Today, I had one of my Wisdom Teeth extracted. This little bugger was the only one that didn’t want to grow in properly. The other three had grown nicely into place, but this guy wanted to grow back and out. Of course the other molars didn’t want to share the gum line with it so it couldn’t grow properly. So it decided it would get its revenge.
I went to get it removed today and everything started off fairly normal. I sat in the waiting room and read an Entertainment magazine interview with the cast of The Avengers. I had left my Dresden Files book at home. (I really need to write up a book report on those). So nothing super entertaining to do. Then I was called in.
I sat in the chair and they began to apply the local anesthesia. When they finished, they left me in the chair. Alone. By myself. So I got to contemplate the coming “procedure” while the anesthesia took affect. It was interesting as I noticed my tongue and gums getting number and number (that is how you spell “more numb” right?). Eventually, I got to the point where if I bit down on the left side of my tongue I could feel the pain like normal, but biting the right side of my tongue produced nothing other than a feeling of distant pressure.
Then the “Good” Dr. came back. Then the real “fun” began. I never really felt any pain during the procedure, but I did feel a whole lot of pressure. There was pressure on all areas of my mouth as the Dr. worked and worked at trying to get it out. The whole time I was sweating as he pushed and pried and pulled. The whole time I could hear scraping, and chipping and cracking sounds. It was horrible. I had never heard anything so unpleasant. I could do little but close my eyes, clench my hands together and cross and squeeze my legs.
It went on for what seemed like forever. The Dr. switched from tool to tool as he tried to get the tooth out with little to no success. Eventually, it popped. It finally came out. He then showed the thing to me and told my why it had such a hard time coming out. Its three roots were all growing in different directions and were each curled as well.
Paint this guy green and call him "Baby Cthulhu"
I don’t think I have ever had such a harrowing experience in my life. I thought getting cavities filled was bad. That is a cake walk compared to this little extraction. However, I don’t think it will always be the most horrible experience I will face. I am sure something much worse will come along. But I still wouldn’t want to relive it. Once is enough.
