I removed two wisdom teeth at one go last Monday, namely the upper left one by extraction and the lower left one by surgery. Sounds excruciating? I thought so too, but surprisingly, it was a breeze and hopefully, this post will help those of you who are afraid of dentists to overcome your fear. 😉

My uncle (who’s a fabulous dentist too, but he doesn’t perform surgeries as frequently) recommended Dr Bruce Chew to me because he’s an oral surgeon. It’s important to find a good dentist to perform wisdom tooth surgery because a blotched job can impair your facial nerves, resulting in permanent facial numbness. I was quite perturbed by the thought of this, hence I prolonged my appointment till just 2 weeks before my back-to-back trips so that I have just enough time for recovery. 😛

What was the process like?

Dr Chew did a fantastic job. Before the deed was done, I was given antibiotics and painkillers. He then proceeded to administer local anesthesia through injection until my entire mouth was numb.

Not once did I feel pain (my threshold is very low) during the whole process, including the injection. My upper tooth was extracted in the blink of an eye. I almost didn’t realize it was already taken out.

The lower tooth, on the other hand, took slightly longer because it was necessary to break the tooth into smaller pieces. The drilling sound was deafening. I am not kidding when I say deafening because for someone who has had a lot of dental work done, this is the first time I’ve experienced drilling of this magnitude. There was also some pulling and tugging but both Dr Chew and his nurse, Doris, were very reassuring. Again, I have to emphasize that there was no pain throughout and the procedure was completed in about 30-45 minutes.

Extraction/surgery aftercare

I was given a course of antibiotics, painkillers and an antibacterial mouthwash to prevent infection and speed up the healing process. You will also be given 5 days of medical leave to recuperate at home.

For the first day itself, do prepared for bleeding to last at least a couple of hours. It can be a gory sight, having to change your blood-soaked gauze every half an hour or so. I was told to only use the mouthwash before bedtime, after brushing, so as to give the blood ample time to clot. This is important because the nurse warned that some patients who turned a deaf ear to her advice suffered from excessive bleeding thereafter.

My lower facial nerve was exposed after the surgery because of my tooth’s proximity to the nerve, which meant that there was a possibility that I would experience numbness for a few months. Dr Chew advised me to take Vitamin B should I experience numbness in my lips the next day, but thankfully, there was no numbness to speak of. 😉

Did I experience pain in the days that followed?

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