2006-06-06

Dental Woes

I get to have my wisdom teeth out!

Woohoooo!!!

OK sarcasm is done. Heh.

All four of those little guys are going to be yanked out, or in a couple cases, carved out, of my jaw in two week's time.

Yes I said four. Four is the number, and the number shall be 4.

I still have them.

All.

And yes, they are taking out all four at one time. Better to be miserable all at once than miserable more than once. I sincerely doubt the pain would be any worse doing four than it would doing two.

Besides, the pain I'm in now is driving me nuts. Not pain really, just a dull aching in my jaw that

won't

go

away!

So ... I called an oral surgeon that my insurance covers. An initial consultation was arranged. They took X-Rays.

Yikes.

I knew these teeth were in sideways but ...

Yikes.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the X-Ray was done totally differently than I remember. I just stood there and something rotated around my head with a mild humming sound and wallah! ... there was my jaw, all flattened out in a line, showing the roots and everything.

Neat.

He said they should have come out at 18 years old.

I am way older than that now.

Not so neat.

But my dentist as a child was a sadist. My mom, when confronted with that comment by my brother and myself when we were adults, rather shocked us with her return comment:

"Well, yes ... I knew he was a sadist. But he was close and he took your father's insurance."

!!!!!

This guy determined the severity of the cavity by how loud and long we kids screamed. He would use that little hook thing and poke and pull and once he found something he'd poke, pull and probe some more. When it got to the point he didn't think his wife (in the outer office as his secretary and bill-collector) would be able to keep our mother from storming in and hitting him with something, he'd stop. Pain drugs? What for? It's just a filling ... *drill (scream) drill (scream) drill*

So, when we got to be old enough, like college age when our parents couldn't force us anymore, we quit going.

To ANY dentist.

For many, many years.

Finally, when I was in my late 20's, I went to one to have my teeth cleaned and checked.

THAT guy was a jerk. And rude. He told me all kinds of B.S. that I found out later was wrong.

I never went back.

That was ... um ... a long time ago.

But this pain wouldn't go away and I just knew I finally had to get these guys out of my jaw.

I only had 2 cavities and those were where the wisdom teeth were leaning and pushing against the molar next to them. So those will be dealt with in August when I can finally get in to the general dentist, after the wisdom teeth are no longer obstructing the cavities.

Oh joy. What a wonderful summer I have this year.

To top it all off, my insurance only pays up to $1000 a year. Guess what? That will be more than taken up with the wisdom teeth, so anything else is out of pocket.

GAHHHHH.

I hate dentists.

Mitakuye Oyasin

I will keep you posted.