses prepared for the surgery. The dentist injected 3 doses of some numbing medicine into my mouth. Imagine the pain! Steel needles were inserted into my gums five times! The last dose was injected into 3 different places. But I consoled myself saying that it will soon be over. After that the dentist left the room and told me to wait. He wanted the medicine to take full-effect, which will take about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, there were two nurses in the room who prepared the stuff for the surgery. One of them began to start a conversation with me. She asked how old am I, which JC (Junior College) was I from, what I plan to do after NS (National Service)...so on so forth. After all those questions, she told me something.

"Did you know that I was the same nurse who attended to you during your last surgery?"
"Really? Wow...ok."

How could she remember me? I mean she attends to like a few hundreds of patients per month and it was seven months ago since I had my last extraction. I was surprised that she could remember me.

"How can you remember me?"
"Well, you look like one of the doctors here."

Haha...I look like a doctor. Thanks for the compliment. I guess it made me feel good. This is important as I am trying to keep a happy and optimistic attitude before the surgery. By this time, my lower-left part of my mouth (this includes the lips, gums, and cheeks) was numb. She covered my eyes with some kind of cloth and told me to relax. I guess it's to prevent me from seeing all the blood that will flow out later.

"Dr Lim's here and we are going to start the surgery."
"Shucks."

What followed was a gruesome drilling sound that alternated with some scrapping sound. I could feel the dentist yanking my teeth out and I can tell you it hurts, despite the anaesthetic. He scrapped my gums (I think he's actually cutting my gums but can't confirm as I was blindfolded). After a while I could hear some cracking sound (I think it's my teeth being cracked). My whole body was tensed and stiff. I was telling myself that hey, it will all soon be over. The lower wisdom tooth took a longer time while the upper left one took seconds only. The two teeth were yanked out (the nurse had to hold my head steady as he was yanking so hard that my head moved here and there!).

After what seemed like 20 minutes, everything was over. They told me to rest for awhile to get over the shock and trauma that I may have. Then they told me the precautions to take such as:

1. No strenuous exercise.
2. Don't wrap the external part of the extraction site with warm cloth as the swelling will worsen.
3. Don't rinse too regularly as the blood need some time to clot.
4. Brush gently - dental hygiene is still important.
5. Rest.

I was given 5 days of medical leave and I went home. My mouth was still numb, albeit to a lesser extent.

I took porridge for lunch and went to rest. After three hours, the anaesthetic has wore off and the pain came. It's unbearable. I took some pain-killers prescribed by the dentist but the pain was still there. I tried to distract my mind from the pain by reading, watching news, surfing around the blogosphere but it was to no avail. I tried to sleep but the pain was too unbearable. It was only 15 minutes later that the pain had reduced. I googled the pain-killer and found that it's administered for people suffering from menstrual cramps. No wonder it took such a long time for the pain in my mouth (and not some organ that I do not have) to reduce. This time, it was not as bad as the previous extraction as my mouth muscles could move and not slump on one side, resulting in an uneven and scary looking lips.

This was what happened to me so far. Hopefully there won't be any swelling and fever. Wishing myself a quick and speedy recovery.

(Click here if you want to read about my previous extraction.)

Tags: Dental, Extraction, National Dental Centre, Pain, Singapore, Wisdom Teeth