My appointment was at ten A.M. this morning; I was not allowed to drink or eat anything six hour in advance, and I stopped drinking water around 10 P.M. last night. I went to the dentist on an empty stomach, the way I was supposed to.
After getting to the dentist, I signed in and the assistant said it would be just a moment. I was took to room four. I laid down on the bed, and had the nitrous oxide hooked up to my nose. I was told to "breathe in and out of my nose", which I immediately started doing, though I felt like nothing was helping to me. Their was also the loud nose of drills being used on someones teeth across the hall, which made it even harder to relax. I asked my mom what the nitrous oxide was supposed to do, and she said it was just supposed to help me. I started taking deeper, longer, and heavier breaths.
After I had been "relaxed" the dentist and assistant came in and were ready to numb me up. (This was the most painful part of the whole entire surgery to me). I first had a "mint flavored" substance put all over my mouth. It tasted disgusting. Since I was getting all four of my wisdom teeth removed I had to get ten shots in my mouth.
Two in the upper right, two in the upper left, two in the bottom right, two in the bottom left, and two on the very roof of my mouth. This hurt more than anything. After the first shot I immediately starting crying.
I had a hard time breathing through my nose again because of my crying. My dentist kept reminding me "Breathe through your nose!" After the shots, the assistant turned up the nitrous oxide. I was told it should take the nitrous oxide twenty minutes to set in. The bottom half of my face was meant to feel like it was "falling off", and that is exactly how it felt. All I could do was cry, and inhale and exhale through my nose. My mom said it sounded like I was having a heart attack. It was getting harder and harder to breathe through my nose. There was the taste of blood in my mouth. I was gagging on my own blood and drooling over myself. I just kept taking these panicky huge breathes of nitrous oxide through my nose. I heard my dentist come in as soon as I was drifting into sleep.
The next thing I remember is that my dentist was working on my upper right tooth first. He was telling me to 'push against him'. I could not feel anything. I kept my eyes closed the whole time, drifting in and out of sleep. Now, the next tooth was my upper left tooth. My dentist apparently had a hard time with this one. My mom said he kept wiggling it around and it took him the most time to work with it. He eventually got it out though. My bottom two teeth were next. They came out easily, but during the process of the procedure I kept closing my mouth and had to be reminded to "open my mouth" 'four thousand times', of which, I only remember being told one time.
During the surgery I remember thinking "Are these people seriously working on my teeth? Because this feels amazing. I can't feel a thing."
My four teeth were out. The dentist left, and the assistant filled out paperwork behind me. I stayed hooked up to the nitrous oxide for as long as I could. When I was finally able to open my eyes, the assistant put two pads of gauze on each side of my mouth to absorb the blood. The gauze made it hard to swallow. I could swallow, but I felt like I couldn't. The assistant tells me "think about swallowing in order to swallow." This works. I start drooling blood all over myself, and the assistant cleans me up.
When I'm able to sit up the assistant explains to my mouth and I that I should immediately go and get a milkshake, and that she's probably the only dentist who is going to tell us that. (If you get your wisdom teeth out, I highly suggest going to a milkshake afterwords). She explained to us that milkshakes are cool and easy to get down, but make sure to eat it with a spoon. Drinking with a straw is not a good choice.
The assistant explained that I was being prescribed Motrin and Vicodin. (These two drugs work wonders together). The assistant tells us to immediately get my prescriptions filled and get the drugs into my system because when my numbness wears off I am going to be in pain. I could not get my prescriptions filled right away, seeing as my mother had errands to run. This is the worse thing ever. If you have the chance to, get your prescriptions filled immediately and be sure to take your pills after drinking down your milkshake, or something soft like jello. Do not take your medicine on an empty stomach.
I was told to change the gauze as needed, take it easy for the day, and to sleep with a towel over my pillow because I will drool bloody saliva whenever I sleep.
I got up from the operation room, and still could not feel my mouth or face (Being numb is the best part of the whole thing, regardless of how bad the shots hurt). We got out into the waiting room, and the assistant handed me my school and work excuse. She reminded me to keep my mouth shut, I couldn't feel whether my mouth was shut or not so I had to softly grab onto my lips and close them.
My mom and I walked out to the car. My mom drove to Steak N' Shake and got me a vanilla milkshake with a spoon. I could not talk at all. I forgot to take the gauze out of my mouth and started trying to swallow down the milkshake. I couldn't. I started choking on the gauze. Luckily my mom was at a red light and was willing to reach into my mouth and grab out both bloody pieces of gauze. She pulled those out and I began drooling again; I wiped my mouth up with a napkin and started sucking on the milkshake. It was good, and it made me feel good. I went in and out of hot flashes while being in the car. I would turn the air conditioner on and stick my head against it, and then turn the air off and lay back down.
My mom was running errands, and I began feeling the pain (the numbness was wearing down). I started crying again from how bad it hurt. (If I would have been able to get my medicine prescribed earlier, this would not have happened). I cried most of the time my mom spent running errands. It felt worse than any pain I've ever felt.
My began driving home. I get car sick after being in the car for long periods of time, I was swallowing a ton of blood all day and I had drank a large vanilla milkshake faster than anything. Well, we're on our way home and I'm sweating and in pain and I feel weak. I tell my mom I'm going to throw up. She's going fifty miles an hour and I just open the door because I can't handle it anymore. I get sick all over the road, car, my clothes, and my hair.
My mom drives into town and goes to get my prescription filled. I come straight home and try to swallow down some jello. The jello is more cold than the milkshake and it hurts to get down. I force myself to take a couple of bites and take my vicodin with the jello. I get myself a glass of water and take the Motrin with it. I ask my mom to wash my hair since I threw up all over it. She does, and then I get a towel to put over the pillow on the couch, grab my blanket and I lay down. I wake up and it's seven at night. I'm still in pain and I have an empty stomach. I decide to swallow down some mashed potatoes. They're easy to eat and make my stomach feel better. I take another dose of my medicine at nine, and am not allowed to lay down for thirty minutes after I take it.
I just threw up three more times.
tl;dr - For those of you that have had your wisdom teeth extracted what was it like for you? Anything similar from my story to yours, or anything the same? I know that the younger generation on here will be growing up over the years, and they're going to want to know how it feels. I wanted to know how it felt before I did it. So, share.
