28 Apr – 6 may 2012
—————————————————————-
My vacation last week wasn’t exactly full of fun. Why?

Here’s what happened;

I went to have my right wisdom tooth extracted. Unfortunately, after the Xray, due to the pressure caused by the grown impacted tooth, the dentist found out that the tooth beside the wisdom was also damaged on the side, thus, he recommended Root Canal Treatment and crowning for that tooth as well.

I was prepared to sit there for 1-2hrs for the extraction and probably another maximum of 2hours for the root canal and crowning. Unfortunately, the extraction took longer than expected for some reason I wasn’t very sure about. It took 6-7hrs to have one wisdom tooth extracted. As expected, as much I wanted to do the RCT and crowning on that same day, my body and brain were already negating this decision. Anesthesia was not anymore working. I felt everything and it was so painful, I cried! We all decided just to continue 3 days after.

O well, before I share with you guys my gruesome experience; I’d like to share what I learned about RCT first. I had 3 days to research about it and to prepare myself. Initially, I only know it’s a procedure that would ‘kill’ the nerve of the tooth so it wont anymore hurt.

I’ve learned more about it after my research.

Indication for RCT is when one has an infected and inflamed nerve inside the tooth. Doc has to remove the infected nerve without pulling out one’s tooth. Procedure would be;

1. Access the root. After numbing the area, an opening is made from the crown to the root of the tooth.
2. Remove the infected nerve. Infected nerves and tissue are removed by hollowing out the root canal, using special files.
3. Filling the canals. The canals are filled with material called Gutta Percha- preventing the bacteria from growing inside and destroying the tooth again.
4. Rebuild the tooth. A filling material is placed on top of the Gutta Percha to seal the opening.
5. Crowning glory. To finish the treatment and give you a natural smile, a Crown will be placed on top of the tooth. Sometimes, a post is placed with Gutta Percha to give the crown more support.

And with these in mind, I went back there 3 days after the extraction. I couldn’t open my mouth fully because it was still uncomfortable due to the stitches but with the help of some tools, they were able to make me open my mouth, as big as they desired.

They explained that it’s a procedure that would take about 2hrs and its one of the easiest. Hearing these made me feel calmer. I was thinking and planning of things to do after the procedure coz it was supposed to finish fast(-er than the extraction) .

Nah. Unfortunately, after 7-8hrs, 3 dentists, 1 tired dental assistant who kept on leaving the instruments in my mouth, not held (sometimes made me feel uncomfortable because it might just drop and choke me), 5-6 xrays, I was crying my ass off the table! They said they were having a hard time finding the canals because of the position and structure of my tooth. I thought it wouldn’t end. Anesthesia, failed me once again because it ,again, lost its effect on me. It was torture…excruciating…I was dying!!!

I was cursing while crying that entire time. Up to now, I’m still trying to think and at least give them benefit of the doubt. Maybe it was really my tooth position and structure and not their lack of experience and skills?!

Now, I described it as the second most painful experience I had my entire life. Next to heart ache.;b

After this ‘torture’ I decided that, I will never ever have my other wisdoms extracted! Though I enjoyed the chance of having a valid excuse for eating lots and lots of ice cream, I will never choose doing it again! NAH NAH NAH…even if they’ll pay me a million.

——————————————————————
Good things also happened during the trip like:
First time I tried eating laing pasta from Goldilocks. Which I thought was not bad.;)

——————————————————————
Our new house is almost structurally finished. Now, I’ve to save for the interiors!=)