Missing a Tooth

I have been putting something off for about a year.

In the fall, I thought I lost a filling in my wisdom tooth (number 17, for those dentistically inclined). This filling loss left behind a hole in my tooth.

Unfortunately, it turns out that I NEVER HAD a filling in that tooth, and just developed a hole because my wisdom teeth are apparently constantly falling to pieces. Who knew?

Now, when I was about 16, my dentist told me that I should have my wisdom teeth surgically removed. I didn't, and the next time I went back to the dentist, he, forgetting our earlier conversation, said, "Wow, it looks like you're not even going to need to have your wisdom teeth removed." (Let me tell you how well that did for the trust I had in that dentist.)

So, after the black hole of wisdom tooth death appeared, I went to the new dentist (you didn't think I stayed with the other guy, did you?) and talked with her about it. She wanted to rip out ALL my wisdom teeth while I was AWAKE because she thought that this would happen to all of them eventually.

I am a big baby. I just had my first cavity about a year ago, so this wide-awake surgery thing did not sound good.

So I put it off.

Finally, this past week, my tooth started to irritate my cheek, which is the first time it hurt anything at all. I had a regular cleaning scheduled, so I went in and she was like, "Yeah, lets get that thing out. It's a pretty big hole." Her thought was that if I filled it, it would just happen again.

So I scheduled a tooth extraction of wisdom tooth 17 for Saturday, with the male dentist I have never met.

Who turned out to be quite good looking. My husband had seen this guy before, and he didn't warn me (the louse)!

Getting a tooth extracted is not fun. The pain level during the extraction was fine, of course, but I wish I had brought my Ipod so I wouldn't have had to listen to the NOISE. (I will not detail it here because it makes me a little queasy to think about.) Anyway, the tooth is apparently gone (although I am taking the dentist's word on that, because I haven't looked at it or put my tongue in the hole) and I spent yesterday with tea bags on my new tooth hole to try to get it to stop bleeding.

Painwise -- ow! Not too bad, but definitely not comfortable. I've been taking some extra strength tylenol, as I'm not sure I want to know what Stacie on Vicodin is like. We are also beginning the moving process this weekend and I have some work to do for class, so I need to be cognitively awake.

But now I have less than a full set of teeth. I'm holding off on the other wisdom teeth in the hopes that they will not fall apart and I won't have to go through that again. Hopefully missing one will not make me less wise.

I need all the wisdom I can get!