As I posted on my website 03/25/04 05:35 PM...
[]...or, “I really recommend getting your teeth pulled.”
Please bear with me, for I am about to blather. I am no stranger to Vicodin (never in an abusive way) and whenever I take it I tend to ramble, ramble, and then ramble some more. Since there is no one here to talk to, you all shall withstand the worst of my high.
I am just getting to my place of work after my foray to the dental office, and am starting to feel the affects of the Vicodin I had taken just a while ago. I do not start work until 2:30PM, but I decided the extra driving is not worth it. (I started writing this at 2PM. Distractions ensued, blah blah blah.)
Growing up, I was never really pushed on the subject of dental hygiene, and never had a visit with my friendly neighborhood dentist, being on the south side of the poverty line. In fact, I had never seen the inside of an oral doctor’s office before two years ago (December 2001).
My wife of a few months, at the time, set it all up for me. I tend to have a motivational problem when it comes to taking care of me, even though I am quick to the draw when others need help. Years of neglect were catching up with me like a snowball rolling down a mountainside. I do not know if it was the smoking, but, surprisingly, I had never had a cavity before I started dabbling in the black arts of tobacco.
I had reunited with my best friend from high school after a hiatus of living here and there and working with this line and that line. He has smoked off and on since he was twelve years old. It was not peer-pressure - I just wanted to experience it for myself. I was 21 years of age at the time and my lips had never touched the business end of a cigarette before. This was quite the feat since I grew up around smoking. Other smoking devices, well, that is a different story. Yes, I can admit I inhaled in high school. However, I have matured and have outgrown that dim-witted phase of my life. Nevertheless, I digress.
A few months or so after I started puffing on the “unwacky tobacky” I noticed, with my tongue, a small hole in a front tooth. Being the self-care procrastinator that I am, I just ignored it. Of course, it got larger, and invited all of its friends. Anyway, now for today’s adventure.
I had an appointment to have three unruly teeth pulled. I have had a few root canals in the past, and they were nothing. I do not know what the big deal is. They inject some Novocain into your gums, and everything is kosher - you cannot feel a thing. I went in with the same confident attitude towards teeth extraction. I had never had the procedure, but since root canals were found to be so over-hyped, I figured the same held true for pulling teeth. Boy was I wrong.
Well, I should not be so hard on the process. It really was not that bad. There was a hell of a lot of pain from the pulling, but the bludgeoning made that seem like a mosquito bite. As I said, I was to have three teeth pulled. Two of these were my top molars in the very back. The decay was rather far along, hence the pulling. I have wisdom teeth behind each one. The one on my right is fine. It is fully covered by my gums and not getting in the way of anything, so the dentist decided to leave it alone. The one on the right was exposed and became succumbed to peer-pressure from its decaying neighbor, so it had to go as well. So really, I had four teeth pulled. The dentist gave me a few injections of Novocain and was on his way.
I could not see exactly what he was doing, so I will have to go on from what I felt. He started on my left molar and accompanying wisdom tooth. He was using a screwdriver-like device and it felt as if he was pushing on it from the side. This really hurt - bad. I am usually very good when it comes to pain. As I stated earlier, injections in the gums are not a problem, and drilling out the pulp from my teeth - piece of cake. However, pushing my tooth out, while I could hear it cracking is an entirely different story, altogether. The cracking sound did not get to me. Even though I had enough Novocain in me to kill a rat, I could feel a sharp, piercing pain at the root of my tooth. I have never felt a pain so bad in my life. Well, the bludgeoning was probably worse, but I would not know. Is not going into shock a wonderful thing? Now it is time for the fun part.
When he was performing his procedure on my front tooth, the screwdriver slipped and stabbed my upper-gums. The device had to have gone straight through into my nostril, for it began to fill with blood. Since I was lying down, it ran down into my throat. Needless to say, I was freaking out at this point. Since blood was flowing into my throat, I choked on it, sat up, and began coughing. This had to have been a pretty sight. I then started to shake and sweat profusely. I also felt very light-headed. I know the shaking and light-headedness was from the loss of blood, and I believe the sweating was from the shock. I had not eaten very much since about 6PM the night before, so the loss of blood sent my blood-sugar level to the floor. The dentist fetched some warm sugar-water, and then a can of Coca-Cola. I never thought a dentist would tell me to drink Coke.
After drinking the water and the Coke, my shaking subsided, and I was no longer sweating. I was glad to feel semi-normal again. It was scary while I was still shaking. The dentist ran off to call an oral surgeon to consult him on the severity of the situation.
I was almost sure I was going to be put on an ambulance and taken to the emergency room. I have never had an experience like this in my life. When he went to call, he had a technician stay in the room with me - he did not want me to be left alone. However, when he got back he relayed to me that the oral surgeon said it was not a big deal and that I would be fine. I think the dentist was almost as scared as I was.
After my body returned to its stable-self, the dentist asked if I wanted to finish the extractions. I told him I just wanted to get over with, so he continued and all else was well.
I am now at work, and have some Vicodin for my troubles. He wants me to come in tomorrow for a follow up to see how I am doing. I also have to make an appointment with the oral surgeon to have the roots from the front tooth removed, since he could not get to them. I now have partials. It is just like a retainer, but with three false teeth attached. All of this at the ripe young age of 25. Heck, I am thinking about just having them put me under and yank the rest of the damned things out. At least I would not have to worry about having to go through that again.
So remember kids, take care of your teeth![/]
My partial is annoying somewhat, though. It's not quite shaped exactly to my bite, and they can't adjust it to fix it because of how small my tooth they pulled was. Because of this, I have to take it out whenever I eat. They suggested I get a bridge put in. I'm going to do this as soon as I can. I don't mind the partial, but it gets annoying having to take it out everytime I eat. I gotta get my daily fill of Oreos!!! 
