I never know pulling teeth out can be this easy. I had all my wisdom teeth until this year. They never bothered me, but they bothered my dentist, because two of them were growing crooked pushing the teeth next to them, and they were hard to clean etc. So for years, my dentist had been suggesting that I had them removed by an oral surgeon. I kept delaying it since I heard all sorts of horror stories about how painful it is to pull wisdom teeth out. Some people had so much pain after the surgery that they couldn't eat regular food for weeks. But this year I finally realized that it's better to get it done sooner than later. The younger I am, the quicker the healing process will be. So I scheduled a consultation appointment with an oral surgeon.
First the nurse took a panoramic x-ray of my mouth. The surgeon looked at it, and assured me that my nerves were relatively far from my wisdom teeth, so there should be low possibility that they get damaged during the surgery. He then asked me what kind of anesthesia I would like. Most people choose IV sedation, which make them semiconscious or unconscious during the surgery. That sounded perfect to me.
My operation was scheduled for Friday morning. This way I would have all weekend to recover. Around 7:30 am, I settled in a dental chair, a nurse hooked me up with oxygen, IV sedation, and some machine to monitor my pulse, blood pressure etc. The oral surgeon asked me if I had any question, I said no, then he said "if you don't have any question, let's get started." That was literally the last thing I remembered before the surgery. The next time I opened my eyes, it was 9:10 am. My surgery had long finished. My jaw was still numb from the sedation that I couldn't feel where my mouth was. But I had to eat something before I could take the pain killer, so I bought a milkshake on the way home and drank it with a straw. By lunch time, the numbness was gone. I could eat soup stuff. I didn't feel much pain that day but I took the pain killer just in case.
Starting Saturday morning, I stopped taking pain killer and still felt good. Except my jaw felt a little sore initially, there was hardly anything that bothered me. I ate noodle soup for two more days and started eating regular food after that. The procedure I had feared for so many years went so smoothly that now I wish I had it done years ago.
P.S. The whole procedure cost ~$1,250. Insurance paid most of it. I only had to pay $200.
