This year I had my wisdom teeth taken out on May the 4th, which is actually Star Wars day, interestingly enough. I went to a dental surgery place with my mom early in the morning and had followed instructions in not eating or drinking for the past 12 hours. I was not too nervous to get my wisdom teeth out because my sisters had done it before me and it had gone well for them. When we got to the oral surgery place, I went in alone due to COVID protocols and filled out the forms that they wanted me to. After a few minutes of waiting, they led me to the back room to take some xrays of my teeth. I had already gotten xrays of my teeth done months prior when I had gone to the dentist for my last checkup, but they wanted newer ones on file for the sake of the surgery. I stood at the xray machine and the assistant went ahead and captured the photos.
What we found was surprising even to the oral surgeon himself – I did not have 4 wisdom teeth like we originally thought. In fact, I had 6 wisdom teeth inside me, 2 more than what the x rays showed months prior. This is apparently super rare, and the dentists told me that only 2% of the population has more than 4 wisdom teeth. So you could say I’m a bit of a rarity in that way. The dental surgeon said that he would take the other 2 out of the new problem with no additional fees, so that was super nice. I sat in the chair and leaned back while the assistants talked to me about my life and whatnot; just trying to make small talk. Then the dental surgeon came in and put an anesthetic mask on my face to start breathing in. This wasn’t super strong stuff, but I guess it helps with the whole anesthetic process during the surgery.
I remember when the doctor started to put in the real strong anesthetic into the IV in my arm, and I asked him if that was the stuff that would knock me out. That’s basically the last thing I remember until some point on my way home from surgery when I woke up in the car. My mouth was completely filled with gauze and the sides of my mouth had sores on them from being stretched around a lot. I woke up in a Meijer parking lot where my mom announced she was going to get groceries, and I asked her if she could get me a Starbucks coffee (since they have one in the Meijer). I made it home eventually and started the long process of recovering. I basically stayed dormant on the couch for about a week, and watched so much Netflix you wouldn’t even comprehend it.
The worst part of the recovery process was the swelling in my cheeks and mouth that made me look like a chipmunk and overall was just really uncomfortable. The pain was not too bad when I was able to use the pain medications, and only when I developed an infection about a week later did it become a little unbearable. But then I went on some antibiotics and got that infection taken care of right away!
Oral Pathology Info 