Teeth Extraction (Oh the Fun!)

My poor DH had 3 of his wisdom teeth extracted yesterday. I was so worried and upset for him. This was not because I thought something bad would happen. No, I was pretty sure he would make it out just fine. I was worried because I had a HORRIBLE time when I had my 4 wisdom teeth extracted and I didn't want him to go through all that too.

It all started with a sore jaw on a Thursday (June 28th, 2001 to be exact). By that night I couldn't lay on that side of my face. On Friday I was calling every dentist in the book looking for someone to get me in (and why the HECK are dentist's closed Friday???). Anyway, one got me in right away (which I was every so grateful for). Of course the news was not good. I had an abscess in my right lower wisdom tooth and they all really needed to come out. Given the pain that I was in I would have let him rip them out of my head right there if I could have. He of course sent me to an oral surgeon who scheduled my for the following Thursday (July 5th, 2001). The best part at the time, in my pained opinion, was that he also sent me home with a prescription for Vicodin. I was in so much pain I just wanted relief. The bad thing was that Vicodin just makes me nauseas and want to sleep. I guess that's really not that bad. As long as I was sleeping I wasn't in pain. That went on for almost a week before I was seen at the surgeon's office. I really wasn't afraid of the surgery, I was much more afraid of the IV anesthesia. I am a HUGE needle phobe and was almost in tears waiting for that to happen. As soon as it was over I was great, completely not worried about the rest or the after effects (stupid me).

I got home and was doing pretty good, or at least I thought so. I slept from Thursday through Saturday. My first day out was Sunday and that was to go to church. Every one kept asking how I was feeling and for the most part the answer was fine. I really didn't have any bruising or swelling but man did my other teeth hurt. I thought the sockets would hurt but for me they didn't. It was all my other teeth that bothered me, especially while eating. I also had a bad, mediciny taste in my mouth but I figured that was normal for the surgery. I went back to the surgeon Monday for my check up. I didn't realize it but he had packed me for dry socket before I'd even left the office originally. What's dry socket you ask? Well instead of explaining it, because it's gross, I'll just let you learn about it here: http://www.atlantadentist.com/Dry_Socket.html. The nurses asked me if any of my other teeth felt loose or sore. I almost choked on the loose part. I responded "NO, should they??" She just laughed and said it's not uncommon to have that sensation with dry socket. I told her about my other teeth hurting and she explained that it's sympathetic pain from the dry socket. They cleaned me out (NO FUN) and packed me again. The taste was again horrible so I finally asked about that. I hadn't been able to place the taste until she said it and then I knew it was exactly what I'd been tasting - clove oil. OMG - it was so nasty. I had to go through this twice before my sockets finally started healing on their own.

It was not a pleasant experience and definitely hope DH is able to avoid all of that. He's been taking his pain medicine and resting. And of course acting a little silly. Hopefully dry socket will stay away from him. Let's keep our fingers crossed. :-)