So, after an entire year of rescheduled appointments, anticipating the pain, and dealing with the sheer terror that coursed through my veins, I finally did it. I got my wisdom teeth removed.
When I was younger, wisdom teeth were like a myth, something that nearly every person had to go through in order to be an adult. As a child with one too many teeth problems, I expected my surgery to be inevitable and saw it simply as a rite of passage. When I turned 18, my dentist approached my mother and me about it, and that is when it finally sank in. I needed to get my wisdom teeth out. Panic took over. I scheduled to get them taken out over winter break. However, I had a nasty cold, so I had to reschedule for the summer. Summer approached, and I had gotten by without getting sick. But as it turned out, my spring allergies appeared and I coughed so much that I gave myself a bronchial infection. Exciting stuff, I know. With the anesthesia I was going to be given, that wouldn’t work, so I rescheduled. Again. I waited another seven months, until January 8. The dreaded day.
Let me tell you a little about me. I have had so many teeth procedures done over the past 19 years that not much fazes me. I’ve had braces for 5 years, my gums lasered off, a tooth pulled out from the roof of my mouth, and so many shots of novocaine that I really have lost count. That being said, I have never broken a bone, so my measure of pain might be slightly different than other people. While I do have an incredibly low pain tolerance, this pain was like a slow ache that didn’t go away. Days after the removal, I was beside myself. My face just hurt. There was nothing that I could do but sit there, writhing in pain, trying to freeze my face with a block of ice. Not to mention how great I looked. Half of my face was black and blue and it looked like someone repeated socked me in the chin on both sides. My sister came home from school, saw me, and asked if I was holding something in my mouth. No, I said, it was just my face.
I don’t want to scare you, but you should be scared. You better ice the crap out of your face. Cry if you must. I sure did. I also didn’t take codeine because my dad was scared I’d get addicted, so I’m sure that didn’t help with my pain. But now, as I’m writing this, I am chewing like a normal person without any difficulty, so I’m telling you that there’s hope. If I can do it, so can you.
IMG Source: Minji Kim