Thursday 16^th March 2006

Extracting a tooth

The tooth was on the top, back left side - just in front of the wisdom tooth.

After years of visits to the dentist, with fillings, cleanings and check ups it was strange to have a tooth pulled out. A truly primitive procedure using shiny, well adapted tools, to be sure, and a procedure performed by a fellow who actually knows about teeth I concede. But it is, after all, rather much a case of pull, twist and hammer away until the little blighter comes out.

It came out in two pieces and I was very impressed with the length of the roots. The teeth in that position have three roots and the splay out, so cracking them in two seems the only sensible way to remove them.

The anaesthetic began to wear off at work at around 4pm. I took some paracetamol and survived long enough until my meeting with a friend in town, where upon I did the only valid thing: get royally pissed. The numbing worked well and a mild hang over today ensured I didn't really notice the mild bruising pain.

As for the future, I can leave the gap for some months without issue. But if I wish to do something, I need to do it before the mouth commences to reaarange itself to the point where one just leaves it alone. Dentures are a kind of thing that you forget in the morning and put into your orange juice instead of the glass of cleaning fluid. A bridge is a strange way to affect other healthy teeth and implants cost a bomb.

End of Rant.

(C)opyright Sylvano Lucchetti.