I decided to write a bit on wisdom teeth today because I think many of you are affected by them or will be soon!
To me, wisdom teeth are like one of the fuck-ups of evolution. These third molars that sprout up when people are 20 or so provided more chewing power for our ancient predecessors, but our jaws have since shrunk and for most people now fail to accommodate these extra teeth. Why couldn't the growth of wisdom teeth just disappear along with our evolving jaw size?!?! Also, are people who don't grow wisdom teeth more evolved than the rest of us??
A lot of people dread removing their wisdom teeth because they're scared of the pain, swelling and inconvenience the surgery brings.
I'll share a little about my experience so that those of you who need to have them removed might have a better idea of what to expect! :)
Why do wisdom teeth need to be removed?
There are two kinds of wisdom teeth. Ones that grow straight and ones that don't. When they don't grow straight, it's because the jaw is too small and there's no space for another tooth behind your existing molars. Wisdom teeth on the bottom jaw are usually the ones that don't grow straight because bottom jaws are smaller than top jaws.
When the tooth is growing at an angle, it grows against your second molar (the last tooth). This is known as being impacted. There is a gap that is created (and impossible to reach with toothbrushes) which traps food and leads to bacteria growth and infection. If your wisdom tooth is grown out and you experience pain, this most likely means that there is already an infection there. If you don't do anything about it, it will just keep getting infected and eventually there will be decay in both teeth involved! Then you have to pull out the wisdom tooth PLUS fix the decayed last tooth which is even more trouble.
Also impacted wisdom teeth may contribute to overcrowding of the rest of your teeth, which makes them crooked and ugly.
For wisdom teeth that grow straight, it's not necessary to remove them but it's still recommended, cause they might cause problems in the future!
In case you have problems visualising, I'm gonna you show you a freaking x-ray of my mouth. Btw the x-ray machine was really cute, I stuck my head there and it moved around my head and talked to me!!
Can you see how the bottom ones are COMPLETELY FREAKING SIDEWAYS?? Wtf! The tops ones are straight though. The top left one is still hidden inside my gum!
Getting them removed!
My cousin is a dentist and so she recommended her colleage and good friend, Dr Tony Wong from TP Dental Surgeons at Ngee Ann City to perform the surgery for me. He was really patient and thorough and made me feel very at ease, I highly recommend him!
Why the removal of wisdom teeth is so much more complicated than normal tooth extractions has to do with them being sideways. For normal teeth you can just pull them straight out, but for impacted teeth the surgeon has to cut open the gum, break the tooth up into pieces (with a drill), and then remove them piece by piece.
Sounds gross? You have two options.
Option 1: be awake throughout the procedure with local anaesthesia, which means you won't feel any pain at all but you will be aware of the dentist cutting up your gums and drilling your teeth and see all the blood
Option 2: go under general anaesthesia which means they will knock you out and you will wake up with your wisdom teeth magically gone.
I chose the latter.
The anaesthetist was my cousin's good friend as well, and the last thing I remember before knocking out was chatting with him. My surgery took about 1 and a half hours, and when I semi-awoke the first thing I heard was, "Just lift her up lah, she's only 37 kg" as the two doctors were transferring me to the wheel bed. Lol!
For the next few days I was on super effective painkillers and felt close to zero pain! For the first two days, there was hardly any swelling even. On the third day there was a slight bit of swelling but not that noticeable, and it subsided pretty quickly as well! I was actually worried that I would look like a chipmunk after the surgery but it didn't even happen!
One of the most important issues is eating post-surgery. For a few days, I was meant to eat only soft foods like porridge and scrambled eggs and mash potato, but on the second day I think I got a bit too greedy and wolfed down rice and veggies and prawns! And it was completely fine! But the rest of the week I stuck mainly to porridge, eggs, noodles and ice cream. Torture for a foodie like me!!! :( Now (1 week and 2 days later) I can eat almost normally, I just have to avoid very hard foods. The most troublesome bit is that removing the wisdom teeth leaves two freaking holes in your gums where they used to be, and bits of food fall in!!! So after every meal I have to flush the holes with a syringe and rinse with mouthwash. Ugh. They'll take about two months to fill up and return to normal.
Overall, the whole experience was a lot better than I expected, especially since there was minimal swelling and I could eat normal foods quite quickly. All of my friends who had their surgeries experienced lots of swelling so I guess I am walking proof of Dr Tony Wong's skills!! :D
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Some pictures taken on the third day after my surgery!
Mabel painting snowflakes on Zoe's nails
Mansy in HH's babydoll mesh top
Mansy's sweet and simple nails!
ELENA CUT HER HAIR! She looks like 10000x better! It's actually a mohawk but she didn't put it up! So hot right? Totally digging the andro look
Okay I look so gross in this picture. Face sliightly swollen can see?
Dinner at Sun with Moon :) Food there is pretty yummy!
Uh oh, caught eating stuff I shouldn't have been eating! Heh heh.
Yummy yummy green tea tofu cheesecake. I don't know what exactly a tofu cheesecake is but it is good.
And thennn Elena and I met Joost and Steffi and made Daniel pick us up from town and went for drinks at Cafe Iguana (blueberry margaritas! <3 okay more things I shouldn't have been consuming)
Last shot of Elena's hot hair! Hahaha. She's going to start blogging soon, I will link her if anyone is interested at looking at more pictures of her!! She's really weird so I would think her blog would be quite interesting lol. (Love you ele :D)
Okay time to pack! I'm leaving for HONG KONG (for the first time) tomorrow morning, with Sheila and Elena and Eka and Emma! Woohooooo.
Take care you guys! :)
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