Dental Horror Story: The Wisdom in Teeth

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

06 Sep 2007 01:24 PM

Wow, I can't believe that it's September already. Part of my disbelief stems from the 12 week plus long odyssey of pain that I went on this summer. As you may remember, a few months ago my face started hurting. I went to see a doctor who thought it might be TMJ. He sent me to the dentist who thought I'd just pulled my face during a migraine. He gave me some muscle relaxers and sent me off.

Two weeks later I went back to the dentist because not only was the pain back - it was worse than before. I was having trouble chewing. The pain was constant and it wasn't just in the cheek - it was in my jaw. I was a bit concerned that they would go back to the TMJ diagnosis.

Instead, they stuck my head into a panorama x-ray machine to get a really good look at what was going on. So what did they find?

• Tooth #15 had a very nasty abscess on the root that they didn't see in the previous x-ray, but when compared, they determined the previous x-ray wasn't clear enough
• Tooth #16, an impacted wisdom tooth was trying to crown through the gum and was at a very odd angle
• The other three wisdom teeth were all impacted and extending their roots, including the one that was laying parallel to the jaw and jutting backwards to my head

Okay, that was the good news.

Antibiotics & Specialists

The dentist prescribed antibiotics to get rid of the abscess infection. That was a first step. He also put me on pain killers so that I could function (which was only partially successful) and advised me to go and see an oral surgeon.

It would take at least two weeks for the antibiotics to clear up the infection and so they scheduled my visit with the oral surgeon for the beginning of July. I just needed to survive the next two weeks.

Check back tomorrow to find out what happened next.

Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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