The Truth About Dry Sockets…

Well I found out two things about my wisdom tooth removal:

1.  It’s not over until it’s over.

2.  It’s best to eat mashed potatoes, pudding, ice cream and yogurt for several days after the surgery even if they “suggest you incorporate more foods after the first couple of days.”

And I suppose the third lesson I learned is that the oral surgeon won’t admit that you have dry sockets until after they’ve healed.  Probably something about keeping patients calm perhaps?

Anyway, I learned the first lesson on days 3 and 4 after my surgery.  I felt better actually on the first two days than days 3 and 4.  That’s probably because I “incorporated a few more foods” as they suggested and it opened up the wounds to create a dry socket.  Two of them actually.  And the pain just would not go away.

If it was just about pain and taking pain meds for a few days – the 400mg every 3 hrs couldn’t keep up still by the way – that would be fine with me.  A little pain, deal with it a few days and it’s done.

But no, I have to have other teeth issues of course.  It just so happens my lower right molar, second from the back, was chipped.  I knew this going in to the surgery, of course.  And had I not needed to get the wisdom teeth out ASAP to maximize my insurance benefits I would have taken care of that molar first.  But instead I had to wait.  And days 4 and 5 I had excruciating pain in my lower left jaw.

Which meant I needed to go back to my dentist immediately and so I went in yesterday and had the tooth drilled down to a stub and a temporary crown placed on it.  Now it’s just a matter of giving it a few weeks to a month to make sure the pain doesn’t come back.  If it does, it means I’ll need him to drill out and kill the root. That’s right: the good old root canal.

Surgery Tomorrow…

Well the time has finally come.  It’s time for my wisdom teeth to come out.

The timing really couldn’t be better considering my medical benefits max insurance contribution resets on April 1 (long story short: the company I work for is splitting from our parent company and going private again, which means all benefits are resetting).

So tomorrow I’ll max out my benefits limit and the following day the limit will reset.

But tomorrow is when the real fun begins.

First is the thought of the possibility, slight as it may be, of never waking up from surgery.  The chances are very slim of course.  Probably so slim it’s not even worth worrying about.  But it does make you wonder though.  What if Red Lobster is the last place I eat?  What if the Mountain Dew I had a couple hours ago is the last one I ever have?  Or the last kiss I gave my girlfriend…

Like I said, the odds are probably so small it’s not worth worrying about.  What is worth worrying about is how to make it through the next week.  I’ve heard some are “just fine the next day and back to work” and I’ve heard others out for a week.  Seems the odds are more likely I’ll only be out a few days.  I have tomorrow and Friday off so hopefully by Monday I’ll be ready to go back to work.

My biggest concern, really, is how to keep the rest of my teeth clean.  I have enough issues with them when I brush them and floss them daily.  But now who knows how well I’ll be able to keep them clean.  My teeth seem to get cavities if I miss brushing them once so I just don’t want this surgery to end up with me needing more dental work to compensate for all the teeth affected by it all.

The general plan is to lay low.  Play a lot of video games.  Eat a lot of mashed potatoes and apple sauce.  A lot of pudding and ice cream.  Maybe protein shakes or banana shakes.  We’ll see.

Oh…and Percocet.  That should come in handy too 😀