For the past three days I have had a little nagging pain the back of my mouth..riiiight around where my wisdom teeth WOULD come in IF they had enough room to do so.
Last night it was actually keeping me up at night and I could feel the inflammation..and so today I went to see a dentist.
current-opera-company was nice enough to call and set up a same-day appointment, I had two xrays taken, was poked and prodded for about 2 minutes, and got the confirmation that yes, I should get that wisdom tooth taken out.
In addition to the extra scare that it looked totally gnarly and there might be three roots instead of two down there...so expect a not-so-quick-or-regular recovery.
GREAT.
What did this cost me (even though the office DID accept my US health insurance--they don't submit the forms themselves)? 129 dollars.
For 2 xrays that took 2 seconds and the dentist saying, yea, that looks not so fun. Not including going to an oral surgeon twice and paying most likely in the thousands of dollars for a good one to deal with this surgery.
So, A.- that's not such a fun thing to have to look forward to. I've been delaying the wisdom teeth thing (they've been impacted and haven't moved in the xrays since I was 18) since I've frankly never really had the time to 'take off' and do it.
I know 'normal' people can recover in a matter of days. But for singers..you NEVER know what you will feel like, if you can open your mouth all the way, how the muscles lining your jaw will feel, etc.
Basically, I would have wanted a whole summer to recover.
Sadly, I have about 2 weeks if I get it done next month, and 2.5 weeks if I get it done in May..
In between performances and competitions.
B. this is a major buzzkill and freaked me out.
C. in germany this dentist visit and xray would have cost 10 euros, and I could have gotten in to see an oral surgeon the next day..and THAT surgery would have also cost 10 euros plus maybe a 10 euro xray fee.
So, D. I WILL wait to have this done in Germany.
And, E. It will NOT feel great until it happens. I can eat and chew and I don't have headaches or anything...but it feels like my back bottom right gumline is inflamed. And apparently, it IS- seeing as how a tooth that has NO room to be there, is attempting to peak out from behind my molar.
"Ah, incisor, we meet again".
Ugh.
2 comments:
I put off having it done for years for the same reasons...I wanted more recovery time, and it was a complicated removal requiring a good oral surgeon. Had them out Dec 30th and was back at work 2 weeks later with no problems, but I was lucky and had no complications. It did feel a little weird at first to sing but I recovered well...and I only had 3 wisdom teeth to remove, not 4!
The good news? AGMA Plan B paid for all of it, so it ended up being "free". You'll be fine!
E, thanks for your story of success-- I have put this off basically since I got my braces off ... although it never bothered me before the once-a-year headache thing started a year ago or so.
Blerg. Will have to face it either next month or May...
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