I had my last wisdom tooth extracted today. When I had the other three removed (third one about 30 years ago) I was told this one could be left alone because it lay sideways, remained buried, and posed no problems. A year ago my dentist noted a corner of that tooth was now exposed and, because it couldn't be reached to be brushed, would eventually get a cavity. He referred me to an oral surgeon who said I could let it go for a year, but I could get into trouble in the second year. So I scheduled a date (well) after the end of the school year.
If you are at all squeamish you have my permission to stop reading now. Just ignore the rest of this post.
Though my appointment was for 1:45 I didn't get out of there until 4:00. Part of it was delay in starting the process, part of it was waiting for the local anesthetic to kick in. He even had to stop and give me more and let that take effect. It wasn't a case of grabbing the tooth and yanking it out. Most of the work was in drilling it out, or at least cutting it into pieces. That took a while.
I now have pain pills, antibiotics, and a mouth rinse I start using tomorrow. Food needs to be soft, and while I like that the assistant suggested ice cream, that might play havoc with my weight. Sigh.
When I was young cartoons and comic strips would indicate a toothache by showing a person with a piece of cloth circling the head chin to crown. I have one of those now. It's a sleeve to hold an ice pack.
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