My rebellious teeth

[davidn]

My first visit to what I had begun to mentally call the castle of Doctor Terrible took place this afternoon - I've opened a new entry tag to record the development of this new storyline that life has thrown at me. In reality it's a nice enough basement suite, clean and quiet and only slightly funeral-home-like. Dr Fine is a little older than I expected, but nice in a pushy sort of way (but everyone in Boston is pushy, so it averages out to just being nice).

After filling out the obligatory confusing mess of an insurance and consent form while listening to the gentle call of high-pitched drilling noises, I was led through to a dental-looking room where he asked if I was from New Jersey (apparently the accent is very similar) and poked around in my mouth a little. After that, he immediately said that we'd better 'relocate' and distractedly led me down the corridor. I was half-expecting to be taken to a small dungeon somewhere, but instead I was shown to a tiny room with an X-ray lightbox and desk.

The consultation that followed was calm but not fantastic. Essentially, my wisdom teeth are all partially impacted, infected, extruded or exploded, and from just taking one look in my mouth he was surprised that I wasn't in complete agony because of any one of them. To look on the bright side, not being in agony even though my wisdom teeth are having such a hard time is probably a good thing - we must be more resilient in Britain. Still, he made it clear that they had to come out as soon as possible to prevent future catastrophe, and that process would involve a considerable amount of pain and swelling. Apparently there's also the very, very rare possibility that removing wisdom teeth will sever a nerve running along the jaw, but apparently Massachusetts General Hospital are rather good at repairing those.

So I had to read through and sign an absolutely terrifying sheet saying that I understood the risks of surgery and the possible problems (because as he says, America has too many lawyers in it), and I've been sent home with a leaflet called "Impacted wisdom teeth" illustrated on the cover by a large and happy third molar at a crazy diagonal angle. Now I just have to wait for a phone call from somebody from the office so I can arrange to get them removed from my head, and I'm sitting at home on the sofa eating chocolate biscuits while I still can.

Comments

[scellanis.livejournal.com]

aww *hugs*

Wisdom teeth as soo evil :(

[kitschyduck.livejournal.com]

D:!!! you poor thing!

Though "I was half-expecting to be taken to a small dungeon somewhere" did make me laugh!

[ethelfleda.livejournal.com]

They are bullshitting you. There is no reason why an impacted wisdom tooth should become infected simply because it's in the 'wrong' place.

NICE has recommended that:

* Impacted wisdom teeth that are free from disease (healthy) should not be operated on. There are two reasons for this:
o There is no reliable research to suggest that this practice benefits patients
o Patients who do have healthy wisdom teeth removed are being exposed to the risks of surgery. These can include, nerve damage, damage to other teeth, infection, bleeding, and, rarely, death. Also, after surgery to remove wisdom teeth, patients may have swelling, pain and be unable to open their mouth fully.
* Patients who have impacted wisdom teeth that are not causing problems should visit their dentist for their usual check-ups.
* Only patients who have diseased wisdom teeth, or other problems with their mouth, should have their wisdom teeth removed. Your dentist or oral surgeon will be aware of the sort of disease or condition which would require you to have surgery. Examples include untreatable tooth decay, abscesses, cysts or tumours, disease of the tissues around the tooth or where the tooth is in the way of other surgery.

http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/index.jsp?action=byID&o=11385

Find a dentist who will actually look after your teeth, rather than just milk you for insurance money.

[davidn]

Hmm. Apparently the fact is that these wisdom teeth are already causing problems in that they're difficult to clean as they're half pointing into the sides of my mouth, and I've got cavities in the nearby teeth as well because of the problems with cleaning around them. And it's because of that, rather than simply being in the wrong place, that there's a high chance that they'll become infected, and I'd rather skip the pain that Whitney had to go through when her teeth suddenly became infected.

And I was first told that dentists in America always recommended that you had your wisdom teeth out, but I've now had two different dentists say that there were obvious problems. I suppose I could always go for a second opinion.

And thanks for reminding me of that giant list of potential surgical problems :(

[ethelfleda.livejournal.com]

It is of course your decision. The list of surgical complications should be there - you have to be aware of the risks versus benefits. And that surgery itself can be extremely painful (someone I worked with needed four days off after having two wisdom teeth out she was so knocked back by it - and she'd worked through the pain of them going manky).

My dentist's advice on Frankentooth No.2 (no infection/abscess but so totally in the wrong place and a bugger to clean) was just to get a toothbrush with a smaller head and spend longer cleaning it (I'd suggested yanking it while he was taking out Frankentooth No.1).

I am prejudiced against US medicine (including dentistry). My experience come entirely from filing medical notes from people taken ill in the USA - they were just leapt on and subjected to dozens of unnecessary procedures to grab every last drop of money from their insurance. Not just that the NHS doesn't do enough - when people had been taken ill in European countries they weren't subjected to all that stuff (even if you don't speak the language you can get a lot of medical stuff from a discharge sheet).

So. I have an overwhelming urge to ward of US-style medicine with garlic and crucifixes, which is probably biasing my advice somewhat :)

[kjorteo]

I was under the impression that they err on the side of removing them when they're pointing the wrong way or if your mouth is too small and they just don't fit, or things like that.

I lucked out, myself--I always get this story mixed up between the top and bottom row of teeth, but I know one of them just doesn't have wisdom teeth at all (like, they never existed) and the other grew in, but there was enough room and they came in straight enough and everything that I could just let them do their thing and be okay. So either way, I was spared wisdom tooth removal.

[crassadon.livejournal.com]

It's been so long since I last saw a dentist. My last one advised me to have my wisdom teeth out, but that was a couple of years ago now; I still haven't had it done.

Reading all of this, I'm glad I haven't had them out yet.