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.