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Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Decisions, decisions, decisions!

During the Christmas break I noticed that when I cleaned my teeth, my mouth would bleed. I found where the problem was; way up the back on the left hand side of my mouth. It's where a wisdom tooth is just peeping through the gum. It has never come through any more than 3 little tips of the tooth. The other wisdom teeth have never come through at all.
Naturally the dental practice closes over Christmas/ New Year, so it wasn't until yesterday that I was able to get an appointment.

My lovely dentist diagnosed an infection in the wisdom tooth ( which though a bit uncomfortable didn't warrant antibiotics) and discussed options.
1 Remove the wisdom tooth. This would be difficult as most of the tooth is buried in the gum. After the extraction there would be some discomfort.
2. Instead of pulling out the wisdom tooth, remove the tooth beside it. The benefit of this is that there would be quicker healing after the extraction...less pain etc. Apparently this next tooth is preventing the wisdom tooth from emerging out of the gum and this is the primary cause of the discomfort and also making it easier for infection to invade.
The idea is that the wisdom tooth would then gradually grow upwards in the gum. But my dentist said that sometimes the wisdom tooth doesn't emerge...ever. Another 'con' is that by removing a perfectly good double molar tooth, my lower matching molar would have nothing to match up with, thus affecting my bite/chewing.
By this time my head was reeling with all this information...but I decided on option 1 so on February 1, that pesky wisdom tooth will be history!
So it will be back to that funky waiting room!

PS All my other teeth passed inspection and the 'clean and fluoride treatment' was over in a flash 😁

9 comments:

Jackie said...

Both of our sons have had their wisdom teeth removed as they were causing problems. They said there was a bit of discomfort after but nothing that Tylenol or Advil couldn't handle. Hope you are the same.

God bless.

Kate said...

You are a brave soul - good luck! :)

mamasmercantile said...

Hope all goes well.

Cynthia said...

Ugh -- a rock and a hard place. I hope all goes well and it heals quickly.

Susan said...

Well the waiting room is funky - but honestly that is the only fun thing about this. I won't say "Enjoy" but I hope it all goes smoothly.

Brigie said...

I remember it well. I chose to sit in the chair instead of a full anasthetic and had all 4 removed. I survived, lol. Best wishes to you.

Nanna Chel said...

Maria, wisdom teeth can cause so much trouble eh? My son had all four removed in the chair as a teen. He probably had some Panadol afterwards but was pretty good. All the best and hope there are no problems.

Lin said...

Good luck for the 1st Maria! I have had all mine removed - two by the dentist and two in hospital with no problems so I hope that you have as much good fortune. xx

angela said...

I had to have all four of my wisdom teeth out
I was a big chicken so they put me under and did it
That was many years ago
But I still think it’s the best way