The Day my Tooth was Extracted

I was right. Wisdom tooth (an impacted one) was indeed the reason why I was having a terrible toothache. Thankfully, it has already been extracted.

I went to my first dental appointment on a Monday (Feb. 4) and had my teeth evaluated. The result was pretty bad, as I had expected and what's even worst was the fact that the extraction won't be done until Friday that week. So for the time being, the dentist prescribed some medications to alleviate the terrible pain. He wrote a prescription for the antiobiotic Penicillin VK and Vicodin ES for the pain. I was somewhat relieved knowing that I won't go through the "pulling of teeth" yet. Hehe.

A few hours after taking the medications, I suddenly felt dizzy and nauseated...and then, moments later I was throwing up. The side effects of the pain reliever was driving me crazy and my stomach couldn't handle it. I had to stop taking Vicodin. I told myself that I'd rather go through the pain that my tooth was causing me than to keep feeling dizzy and throwing up. After all, I was already somewhat immune to the pain and a few more days of pain won't really be that bad. Luckily though, my husband realized that he still had some Ibuprofen left from when he had his tooth problems. And so I was saved...at least for the moment.

Frustrating, sleepless days and nights followed. Medications hardly helped at all. It just made me feel like a zombie - so out of this world - the very reason why I detest taking medications. And then Friday came. Yup, the big day. I wasn't really excited. In fact, it was quite the contrary. It was my first tooth extraction ever so I didn't really know what to expect. Pictures of syringes and the dentist's grin kept flashing on my mind. I thought I was going nuts. Even so, we still went to the dental office early, filled in all the necessary paperworks and then waited for my name to be called. Waiting is always the worst part.

The dental technician called my name and I followed her to the surgery room. I sat on the dental chair and saw four long syringes on the tray. And then I heard somebody crying from the adjacent room. Nothing was really worst than that. My heart was pounding so fast that time. The dentist came in and started the process. He put some kind of a "numbing agent" on the area and told me that everything's gonna be fine. A few minutes later he started injecting the anesthesia - four long syringes of it. And then started pulling my teeth. Moments later, it was all done. The process only took fifteen minutes. Yup, I was paying attention to the time.

Before going home, he gave me a new prescription for more Penicillin VK and this time, Demerol for the pain reliever. I told him it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. And I also thought that there will be no more pain. I was so wrong. When we got home, the anesthesia started wearing off and then another agonizing pain began. It was worse than the days before. My head felt like it's going to crack any moment soon. Finally, the medications kicked in and before long, I felt sleepy. I liked the effect of Demerol on my body. It was just so relaxing and it made me sleep for long hours. I was glad something was finally working.

All in all, it was quite an experience for me. Truth is, I will do it again if I have to. Afterall, the dentist is not on my "hate list" anymore.