Well, the dental visit went well enough, I did end up having to have two teeth extracted, unfortunately. I knew going in that it was a high possibility that I would end up having the extraction done there and then, but there was also the possibility that it would have to wait due to the infection that was there (and yes it was still there, it hadn't gone away with the weeks worth of antibiotics that I had been prescribed, it was still raging and according to him not under control).
So I am hoping with the new course of antibiotics that the infection is finally dealt with, if not I have no idea what is going to be done since the normal course of hitting the hospital for a short stay right now isn't considered to be a feasible option (as they are still dealing with covid and are still short-staffed) from what I have been told. So here I am praying that things work in my favor, and don't need higher involvement of treatment.
So what actually happened at the appointment? Simple I went in and the dentist took a look at the Xrays and said that it was his assessment that it did need to come out, when I told him about the other tooth, he said it was likely referred pain and I was like, I don't think it is not based on the level of pain it was causing me. Turned out I was right, the hole that was causing issues did have an infection in it because there was still part of a tooth holding on for dear life (not all of it had fallen out like my primary dentist had said it had (apparently it was a shard that had been covered so until the infection it wasn't showing itself) at any rate so instead of just the one area needing to be extracted it meant two areas needed extraction, once considered a minor extraction and the other a major.
The upper hole was the simple one for him to pull what was left of the tooth and get the root with it, the bottom molar was one that he had to drill and break up because though it was a bad tooth it was a large tooth with a solid filling and the tooth next to it has a cap, so he didn't want to risk uncapping the other tooth if it could be helped (since that tooth is itself now in jeopardy of being lost now that the tooth next to it is gone).
One thing that was a first for me, at least as an adult. He asked if I wished to have gas to help with the freezing, I told him to use his best judgment on the matter as I was willing to have used what was felt to be the best option to get the job done in a timely matter. The truth is I haven't had gas since I was a child and it was used on me only when I was at the Sick Children's Hospital Dental Clinic. I went to the clinic, because as a child when my adult teeth came in my baby teeth didn't fall out, so to make space for the adult teeth I had to have the baby teeth pulled, some of the baby teeth were never pulled because there never was a replacement tooth. The semi-funny is the tooth that was pulled was one of the last remaining baby teeth I have left in my mouth, I now only have two left that are my original issue.
At first, it was not easy to get myself to breathe in the gas, my brain/body was fighting the process. Having forced "air" going over my nose tends to shut down my ability to breathe and forcing myself to breathe though that is really hard to do, I did manage to do it but it wasn't easy to keep trying to do it because all thought-out the process my ability to breath kept shutting itself off.
I did make it through and I think some of the processes for the extraction was actually helped with the gas because I didn't smell the drilling or have to the smell of the gloves, etc. It did make a big difference in that respect. I guess the gas itself did help keep the use of the freezing down (I don't really know) but I assume that it helped or he wouldn't have offered it as an option.
He did have to give me a decent amount of freezing to make things properly frozen and the upper portion freezing of course was the first to wear off - it had dissipated by the time I got home the lower part lasted around 5 hours which isn't bad in general, though sadly the breakthrough pain was happening within an hour so I did have to take something when I got home to cover the pain level.
I'm now 24 hr post and still experiencing pain, it hasn't reduced as yet as I had hoped but research says that it can last upwards of 72 hours to a week post depending on how bad the extraction was needed (aka infection, etc) but that if last too long or gets worse that something called Dry Socket could be happening and that treatment for that will be needed (I've had that happen once from extraction, so I hope this is going to be the case - but fear it likely will be with my track record of the past).
I will post more as time does allow for it until then take care, everyone!
