My wisdom tooth is no more! I had my bottom right wisdom tooth removed two days ago, at Kings College hospital under IV Sedation.
The whole procedure took about an hour and went by really quickly. I was sat in the chair and given a cup of drinkable ibuprofen and then the dentist tried to insert the IV. It took two goes in the right arm before giving up and trying on the left. It wasn't too painful though. I knew that IV sedation meant that I would be awake during the procedure, but that it would make me relaxed and sleepy. To be honest, I don't really know how the sedation affected me. It was nothing like those videos you always see on YouTube, put it that way! I guess the procedure went quite quickly, it didn't feel like it took 45 minutes, but I was aware what they were doing throughout the whole thing, but it didn't bother me. The thing I found hardest was that the IV sedation made me feel really, really cold so towards the end of the procedure I was shivering uncontrollably. Finally I was stitched up and wheeled to the recovery area where the nurse brought my step-mum in and explained briefly about aftercare (although really make sure you do your research before, as this was very, very brief) and gave me my pain medication (ibuprofen 400mg, they wanted to give me 600mg but were out so told me to top it up with 200mg ibuprofen from the pharmacy, and paracetamol). Once they took my blood pressure and checked that I was able to walk it was time to go home! Afterwards I was telling my step-mum that I didn't think the IV sedation had worked, but she said "Kimberley, you were acting drunk." So I guess it must have had some effect!
For the rest of the day I took my pain medication, lay on the sofa, had some soup and that was about it. Not in too much pain, and no blood. You can't rinse your mouth out or brush your teeth for the first day as you want a blood clot to form.
The next day my cheek was quite swollen, but not too painful. It's manageable with the drugs. I had been using a ice pack on and off on my face, but I don't know if it did too much. A salt water rinse and brushing my teeth gently with a baby tooth brush made me feel a bit more normal! After eating soft food for most of the day I happily wolfed down some home made lasagne in the evening. As I only had one tooth removed I was able to chew on the left hand side of my mouth, I just had to be careful not to get anything over the other side.
Now we're two days after the procedure and for me, this seems to be the worst day. I woke up this morning feeling very nauseous. This could be a side effect of the ibuprofen, but it's a vicious cycle as I felt sick so didn't want to eat, but can't take my medication on an empty stomach. I finally managed some porridge and took my ibuprofen and am feeling better now. My face and neck are feeling quite tender today though, and I am still swollen. My face doesn't seem any bigger though, so hopefully the swelling will start to go down now. Just half an hour until I can take my next dose of paracetamol!
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