The fear of a tooth is the beginning of wisdom

I just enjoyed five platefuls of spicy caldereta, chopsuey, rice and chicken lollipops in our team’s victory lunch. Now, I am a nursing a very full stomach and massaging a sore jaw. Which reminds me…

 

This x-ray of an unknown person’s teeth is from the Internet.

Unfortunately, it bears a good resemblance to my actual lower jaw. The last lower right and the last lower left tooth in my mandible are impacted. As defined in Wikipedia:

Wisdom teeth are third molars that usually appear between the ages of 16 and 24. They are commonly extracted when they affect other teeth—this impaction is colloquially known as “coming in sideways.”

Last January 2006, I chronicled my painful adieu to my right lower wisdom tooth in my old blog (see My First Tooth Extraction). But wait, there is another one still waiting to be extracted. Why go through the whole bloody process again?

A wisdom tooth is extracted to correct an actual problem or to prevent problems that may come up in the future. Wisdom teeth are extracted for two general reasons: either the wisdom teeth have already become impacted, or the wisdom teeth could potentially become problematic if not extracted. Potential problems caused by the presence of properly grown-in wisdom teeth include infections caused by food particles easily trapped in the jaw area behind the wisdom teeth where regular brushing and flossing is difficult and ineffective. Such infections may be frequent, and cause considerable pain and medical danger. Another reason to have a wisdom tooth removed is if the tooth has grown in improperly, causing the tongue to brush up against it. The tongue can tolerate it for a limited time, until it causes a painful sensation, to the point where the sheer pain can numb the tongue affected, and the area around it (part of the lips, and the cheek). The numbness feels similar to the feeling of anesthesia, possibly meaning a nerve can be affected by the wisdom tooth improperly growing in. Also, it is a wise choice to have them removed if undergoing extensive orthodontic work because once the teeth have come in they could inflict some damage on expensive straightening.

I thought that my remaining left wisdom tooth is taking its excruciatingly sweet time to erupt fully. I only notice it every other month, when the left side of my jaw begins to throb and my mandible clicks audibly when moved sideways. Actually, I still have a faint hope that it is just an ordinary tooth, but one year is too long for a normal one to come out. So I am now gathering my courage and thousands in cash for another tooth extraction.

*turns pale*

 I hope it just sublimates, evaporates, vanishes, disappears, *poof* from my jaw.

Go away, tooth. Shoo.