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Snippets of life

The Wisdom Teeth Drama

I just had my wisdom teeth removed yesterday, and it wasn’t without a lot of stress and pain.

I’d known for years that my wisdom teeth had to be removed at some point, but I kept postponing it out of fear of the excruciating pain. I’d seen what my sister went through when she had hers removed, and I could still see that image vividly on my mind now.

A few weeks ago, my gum got swollen and apparently the partially erupted wisdom tooth trapped food debris under the gum, causing infection. The pain was so intense that I couldn’t even open my mouth to speak or eat. Right then and there, I decided to get a surgery soon, as I knew the pain would come again at some point until I got the tooth out.

A visit to the oral surgeon revealed I had 3 wisdom tooth at the most unfortunate angles/positions. One was partially erupted, another was horizontally impacted, and another one was positioned right under the sinus cavities. The surgeon decided to remove them in 2 surgeries, and I was scheduled for the first surgery only 2 (two!) days after the initial consultation.

From the moment I heard I was gonna have a surgery in less than 48 hours, I started to feel stressed out and anxious. In those 2 days leading up to the surgery, I only had 4-hour sleep each day. It also didn’t help that my period was coming very soon. The day of the surgery, I woke up feeling lightheaded and… not ready. In retrospect, I should’ve told this to the oral surgeon.

Now, it might be one of those things or the combinations of those, but as soon as the local anesthetic was injected, I started to feel nauseous. The room was swaying and I saw dark spots, exactly the feeling I got before I fainted a few months before. I told the surgeon, and he decided to wait for a few minutes until I felt better. I didn’t. Instead, I felt worse and started to throw up, and it somehow triggered period cramps, even though I definitely wasn’t on my period that day. The surgery was canceled. Apparently, I had adverse reactions to local anesthetic, which could sometimes happen. My surgeon told me it was a psychogenic response as I’d had fear and anxiety after seeing my sister previously.

There was no other way than to go under general anesthetic, so we re-scheduled and I finally had the teeth removed yesterday. With the general anesthetic, there was more hassle (what with the x-ray, lab test, etc.), but I’m glad I went this way. I’d rather be unconscious when the oral surgeon slit open my gum, cut the teeth into pieces, pick those pieces up and stitch my gum. I was wheeled to the surgery room yesterday morning, and I remember seeing a mask in front of my face. The next thing I knew, I woke up feeling the back of my nose was a bit sore (and later, the throat as well), which I guessed had something to do with the intubation. Funnily enough, I couldn’t feel anything in my mouth and I was sure the surgeon hadn’t really performed the operation (anesthetic could make you stupid, indeed).

As for know, my face is a bit swollen but the pain is manageable, thanks to the painkiller administered through an IV. I’m dreading tomorrow though, when I’m off the IV and have to take the painkiller orally. I’ve been told that it’s not that effective.

Bless you, whoever invented anesthetics and painkiller.

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10 Comments

  • Reply Crystal@TheLeidener

    I also experienced the same thing! Dua hari lalu ada sisa makanan nyangkut di gigi bungsu yang udah “agak” bolong. Sakitnya minta ampun, akhirnya aku bangun jam 3 pagi dan gosok gigi lama banget sampe sisa makanannya keluar. Akhirnya keluar juga dan bisa tidur lagi :))

    April 7, 2017 at 6:01 pm
    • Reply Dixiezetha

      Aah ga kebayang, ngebacanya aja ngilu huhu. Udah dicek ke dokter belum si gigi bungsunya? Emang paling males nih kalo udah ada masalah sama gigi, sakitnya beneran ga main2 🙁

      April 8, 2017 at 10:54 am
  • Reply aggy87

    Oh gosh the pain! I had mine removed some years ago but only the left side. It was hurting me and I decided to remove it. Wasn’t a surgery like yours though but it was still painful! Yours must have been terrible, but I do hope you’ll recover quickly and now that it’s removed, you won’t be getting anymore pain from it.

    April 8, 2017 at 8:43 am
    • Reply Dixiezetha

      Wisdom tooth removal is the worst. I decided to get it all removed in one go (instead of doing it 2 times, one for each side) as I knew I’d be too scared to come back for the second removal. Are you planning to get the right side wisdom teeth removed? Hope they don’t bother you though, I’ve been told you can avoid wisdom teeth removal if they don’t cause any problem. And thank you for the wishes! 🙂

      April 8, 2017 at 11:00 am
      • Reply aggy87

        Tough question! I’ve been putting it off forever! I am really terrified of going to the dentist to get it removed. It doesn’t bother me at all, but I should probably get it removed anyway. Maybe later though!

        April 9, 2017 at 11:49 am
  • Reply Christa

    OMG aku juga harusnya angkat nih, 4 – 4 nya pula 🙁 ada yg udah melintang horizontal dong huhuhu. Tapi masi takuuut, waktu itu pernah sakit banget, terus ilang dengan sendirinya, alhasil sekarang lg mengumpulkan keberanian lagi buat ke dokter :/

    Hope you’ll get better soon Dix! lama ngga sih recovery nya?

    April 10, 2017 at 3:20 am
    • Reply Dixiezetha

      Thank you Christa! Sekarang udah hari ke-4 and so far sih udah ga perlu painkiller lagi, bengkaknya juga cepet berkurang. Tapi mungkin karena aku hari 1-2 di RS dan obatnya masuk lewat infus, kata dokternya itu ngaruh soalnya lebih efektif dari obat minum.

      Aku juga ada 1 yang melintang horizontal dan itu yang paling kompleks & susah ngambilnya kata dokternya (kerasa juga pas abis operasi itu yang paling sakit). Aku juga takut banget sampe nunda bertahun2, cuma emang eventually harus operasi kalo ga sakitnya bakal recurring huhu. Kamu bakal nyabut semuanya langsung atau ngga? Good luck ya Christa, setelah dijalanin ternyata ga sehoror itu kok (mungkin aku ngerasa ga terlalu horor krn bius total jg hahaa). Emang sakit & ribet sih terutama kalo makan, tapi manageable dgn painkiller. Semangaaat! 🙂

      April 10, 2017 at 7:28 am
      • Reply Christa

        Ohhh gitu.. OMG aku masih mengumpulkan keberanian nih. Tapi emang mending disini kali ya daripada pas udah pindah nanti ribet lagi.. terus mahal kali ya hehehehe. Duh duh aku coba jadwalin ke drg lagi deh buat kontrol. Bener juga kamu bilang takutnya recurring ya, terus pas muncul lagi jadi parah banget oh nooo ><

        Good to hear udah gak perlu painkiller lagi Dix, kayaknya begitu udah dilakukan udah beres ya jadinya.. okelah nanti aku pertimbangkan, thank you 🙂

        April 11, 2017 at 3:29 am
  • Reply Ditaa

    Ouwh, I feel you. I postponed my wisdom surgery for 10 years, I was so scared and everytime I saw the dentist I felt like vomitting.
    But finally, I was ready and got 4-all of them removed at once two years ago. I went with general anesthesia, woke up in the middle of surgery mumbling something and then doctors gave me another shots. It was successful, all post-surgery was managable, and I took it as an excuse to eat a lot of chilies and mashed potatoes.
    My boyfriend finished all the vicodine, btw 😀

    April 17, 2017 at 8:41 pm
    • Reply Dixiezetha

      I got the fear! It really was daunting for me too. I think removing them all at once was the best decision I made. I couldn’t imagine you woke up in the middle of surgery! I’d freak out if that’d happened to me. Glad to know it went well though 😀

      April 20, 2017 at 3:59 am

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