Tooth Extraction (Part 2)

Don’t read this if you dislike the dentist already and/or a bit squeamish!

Yesterday was my second trip to the dental surgeon for the removal of the wisdom tooth on the right side – you can read about my left side here. I’d got one of the first appointments because I didn’t want to be stuck waiting if he was running late, he was actually running 15 minutes late which was annoying.

The set up was very similar to before i.e. just like a Dexter style ‘Kill Room’, and the surgeon had me on the chair and injecting my gums before I knew it. He had mentioned before that this tooth removal was ‘surgical’ as the wisdom tooth was very much stuck in my gum. I had no idea what a ‘surgical’ extraction was, there wasn’t really time to ask either, he was ruthlessly efficient!

I shut my eyes tightly, gripped the arm rests and braced myself, the anaesthetic numbed the area beautifully, I couldn’t feel anything, but – the sounds – oh the sounds they’ll haunt me forever. The tooth appeared to be tricky to pull out, he’d drill, pull, then CRACK! Pull a bit more, drill some more, pull and CRACK! After each crack noise I was hoping for them to stop… They didn’t until crack no. 4. I was happy to think it was over..

It wasn’t!

He needed to stitch my gum, I stupidly opened my eyes to see a needle and thread entering my mouth.

‘Open wider’ he ordered..

FUCK! Why did I open my eyes?! I tried hard to open my mouth further, it was so numb and achey for being open so wide, for so long (seriously women and gay men, much respect!). I didn’t feel him stitching away, well aside from a swift pull with each stitch *shivers* (I assume the stitches make it ‘surgical’). They took off all the protective covers from me and the nurse smiled and said ‘All done!’

‘Thank fuck!’ was all I could muster.

I was given some care instructions, and a prescription for two lots of antibiotics, I thanked the surgeon and nurse and went to the waiting room where Loz and J were waiting. I waited at the reception to pay – I’ve never had surgery like this before – I was wondering how much it would be. The receptionist smiled, I gave her a wonky smile back..

‘Do we need to see you again?’ she chirped.

‘Urrrgggh-No’ I dribbled.

‘Okay, that’s fine..’ she replied, I plunged my hand in my pocket for my wallet, winching at the price she was about to give me.

‘Well there’s nothing for you to pay’ she finished.

When someone says something like that to you, I’m smart enough to know you don’t ask questions, I just nodded and said ‘Excellent!’.

I do love the NHS! Hopefully that’ll be the last tooth extraction I’ll ever need!

*Crosses fingers and brushes teeth*