Tooth of the Matter

By afparungao - Sunday, October 03, 2010

I woke up yesterday morning with a slight pain coming from my right jaw. Thinking it was just something I got from my sleep (I tend to end up in awkward positions when I'm sleeping), I completely did not mind the pain and go about my activities for the day. That afternoon, still with a very painful right jaw, I went to my dentist to have my regular cleaning. I asked her if the pain has something to do with any parts and she said it isn't since she didn't see anything wrong like swelling gums, etc. She just told me that I have to have my wisdom tooth removed next time since it is growing in an angle that will cause bigger trouble like cyst or tumor in the future. Shivers. 

Honestly, I am not afraid of dentist and dentist sessions. In fact, I am more afraid of my dermatologist than my dentist (both of them are very good by the way). I also have no problems with getting my tooth extracted, probably because I can no longer remember how painful it was. My first (and last so far) teeth extraction happened when I was four years old. When most kids were happily enjoying (hehe did they really?) their baby teeth, I am already growing my permanent. It was a Friday night when I was scheduled to have four of my lower front teeth removed to give way to my growing permanent teeth, thus having unaligned set. I was told then to take good care of my teeth because I've had my permanent set at a very young age. Most of them had to be extracted to give way to the growing ones. At seven, all of my teeth were already permanent. Pressure. I had to take caution in eating sweets and anything hard. But that did not stop me. By the age 12, I had crowns because of the damage to my permanent teeth, which were taken in four weeks of going to and fro to dentists. It wasn't a breeze, I tell you.

Now I am giving too much information. 

This morning, I still woke up with the pain, worse than that of yesterday. I concluded that it comes from the growing wisdom tooth. I had to take a couple of pain killers and sleep so I could forget how painful it is, but it just won't cut. At the end of the day, when the pain killers had already lost their effect and the pain starts creeping again, you have no choice but to deal with it, until the new pain killer sets in. Much like how painful things happen. You can only mask it with "pain killers" but in few hours, days, weeks, and months, you have no choice but to face it. It's either you have it completely removed on one go, and deal with the post removal effect or go on and live with the pain until you are completely numb to feel it. I chose to mask it first now and undergo the one time, big time removal regardless if the swelling makes me look like a hamster. Now, I have to remember how painful it was and how the profuse bleeding almost made me think I was going to die anytime. Right now, I am constantly checking if my face is still proportion or I'm growing a second face in my right side jaw.

My dentist told me that I have high tolerance for pain. Maybe I do. Maybe I am a masochist who takes pleasure in pain, but how long will I be able to tolerate this?

Truth is, this is more than just the pain of the toothache. 

  • Share:

You Might Also Like

0 comments