With stitches on both of my back molars, I can now finally say this, a visit to the dentist is my biggest fear ever. Since young, I always hated our yearly dental check up we had in school. Whether it is the awful surgical smell of the room, the surgical rubber taste that lingers in your mouth after check up or the saline water that they use to clean up your mouth. All these combinations has that eerie effect on me and I literally have to drag myself to the check up.
To be frank, I knew both of my top molars is slowly decaying through the years. I can feel it. I do brush teeth like normal people do, but perhaps it was not enough. I never done any yearly dental check up at all since high school and it is something that I really regretted now. If I would have done so, it will not be so bad today.
How bad was it? Well. Imagine our tooth is like this little square box. All that's left is half of the sides without any filling. I can feel it with my tongue. haha. Why did I not go to the dentist earlier? Firstly, I am scared, like really scared. Secondly, I know it is expensive and will burn a huge hole in my pocket. It is an excuse I give myself of course, and totally not worth the price I have to pay now. Damn. If I could turn back time. My two molars......
Anyways, do I feel any pain before this. Well, occasionally like once a month I feel some pain, but it is all bearable. Nothing cures better than Panadol nowadays, right? I am being sarcastic here actually. I won't take Panadol unless it is some pain that I can't bear.
So yesterday, suddenly at night the pain slowly became unbearable. Like someone is pulling my tooth and gums constantly. It slowly hits my head as well as I developed some minor headache. Okay. This is bad. Perhaps it might go off in a bit. The pain goes off then it comes back again, and again and again. Then I started googling about my condition and yeaps, I think I need to do extractions. How much will it cost me? Oh my, at least one thousand and above. Why so expensive??? I manage to sleep it off when it is not so painful, but was awaken a few times because of the pain. Alright, screw the money, I need to get it off!
And so, I made a phone call for an appointment in the afternoon. I thought I can go back to work after the treatment, but all my colleagues told me, well, you better go home and rest after that. Then I became more worried after listening to their advice. Its scary! They told me your tongue will be numb, you can't speak well after etc etc.
So, D-Time. The dentist is a soft spoken lady who is pretty calming to me. I told her frankly, I had not did any check up for at least ten years, so it is bad. After an X-ray scan, indeed, both of my molars are in a pretty bad shape. At least the rest of my teethes are doing pretty well! That is comforting. So she said she can't just do a normal extraction because there is not enough structure for her to hold on to, so she needs to make a small cut and pull from there, so its consider a surgical procedure.
That being said, let's get into business. First, she needs to numb both areas and oh my. It is painful! She has to inject something on both of my molars and totally caught me off guard. I gripped both of my hands so tightly and I think she saw it. She gave me a pillow to hug later. haha. After 5 minutes, time for the real surgery. For those who had not done any procedure of such, I shall give you some idea of how it is like.
First, let me list down all the thing that went in my mouth through the entire procedure, though I kept my eyes close the entire time. There is this machinery that sucks all the liquid, saliva and blood through the procedure, there are definitely scalpels, mouth mirror and dental drills. Pardon me for my lack of knowledge in the exact names for all these equipment. Imagine my horror when I hear drilling actions half way through the surgery.
Anyways, you have a open your mouth widely, obviously. I felt that she made a cut on my gums. And then comes the pulling part. I was totally taken back by it to be frank. She used so much strength that her assistant has to hold my head in place tightly. And my stubborn molar is not bulging anywhere. Damn you! Why are you as stubborn as your host? Then when she did another pull, something came off definitely, but not as a whole. I soon learnt that it had broken into small small pieces. Suddenly, I felt some drilling/sawing action going on. I slightly panic a little. It totally reminded me of final destination! oh my god. Did I mention that every single pull is damn painful!! There is this one pull where my tooth is not coming off and eventually torn her surgical gloves, like seriously! She told her assistant to turn on the standing fan because she is all worked up by all the pulling. After a good ten minutes or so, it was finally removed. At least one side is done. Then comes another side. Repeat all the process above please. It was relatively much easier compared to the other side as it came out in one pull. But it was still very painful.
Then she has do do a few stitches because of the cut on both side of my gums. Two gauze were placed at the affected area and I was told to bite it so the bleeding will stop. I have to go back in a week time so the stitches could be removed. I was given a mouth wash, antibiotic and also pain killers. Total damage, 990 SGD. MY MONEY!!!!
I can claim portion of it from my medical benefits, but still! It is damn expensive lo. I am only suppose to take only liquid or soft form of food like jelly, ice cream or room temperature soup on the first day after the surgery. Luckily the bleeding stopped after like one and half hours, which is really lucky for me. The pain is quite bearable and only requires me to take the mild pain killer, which doesn't work to be honest. I only felt uncomfortable and numb, and yes, super hungry.
The moral of the story is, don't stinge on dental expenses. It is totally not worth all the pain when it turns bad. No matter how terrified you are, some things if you have to brace it, you have to. If not, the consequences you have to bear later is worst. Oh yes, I also found out that I have two wisdom tooth at the bottom which has yet to come out. TWO! and it is in a vertical position, which is bad obviously. But the dentist said unless it is painful, we shall keep it as it is for now. Thank god!
