my wisdom teeth extraction

It was casual visit to the dentist after almost two years for cleaning. I picked Dr. Edelman Howard J, DDS - Piedmont Hills Dental Center (Milpitas) after carefully reading the reviews on him. It turned out to be a bad choice. New x-rays where taken since they didnt have my dental record. After initial inspection of the gums on each of my tooth, the doctor told me the 2nd molar measurement was 5 while a healthy gum measures 3. My x-ray showed that my wisdom teeth on either side on the lower jaw is leaning on my 2nd molar. As a result the 2nd molar on the left is decaying. The decay it seems went deep inside the pulp. Until this point, I was comfortable with the handling of the dentist and his crew, though I was bit anxious. The doctor told me that I need to have the root canal done at the earliest and all my wisdom teeth needs to be extracted within a week. He didnt really give me time to think and I was totally pressurised and I wasnt given an exhorbitant quote of $3000. That's when my manager suggested me his dentist Dr. Ellen Peng in Cupertino.

Dr. Ellen referrred me to a oral surgeon, Dr. Jeffrey Fujimoto. He gave me an appointment 10 days after initial inspection of my x-rays. His quote was also more reasonable ($325 for lower wisdom and $150 for upper wisdom). Finally the day of extraction arrived, its a Friday morning 8am appointment. I was pretty nervous, thinking about the injection on my mouth and the whole process. I decided to take only the local anaesthesia, well I should say that's my only choice. The doc doesnt do a complete knock out method. I decided to hold on without the laughing gas as it was optional and it costs $90 more. I had the injections, a couple of them on each of my gums next to the wisdom. Within minutes I was all numb and I wasn't able to talk. The injections on my mouth wasnt very painful as I was imagining. I put on my MP3 and doctor started working on my wisdom. It took him about an hour, lower left first, then upper right, lower right, and finally upper right. He used the driller and I believe he had to struggle to pull out my teeth. I closed my eyes during the whole operation.

I paid my bills, about $250 after insurance. I could have driven my car, but my friend gave me a ride. Went straight to pharmacy to get the pain killer (vicodin 500) and antibiotic (pencillin 500). My numbness started wearing off slightly. As soon as I reached home, I removed the blood stockings in my mouth, had a bottle of ensure (energy/milk shake). I could hardly open my mouth, and I started feeling the pain now. I stuffed the corners with those stockings again, the doc said it helps in clotting the blood. I was bleeding the whole day, it stopped next day afternoon. I was taking the tablets every 4 hours for the next three days. I slowly moved to my solid foods, though I was on rice porridge/ensure/mixed fruit shake for the first 3 days or so. My pain started wearing off from the next day, infact I started talking after 8 hours of my operation. I consider my whole recovery was fast paced, as I started having my regular cereal breakfast after 7 days on the dot. I am pretty sure the doctor did a great job on me. Also lot of my fears before extraction was mostly my hallucination, and was totally unfounded, compunded by friends exaggerating it.

I would strongly suggest in removing the wisdom when there are first signs that the wisdom is growing sideways. One in ten people have their wisdom grow properly and add to chewing food better. If you leave it like that it might lead to deacy of your neighbouring molars (like mine), and it beocmes very costly to loose a tooth. Hope my wisdom extraction experience helps you in making a good decision with your extraction.

PS: Forgot this, no strawberry milk shake for the first 2 days after extraction. Lastly the gums takes about 4-6 weeks to close, till then food particles get stuck in the extraction hole. The extracation cavity needs to be kept clean till the gums close the cavity, this is normally done with a syringe.