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6 teeth pulled yesterday

S

slasher42

Junior member
Joined
Aug 21, 2010
Messages
2
Glad I found these forum, and will share my story from the last month or so.

First, I HATE dentists. 15 years ago, I had a root canal done where while the procedure itself seemed fine, what happened was that after it was complete and I started to talk to co-workers about it, I felt I went thru some EXTREME pain for no reason. I had a badly rotting/infected tooth. When I went to my dentist under my DMO plan, they X-Rayed it, and he couldn't tell if it was infected. So they started to do the root canal. He numbed me up with Novicain and started in. He then hit the infection. I went thru the roof in pain. He stopped, renumbed it, temporarily filled it, and gave me a perscription for pain meds. 2 weeks later we finished it. What ticked me of was that after talking to co-workers, all of them got meds BEFORE a root canal. That ticked me off to the point that I said screw that.

Flag forward to this last month, I again had a teeth rotting out. Well in the last 15 years, I let 5 other teeth go so that there was no enamel left. All rotted down to the gum line with nothing but the roots left. I had gone thru pain here and there, with bleeding, etc. over the last many years. This one tooth was really bothering me, so I said I have to get this done and suck it up.

A friend of mine here in Minneapolis has a son-in-law who's a dentist (Bogar Dental, Dr. Joe Morgan), so I decided to make an appointment. I changed my insurance to cover him. I went in their office, total state-of-the-art. Had electronic images taken, met him, etc. He said yea those 6 gotta come up. He recommended a surgeon here. So we fast forward again to 2 weeks ago.

I met Dr. Hoffman (Metropolitan Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons) 2 weeks ago. They did a new x-ray (Oribal), and I met him. He said luckily, those 5 that I let rot out, well as he said, "You did all the hard work for me". I let them go so that bacteria had already started to disolve the root and bone between them, so they would be very easy pulls. The one that was still rotting would be the tricky one. So it's "see ya in 2 weeks".

Yesterday was my big day. Got to the office, a nervous WRECK. I dedicded to go the GA route, as I didn't want to feel the novicane shot in the roof of my mouth (3 of the 6 being pulled were wisdoms, both uppers included). And I didn't want to feel it anyways. But I had never been under GA before, NEVER have had an IV (I'm generally a very healthy person, rarely sick, a bit out of shape, but fight off ills easily). So my vitals early were of course high (BP 180/100, Oxy 98, pulse fluxing between 100-110). The Doc kind of chuckled, told me some stories, I felt a bit better. He then did my IV. Prior to that he told my wife and I a story about how when he was in school, he got to do all of the tough IV"s in the hospital he was at - he just had the knack for finding the tough veins. Not that mine were tough, but a very minor pin prick and that was done. I'm like "That's it?", and he goes "well we can do it again if you want" - everyone laughed. Next they put the oxygen mask over, and I'm all "I'm kind of getting sleepy". Next thing I know, I'm having gauze put in my mouth, and I"m laughnig histerically. Everyone's laughing, they ask to bring my wife back. She comes back, and I'm mumbling thru gauze that I can't believe that was it.

Spent about 20 minutes waking up, IV and monitoring stuff all removed, I was relieved. My bottom lip was the worst part, it was numb 'til about 6PM last night. Wife drove me home.

After getting home, I read thru my instructions. One thing I did wrong was that I wasn't really biting down on the gause in my mouth. So after I read that, I put new gauze in, bit down on it (NO TALKING) for about 40 minutes. That did the trick, no more heavy bleeding from any holes. Drainage continued thru the night, nothing major, just made my spit have a minor pink tint. That's almost stopped this morning.

As far as pain, I'm in ZERO pain. The worst part of this is that I've had a very minor headache since yesterday night, probabaly a 1 on a 1-10 scale. More annoying than anything. But the teeth holes themself, 0 pain. I've had 3 what I would call shockers, where you feel a little zap, but even those have been maybe a 1 on the pain scale. Maybe I'm lucky, but I can't believe I overrated this whole procedure so much, it just wasn't that bad at all.

My biggest pain now is avoiding foods I want to eat. I want my holes to heal up properly, so I'm staying on the apple sauce/pudding/sherbert/ice cream diet. Today I'll try chicken noodle soup. I REALLY WANT DORITOS AND HAMBURGERS! Also, because all the teeth I had remove were molars, I have only 1 upper and lower pair of matching grinding molars left; all others were offset. So next year I'll get those replaced once my insurance limits come back.

For anyone needing work done, GA is the way to go I'm sure for multiple teeth. I think if it was 1 or 2 that needed pulling I may have gone the novicane route. But it was easy for me, and I'm kicking myself for waiting so long.

And if you're in the Minneapolis area, seriously go to Dr. Hoffman. I'm guessing he's popular as it took me 2 weeks between consultation and surgery - he was that backed up. My stepson earlier this summer also needed 2 pulled, and it was only a 3 day wait for him between consultation and surgery.
 
Hey Slasher, congratulations! :yay:
Isn't it wonderful to discover that all the fear and worry was unecessary? And thanks for sharing, many in here will take heart from your story.

I had to laugh at how you're longing for Doritos and hamburgers! It seems that happens to all of us - when we can't have them for a while, we suddenly have an overwhelming urge to devour them! Good thing we can't eat them for a while, I think we'd all get very fat post-surgery! Don't worry, it won't be long and you'll be munching your way through lots of yummy foods.

In the meantime, you might try things like salmon and potato patties, pasta, stews, etc.

And to all those worrying about what's ahead, take note of what Slasher said .....

I can't believe I overrated this whole procedure so much, it just wasn't that bad at all .... I'm kicking myself for waiting so long.

WAY TO GO, SLASHER :jump:
 
I have to get 4 teeth pulled

Argh. I feel so bad for you! :shame: I got braces last week and the orthodontist said I have to get 4 teeth pulled because of severe overcrowding! I'm so mad! :mad: But at the same time nervous and scared. :cry::o
 

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