The moments finally come and gone, this whole dental process started back in January. Then yesterday I finally got my wisdom teeth pulled, I guess you could say I lost some of my wisdom yesterday. 😛 After years of tooth pain I was finally able to go to the dentist back in January, thanks to my dental benefits and some financial planning.
I started off by going to the dentist and getting a cleaning, it’s been eight years since I’ve had a dental cleaning. When I was there, they did the cleaning and X-Rays. They told me that I needed three fillings, two of them were to fix previously done fillings. One filling had fallen off and the other wasn’t sealed properly, which could cause food to get in and lead to further tooth damage. The other cavity was from forever ago, I was pregnant with Keera at the time and I wasn’t able to get it fixed.
Once I got my cleaning done, we discussed my fillings, wisdom teeth, and possibly in the future braces. I’ve had on and off pain in my mouth over the last two years, and strep throat more than a dozen times. That’s the reason why I had got my tonsils removed, despite them being removed I’ve still been getting strep.
My dentist said that it was possible that the strep might be caused by my wisdom teeth, since one of them was growing into my jaw. After I paid for my cleaning, we booked two other appointments for my fillings and I got a referral to an oral surgeon for my wisdom teeth.
I was able to get in for a consultation February 22nd, and just the consultation would cost 115$. Luckily for my benefits, I only had to pay 49 dollars out-of-pocket. The consultation lasted roughly 10 minutes, the surgeon looked at my teeth X-Ray I had brought from my dentist and inspected inside my mouth.
He agreed with my dentist about only removing three out of four of my wisdom teeth, since back in 2012 I got one of my molars removed due to it cracking in half and being unable to be repaired. This way if I get braces in the future, they’ll be able to shift my teeth forward to fill the tooth gap. You wouldn’t even be able to tell that I had a molar pulled out.
Once I was done my consult, I booked my wisdom teeth removal surgery for the closest possible date February 28th. Fast forward to yesterday, I went to work the night before and worked until 5am. I came home and had a shower, then got myself dressed and ready to go. I was told to be at the surgeons office for 8 am. The drive was roughly half an hour away, counting on good traffic I managed to get a full 20 minutes of sleep!
Once I got there I was told that I’d have to pay the cost of the general anesthesia, since my benefits wouldn’t cover it so I paid the 300$. Then the receptionist said that my benefits were tapped out, and that I would have to cover the difference for the tooth removals. Half of the payment would be due right away, and they’d send me a bill via mail for the other portion that I’d have to pay as well once I got the invoice.
In total the cost out-of-pocket would be 1056.78$, on top of the 300$ I had just paid. I was annoyed, but it needed to get done regardless. So I paid the 528.39$, then waited on my turn to go into surgery. I finally got called at 8:30 and I walked into a room with a surgery bed.
They got me to remove my shoes, and lay down on the surgery table. The anesthesiologist explained the risks while some assistance’s strapped my arms and legs down. Then they put some heart rate monitors on my chest, and explained he had to give me an IV plus I’d have a tube put down my throat when I was asleep. My surgeon was there to reassure me that, the process would be over before I knew it.
They told me that soon as I was out of surgery, they’d call my contact so that I could be picked up. I had to remember that I wouldn’t be allowed to be alone for at least 24 hours after surgery. From there everything went pretty quickly, he inserted an IV into my arm and they put an oxygen mask on my face. I was told to take big deep breaths, while they counted backwards from 10 to 1.
The next thing I remember I woke up in another room, as I was waking up they pulled the tube out of my throat. I had to lay there gauze stuffed in my cheeks, then once the anesthesia wore off they slowly got me to sit up and transferred me to a large chair. I sat there unable to feel my face with blood and drool dripping down my chin, watching them waking up other patients.
One by one they were woken up, and had their tubes pulled out of their throats. It’s scary watching them remove a tube from someones mouth, especially knowing they had done that to me. Part of me cared, and the other part didn’t care about anything I was still heavily medicated. At 9:30 my mom got there to pick me up, and I was released with a ton of gauze and a prescription for T3s around 10am.
I was told I wouldn’t be allowed to brush my teeth until at least 24 hours after surgery, and to avoid brushing too close to my stitches. I’m in pain from them removing my teeth, but they also had to cut into my jaw bone to remove one of the wisdom teeth. The silver lining here is that the stitches dissolve, so unless I had complications I wouldn’t have to come back.
I was told I’m not allowed to use a straw until the area is more or less healed, it might remove the blood clots that are supposed to help heal the areas. Since I can’t really chew I haven’t been eating, not that I’ve got an appetite anyways. Since all I’ve been consuming is ice water, my stomach has been for the most part empty. When you take t3s on an empty stomach, it gives you stomach pains.
For a bit I was trying to space out taking my pain killers, instead of taking them every 4 hours I’d wait 7 hours in between doses to avoid the stomach pains. That left me with unbearable pain in my jaw/ tooth area, so I decided to suck it up and make myself a smoothie. Regardless of wanting to eat, I’ve got to try to eat something because I can’t go without the pain meds right now.
I’m hoping that in a few days, I’ll be back to my regular self. I’ve got through having my tonsils removed after all, at least this time there’s no swelling in my throat 🙂
UPDATE:
I was able to finally brush my teeth today, and I’m learning I can’t open my jaw very much which makes brushing difficult. I managed to eat some food, just some eggs and a bit of toast. I can’t chew with my back teeth, so I’ve been using my front teeth which makes the eating process very long as well as painful.
I’ve been taking my pain medication as advised, and drinking a ton of water. Still not feeling good, but it’s only been a little over 24 hours. I’ve mostly slept which brings me to my advice, make sure you place a towel on your pillow. I got blood and drool all over mine. Sorry for the TMI. 😛