That Wasn't So Bad

I really expected to be in the oral surgeon's office for a couple of hours of excruciating discomfort. All those horror stories about wisdom tooth extraction. Turned out that it was over in a matter of minutes.

The worst pain is of course the injections of Novocaine, 4 to be exact. The doctor said I seemed to handle the harder ones better than the easy ones. Maybe I just got used to it. Anyway, I sat there a few minutes expecting the whole side of my face to go numb like the last time I had tooth work done, but he explained that upper teeth are easier to numb and wouldn't be so bad. The most noticeable effect was a loss of feeling in the roof of the mouth - otherwise the cheek, eye, ear, lips, felt pretty normal (ALL those areas were numb when I had lower tooth work done). All-in-all a much more pleasant experience than having a crown which required two separate numbing experiences!

What was a little freaky was the sound of the cracking tooth being extracted. Even with the heads-up that I would hear it and not to worry about it, it's a little disconcerting.

I also have learned that I do not savour the taste of blood. That oddly salty, almost sweet, raw steak quality is decidedly unpleasant. I would not make a good vampire. And a gaping hole in your mouth tends to take a while to stop bleeding, so every 30 minutes or so I change the gauze that I' m supposed to bite down on to apply pressure. SO I'm off now to change the dressing and get ready for bed. SO far not too much pain or discomfort. But I am taking pain killers prophylactically as advised.