Life Update: I had a wisdom tooth removed in my mid-30s.
A personal life update plus a Tiny Werewolves 2024 stationery subscription club update.
2024 Stationery Club Update
The stationery club will be back in March (I think) in one from or another - I was planning on bring it back in February but it was delay because I had oral surgery on January 23rd.
Keep an eye out later in February for the official relaunch newsletter!
Getting A Wisdom Tooth Out In Your Mid-30s
I’ve known for about 20 years now that my wisdom teeth should have been removed when I was a teenager. They were heading for impaction then however we didn’t have great dental coverage and my family couldn’t afford to just drop an extra $1,000 to get them removed. We were already on state healthcare (and other state benefits like food stamps) so because they weren’t causing me pain, we just kept monitoring them.
Which then rolled into my 20’s - and with that my dental coverage (shockingly) didn’t get any better. In fact at times it was worse and very non-existent. However, my wisdom teeth just kept hanging out, just chilling not causing any problems.
Even now, at the age of 35, none of them were actively bothering me. The problem became that the upper left tooth, number 16 for folks who know their dental anatomy, decided to move and break through the gumline at some point in the last year or so. This was caught relativity quickly (luckily) but even so there was already a small cavity on the exposed part of the tooth and my dentist was like “yeah, you’re never going to be able to keep that clean - it’s so far back and up there” and she was right. To be honest, I didn’t even know it had broke the gumline. So she gave me a referral to an oral surgeon and after waiting 6 weeks for a consult I finally had the appointment in June of 2023.
The Consult
To be frank - the experience at the oral surgeon consult was not great - not the worst office visit I’ve had, but I left being very on the fence about going back. However, you only really see an oral surgeon a couple times so I figured whatever - this isn’t a long term thing. While the staff was nice, there was a serious lack of communication and they were so behind that day with the schedule.
First off I was told over the phone, at the front desk, and by the person that took me back that there was this special x-ray/scan that was “optional” that shows where the nerves are in your face. The reason optional in quotes is because one - insurance doesn’t often fully cover it (or cover it at all) and mostly importantly two - it’s not actually optional. I not only emailed, but then spoke to someone on the phone the day of the appointment, because hours before your appointment they send a text with a little note about how much your out of pocket cost is for that visit. You can imagine my surprise when I get a text after 6 weeks of waiting for a FREE CONSULT that the appointment scheduled for that day is estimated to cost between $200-$400 with zero explanation as to what I would be charged for or why I needed to have it these extra things done.
I arrive and after being told it was optional by three people - I’m then taken to the consult room and left to sit… forever. And I’m not saying that to be dramatic. A while goes by someone comes in and asks why I didn’t have the scan and I said because I was told repeatedly that the - wait for it - $400 out of pocket scan - was optional. I was there for the (free) consult on my wisdom teeth. You have the x-rays from my dentist. You just took more regular x-rays when I arrived because my dentist cut off some of the views, so that’s fine. I understand the desire to see this special scan with the nerve view - but if you can’t look at the normal x-rays and have a conversation with me on a basic level then we have a problem because my normal dentist could do that. She left and I was alone again.
At this point it was an hour after my appointment start time, and I still had not seen the actual dentist. I contemplated just leaving - but at that point I figure WTF I might as well wait. However what was more upsetting and pissed me off was I could hear people (staff) in the hall talking about me, saying that I didn’t want the scan. Which obviously made me feel like shit AND I had been sitting alone, in that room for 90 fucking minutes.
At this point I was just done - completely over everything, the whole experience. It was close to about 4:40pm and I was going to give the doctor, or anyone really, 5 more minutes and then I was going to leave. That was more than enough time - and sure enough, the doctor magically appears and explains that she was delayed from a surgery that had some complications (I believe it was the patient had a reaction with the anesthesia because again I could hear the techs/nurses in the hall), which is fine I understand that but like just have someone come update me.
She asked why I wasn’t having the $400 scan done and I gave the same explanation. I was then offered a different deal - where I could pay the a consult fee of like $200 (instead of it being free) and they would just write-off the cost of the $400 scan because she really wanted to see where the nerves were in my face and jaw. And look, I get it - that’s important. But also especially at this point, $400 is a lot to pay for a scan for a service that I’m not even 100% sure I’ll be back to you business to complete.
I did take the deal though - because I do love a good deal.
In memory of getting my tooth extracted your can sign up to get 50% off forever - as long as you stay an active paid subscriber - my Substack newsletters, now through February 29th, 2024 just click the button below.
That’s only $6 $3 a month or $60 $30 for the whole year.
The time it took to do the scan, meet with the doctor and look at the x-rays and the special scan, and get the price quotes for removal of just #16 and all 4 took maybe TWENTY MINUTES.
Because of my age, she recommended just removing just #16 right now, unless the others are causing me pain, because the bones in my jaw have solidified making removal and recovery often more challenging and difficult the older you are - not unique to me. This is why you typically get them out by your mid-twenties.
Then by the time I paid, I literally almost exactly two hours after my appointment start time at about 5:15pm - and I know this because I messaged Parker when I was on my way home (aka in the car) finally.
I was there so long that because the office closes at 5pm, and they walked me out the back door (the staff door) to the parking lot, because the front door was already locked. Like WTF.
Oh and by the way, that special $400 scan showed nothing unusual about where my nerves are located. They’re a little close to the bottom wisdom teeth, but we’re not removing them right now anyway.
The Removal
After waiting for 6 weeks for the consult appointment, I expected to wait for an appointment to get the tooth removed as well. But much to my surprise, they were like we have an opening on “Tuesday at 9am - does that work for you?” and I was like you know what let’s just get this over with and I took the appointment. I then reminded them it was just the one tooth (#16) that was getting removed and they made the note and we were good to go.
I kid you not - I got a text notification the day of saying my out of pocket cost for the day was estimated to be about $2,000 and I immediately was like *JFC they didn’t put it in the system as just the single tooth* and I was correct. I got that fixed when I arrived but like it really just gets back to the lack of communication or I don’t even know on their end because that would be enough to send some people into a full blown panic attack however I knew from the consult it was the estimate for all 4 but imagine getting that text an hour before your appointment and you’re expecting to paying about a quarter of that.
The appointment itself was really easy. Most of the time was spent waiting for the numbing to kick in. Because this tooth was partly above the gum, I didn’t need anesthesia and could instead choose nitrous gas. I was fully awake for the whole thing, it took all of maybe 5 minutes to remove the tooth. Because it was nitrous gas, then I drove myself home and by noon at the latest the bleeding had basically stopped and I just played video games all afternoon.
The Recovery
Luckily everything has gone very smoothly with healing so far. I’m 11 days past the removal, I had almost no swelling in the initial week. Parker was in disbelief because if you didn’t know that I had a tooth extracted you literally could not tell (also because her cheek/face would have absolutely puffed up like a balloon).
I am currently dealing with a minor setback of a sort of very delayed dry socket. Usually dry socket occurs much earlier in the healing process (days like 3 or 4) when the blood clot that forms fails and falls out (for many reasons, usually because people don’t follow post care instructions). However, I woke up on day 8 and my cheek had an odd tightness to it and my cheekbone was sore, something that was new. When I looked in the mirror (I highly recommend buying a dental mirror so you can check on the progress and for any problems) there was a small hole that formed in the white granulation tissue which had sealed off the tooth extraction hole. I knew immediately that this was not a great sign but monitored it for 24 hours. Thursday morning (day 9), the pain wasn’t any better but wasn’t any worse. Initially, the hole had been resealed overnight, so I was okay this is working itself out - however when I looked again at noon, the hole was back and bigger. I called the oral surgeon and was able to make an appointment for the following day.
Day 10 - This morning I noticed that the one (dissolvable) stitch she placed was still there holding on to the remaining granulation tissue. At the appointment today, she confirmed I do have dry socket, however I should only have any residual discomfort though the weekend. There’s no infection, which is great news. She removed that stitch (which should have already removed itself between days 4-7) and the remaining tissue and then cleaned out the hole. After talking it over, I chose not to have it packed, which is how dry socket it treated, because she said gravity will likely just pull it out and since the shortened timeline of needing just the weekend before it wouldn’t hurt on it’s own anyway.
The stitch being in still could have also been causing some extra irritation to the gums and with that removed it may also help calm things back down. However it’s likely that’s what helped keep the tissue in place long enough to save me from the painful part of dry socket.
Day 11 - *FINGERS CROSSED that this weekend goes smoothly* So far, so good - removing that stitch I think helped with the tightness that I was feeling in my gums. My cheekbone also isn’t sore today, so that’s big plus.