Extraction

    If you think that I'm going to talk about extractions methods used in the Army or Special Opps you dead wrong.  No this type of extraction is the one feared by most of us.  I'm talking about a tooth extraction.  Almost all adults around the age of 20 get their wisdom teeth extracted, unless you don't have dental insurance and then you end up paying for each of the 4 wisdom teeth extractions one at a time.  I say one at a time because most people can only afford to have one pulled out at a time when no insurance is involved. The most likely reason you're having one pulled is because your having problems with it.  But on with my extraction. 

    After having a cancer tumor pulled from my lower left lobe of my lung along with the lower left lobe itself I decided that I would avoid any type of pain at any cost.  So I neglected one of my back molars for a few years.  Just long enough to have it crack in half and get some nasty deep tooth decay that only an extraction could fix.  So a few days ago I start to get an infection and then I decide I should see my dentist.  He saw that my gum was puffing up due to the infection and said "I'm going to have to pull it, and it's not going to be easy.  But I'm willing to do it if you think you can handle it.  I'll have it good and numb so the only thing you should feel is pressure"  The great thing I like about my dentist is that he talks to me about the problem, as opposed to how much I suck for letting my teeth get as bad as they are.  (When anyone is told they have cancer see how much they really care about their teeth.  So I neglected my teeth, but hey I really thought that my days on this planet were numbered.)  I like the simple fact that he's honest with me.  Yeah, it may hurt but so what, it's not cancer.  So I wish him good luck, which makes him laugh. As he's laughing my chair slowly starts to recline until I am blinded by the light of the overhead lamp. 

    After he gets me good and numb he goes in with his tools.  At this point I close my eyes.  I do not want to see any of my blood or tooth bone fragments flying out.  I can also hear the tooth break louder with one of my senses turned off.  At first I thought he had it, I felt it wiggle then CRACK!!!  What I thought was the pulling of the molar from my jaw turned out to be the top part of the tooth breaking off from the bottom two roots.  Now he had to go in with a drill to create something that he could grab the roots with.  So one root at a time he pulls them out.  For the most part he was correct, the pain wasn't all that bad.

    As I write this I have red blood drooling out of my mouth and onto my keyboard.  The pain from the days' wrenching is starting to take effect.  My wife was kind enough to call back to the dentist to talk about my pain.  Writing this entry is helping me pass the time and also helping me focus on something other than the pain.  Wife just informed me that she's off to pick up some pain killers.  Once they kick in, I should be fine.

    The moral of this story is this,  If you like to hear bone breaking noises in your head coming from your jaw then neglect your teeth.  If you like drooling like a baby you should give this a whirl.  If neither one is your bag of tea then take care of your teeth.

......it's never to late to start looking like a crack head