My wisdom tooth has been giving problems since last Friday when I had my lunch and I realised that my lower gum hurts. Think it grew longer and started to hit my lower gum. It was also rubbing against my lower tooth and it was quite irritating. I decided then to remove it, remembering the dentist's words that it would only take 10 seconds and would cost only $20-$30. When I told my wonderful plan to Karen, she scared me that extracting the wisdom tooth is a BIG operation which involved cutting of the gum, filing the tooth, my whole face will be swollen, an MC of 5 days and a bill which comes to hundreds of dollars.
Obviously with my thesis deadline looming close, I couldn't afford to take 5 days of MC. But in the end, it was really irritating the hell out of me so I decided to make an appointment to see the dentist and seek his consultation. Since it was about time I polished my teeth, I decided that I could still do that even if I didn't extract my wisdom tooth. I called on Saturday morning but the nurse told me that the next available appointment would be next Monday. I couldn't wait that long since my wisdom tooth was starting to hurt already, which could mean that it was starting to decay or something. So I pleaded for an appointment and in the end, she told me that I could try to come early in the morning and could be slotted to see the doctor when an appointment is late.
So, I woke up early this morning and reached the clinic by 9:30a.m. Like the nurse said, the appointments were all full and there were 5 people waiting for their turn. I sat down and began my long wait. Initially, I thought I might not be able to see the dentist since patients kept streaming in for their appointments and no one seemed to be late. :( After an hour, I felt quite disheartened and contemplated skipping Health lecture just so I could continue waiting and see the doctor. Luckily, the nurse managed to slot me after an hour plus. The patient (pun intended) are really rewarded. (",)
I told the dentist my problem and he recommended me to just remove it. I then queried about the removal and to my immense relief, he told me it was just a simple extraction which would be over in 10 seconds with no major cutting, filing or swollen face.
So I told him to go ahead.
He gave me 3 injections and the third was really painful because it was on my inner gum. I could feel the long, thin needle piercing my gum. *ouch* Then my teeth polishing began and at the end, he extracted my wisdom tooth. It was really over in 10 seconds. I didn't even feel a thing.
Believe it or not, the whole dental trip was only $45! For polishing and extraction, I think it was really cheap. I even managed to persuade the nurse to clean my tooth and seal it nicely for me to bring back as a souvenir. :) Karen thought I was quite perverse when I showed her after lecture because she was frightened by it.
I wanted to keep it as souvenir because it was really huge. Considering that I'm so small in size and that my jaw is pretty small, the tooth was really big, fat and long. Still quite amazed that I have such a big tooth. Even Ivy was quite amazed by the tooth.
Anyway, that was my exciting morning at the dentist. I'm still in school now testing my data and realised with great disappointment that all my data is statistically insignificant. After all the trouble and headache trying to figure out what Prof Chin meant by "testing whether the data is good", I have reached a sorry end. I will e-mail him my results and check what he says later when I get home.*sigh*
Another day has passed. I really need to start writing my thesis.
min on Monday, March 07, 2005
