Friday 29 July, 2005
Hooray
I’ve saved you from describing my two last dentist appointments, but to celebrate the last appointment for a while I just have to open up.
Firstly, I’d like to say that my dentist is absolutely fantastic. She is very considerate, gentle and skillful. I’ve also learned new things – I’ve never had a rubber tent inside my mouth for example… it’s a little piece of rubber cloth that has a clamp in the middle, the clamp is attached to your tooth and it allows the dentist to expose just the tooth they are working on in your mouth covering the rest with the cloth, a bit like the cloth a surgeon would have. Weird, but not too unpleasant.
Today was the first time it actually hurt – my dentist is very thorough with the anesthetic, first a swab to numb the gums so that the shot doesn’t hurt, then at least two shots every time, but now she was going close to a nerve so I jumped when she got too close. She immediately stopped and asked if I wanted more freeze, to which I just nodded – she put in one shot more and then you could have had a rave in my mouth and I wouldn’t have felt it. Still hate the big drill though that makes it feel like your teeth are going to shatter.
But now I can’t feel my face, or even my right ear, and my dentist told me that it will take about four hours to wear off due to the extra shot. Still, it was all worth it as it was totally painless and as pleasant as humanly possible. Glad it’s over though.
I'm still debating though if I should have my other wisdom tooth taken out - I've never had any problems with it, but all my dentists have told me so far that I will. Would it be better to do it now or wait until it hurts?
Posted by kolibri at 29 July 11:09, 2005Wait until you have discomfort or if it causes cosmetic annoyance that you can't stand (pushing on other teeth making them crooked and so on). I have had dentists who have been very pushy about pulling out wisdom teeth (it can be quite expensive) but my current dentist told me there really is no hurry to pull out a wisdom tooth that isn't otherwise bothering you. I will ultimately pull them all out (have only got rid of one so far) but I have other dental business of more urgent nature.
And funny about that blue plastic tent thingy - I had that done to me as well once. Very surgery like. It was used during a root canal ordeal to protect other teeth from the infected tooth. Nasty stuff I know... yuk!
You can't add any more comments, but if you wish you can email the author.