Teeth
Tomorrow I go to the orthodontist to have the brackets put on my teeth. Next Wednesday I go to the oral surgeons to have four teeth extracted. The following Monday I have the wires put on the braces. Just in time to fly to California to visit Brad’s family for a week. So barely a week after my braces go on, I’ll be trying to fly flying 3 hours on an airplane with two 17 month old toddlers by myself.
I didn’t think twice about any of the discomfort or pain, up until visiting the oral surgeon yesterday. Suddenly it’s all hit me and I’ve got a nice healthy fear now. I’ve never been put to sleep for anything before. I had surgery for a c-section with twins but they only needed a spinal. ONLY. This is scarier for some reason. Knowing that Brad will be waiting for me in the next room helps. But I wish he could be with me until I’m out. Maybe I can ask. Can I get some kind of anti-anxiety medicine to help with my anti-anxiety anesthesia? It’s a vicious cycle, I tell ya.
On the toddler tooth front… One of Logan’s molars has broken the skin and he’s got a matching one coming in on the other side. Both are on top. Forest now has three on top and two on bottom so he’s almost caught up with the “norm”. He’s so cute with his little crooked teeth.
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Comments
You know, I was knocked out for the oral surgery I had to remove my wisdom teeth. It really wasn’t bad at all. Not the surgery part anyways. If yours is a similar type extraction you’ll want to keep the ice on it from the get go to keep the swelling down. If they don’t give you some at the office when you leave you can put a cooler in the car with ice or bag of frozen peas or gel pack (whatever you have, latter two are better).
Here are my recommendations if it is similar:
-have the gel pack or whatever cold pack ready asap
-pick up a milkshake on the way home so you have something in your stomache and can take the pain meds right away
-never take the heavy (ie. prescription) pain meds on an empty stomach
-stay on top of taking pain meds regularly so it never gets super bad (even if it’s over the counter stuff for when they put the wires on the braces. that can be uncomfortable for a while)
I wore braces twice when I was younger and remember how my teeth would hurt every time they did an adjustment. And I got super sick after my oral surgery when I took Tylenol with codeine.
So when I had oral surgery for gum grafting, I did all of the above and it made a difference. Hope this is helpful.
Oh, I just remembered another one. Pick up your pain meds before surgery so they are ready to take right away.
Shaunna,
Actually, because of the location of these teeth they don’t expect any swelling (yay). My doc already gave me the pain med prescription so I can be ready with that. Great idea about the milkshake! I learned a long time ago that I need food with those medicines, had to keep the nurses on task at the hospital after my c-section about that. I’m curious about your experiences with gum grafting, that’ll be something I have to do in the future as well.
“Actually, because of the location of these teeth they don’t expect any swelling (yay). ”
What a relief. I had chipmunk face that started to feel like it would never go away :)
the neat thing about anesthesia is you’re out and awake again before you know it.
I would not want to be conscious when they were working on anything bone related. Even if they gave you pain meds you’d still feel all the vibrations in the rest of you and sitting through and not knowing what they were doing would freak me out more I think. and nobody wants their hand chomped on by an anxious patient!