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The Whole Tooth
Jan. 27th, 2026 02:51 pmWhen I was in high school I had periodontal work done. At one point I asked my periodontist whether I had any wisdom teeth and he told me I didn't, which I found vaguely comforting given the horror stories I'd already heard about such things.
When I was 35 my dentist did one of those around-the-head X-rays and it turned out that I did in fact have a wisdom tooth in the upper back left of my mouth. At the time the verdict was that since it wasn't causing me any issues and I wasn't exactly young that it would be best to just leave it alone.
More recently the wisdom tooth had come up again and again the verdict was to leave it alone, but this time there was a bit more concern because it had slightly erupted and it was potentially in contact with the tooth in front of it.
So, I had a periodontist appointment last Wednesday because it turned out that the wisdom tooth was responsible for a long-term pocket in my gums and had created some bone loss, so the periodontist was going to put in a bone graft to address that.
I'm in the chair and already numbed and the periodontist has been working on me for a bit and then he says, "So, your wisdom tooth is kind of getting in the way; is it okay if we extract it?" which kind of stunned me because in the past I'd been told that that would require an oral surgeon (is a periodontist an oral surgeon?). So I had a decision space of seconds, but I couldn't come up with any reason -not- to allow it.
...so, yeah, I'm down my one and only wisdom tooth. Subjectively the whole experience was kinda awful. Objectively it was probably easy and almost perfunctory, especially compared with some of the horror stories (again, I didn't get anything stronger than Novocain).
I was on Ibuprofen through the weekend, I've been on Amoxicillin until tonight, and I've been told not to use that side of my mouth in the meantime, though I can at least start using a soft toothbrush on it starting Wednesday night and continuing until I have a post-op visit next Friday. Obviously crunchy or very chewy foods are not really on the menu for me.
It's made me cranky and been a bit discouraging, but really, assuming I'm healing up okay, it will probably have been worth it. At least I don't need to worry about the wisdom tooth anymore.
I read a section of Book 5 that was so compelling I ended up editing over 5K words last night versus my usual 1K. Well dont, Joaquin!
We've been hammered by cold weather and snow since Saturday. My car's handled it like a champ, which is a little surprising and awesome.
I got my Pupjoi head and I think I love it.
When I was 35 my dentist did one of those around-the-head X-rays and it turned out that I did in fact have a wisdom tooth in the upper back left of my mouth. At the time the verdict was that since it wasn't causing me any issues and I wasn't exactly young that it would be best to just leave it alone.
More recently the wisdom tooth had come up again and again the verdict was to leave it alone, but this time there was a bit more concern because it had slightly erupted and it was potentially in contact with the tooth in front of it.
So, I had a periodontist appointment last Wednesday because it turned out that the wisdom tooth was responsible for a long-term pocket in my gums and had created some bone loss, so the periodontist was going to put in a bone graft to address that.
I'm in the chair and already numbed and the periodontist has been working on me for a bit and then he says, "So, your wisdom tooth is kind of getting in the way; is it okay if we extract it?" which kind of stunned me because in the past I'd been told that that would require an oral surgeon (is a periodontist an oral surgeon?). So I had a decision space of seconds, but I couldn't come up with any reason -not- to allow it.
...so, yeah, I'm down my one and only wisdom tooth. Subjectively the whole experience was kinda awful. Objectively it was probably easy and almost perfunctory, especially compared with some of the horror stories (again, I didn't get anything stronger than Novocain).
I was on Ibuprofen through the weekend, I've been on Amoxicillin until tonight, and I've been told not to use that side of my mouth in the meantime, though I can at least start using a soft toothbrush on it starting Wednesday night and continuing until I have a post-op visit next Friday. Obviously crunchy or very chewy foods are not really on the menu for me.
It's made me cranky and been a bit discouraging, but really, assuming I'm healing up okay, it will probably have been worth it. At least I don't need to worry about the wisdom tooth anymore.
I read a section of Book 5 that was so compelling I ended up editing over 5K words last night versus my usual 1K. Well dont, Joaquin!
We've been hammered by cold weather and snow since Saturday. My car's handled it like a champ, which is a little surprising and awesome.
I got my Pupjoi head and I think I love it.
