Ouch

My jaws are clenched hard as I try to bite on two pieces of cotton rolls. I just had my first extraction. In simpler terms, nagpabunot ako.

It has been one boring week after another. When classes started, practice has been slow. Fewer patients have been coming in. My sister and I spent the first two clinic hours trying to busy ourselves. She browsed the TV channels on an endless loop and I pretended to review for the board exams. I had a mirror in front of me and I noticed how the misalignment of my teeth has relapsed since I had my braces removed. My two front teeth were not even in the same plane, di sila pantay. So I said to my sister, “Kabitan mo na lang ako ng brackets.” She then asked me to show her my teeth and she said, “Bunutin muna natin third molars mo.”

I have never experienced having a tooth extracted. I have done the procedure several times before but having it done to myself was quite scary.

(Real time update: The anesthesia is starting to wear off. I’m starting to feel the pain.)

I lay on the dental chair with my hands clenched together. The first step is to put topical anesthesia so that the patient would not feel the needle prick. My sister swabbed the area with a generous amount of the anesthetic. I never realized how awful it tasted until I experienced it for myself. Ugh. I gagged as the bitter stuff trickled down my throat. After that my sister loaded up the syringe (injection) and aimed for my palate (ngala-ngala). In theory, I know that it was more painful to anesthetize the palate than any other area in the mouth. So I took a deep breath and braced myself. I felt the needle pierce my palate and afterwards I felt a creeping sting spreading throughout the area. It was sharp and painful. Slowly, the area became numb. It felt like it was swollen. My sister then took another dental instrument in her hand and started to “loosen” the tooth from its bone socket. I was so accustomed to doing that procedure. I remember feeling excited as I would carefully but firmly exert pressure against the tooth and the bone. I remember feeling exhilarated when I see the tooth moving. Today, as my sister “loosened” my tooth, I felt every pressure exerted. I was anxious as I felt the instrument working through my tooth and the bone surrounding it. I felt dull pain but it was tolerable. So I clenched my fists, as I so often see my patients do, and I endured the anxiousness and the pain.

(Real time update: Dull pain.. no… sharp pain.. ugh.. I’m not really sure but it effing hurts.)

After the procedure, I had to bite down on pieces of cotton to help control the bleeding. My mouth was numb and I feel I could gag any moment. My mouth was full of cotton and blood and saliva were slowly pooling inside my mouth. I hate the taste and smell of blood.

Extractions would never be the same for me now. Experiencing both sides of the fence, I think I’d be more sensitive to the patient’s needs next time I had to extract his tooth. Dental procedures, in theory, are a series of careful steps to follow. In reality, there’s so much more than just step one, step two, step three.

Ouch.