Oral Surgery

Last Thursday, I went to the dentist for my first cleaning and exam in over a year. You would think I would know better than to wait so long with the amount of dental work I have had during my life, but life happened. The last time I went was during the summer of last year when I had a bad tooth ache. The dentist determined I had an infection and prescribe me antibiotics. Around the time of the tooth ache, maybe a short time before, I developed a bump on the gum beside the lower molar that started to hurt. I assumed that the dentist would have said something about the bump if it was a concern since it was adjacent to the tooth that was infected.

The antibiotics seem to work as the pain went away after a while, but the bump never did. In fact it grew a little bit over time. When I went to the dentist everything else was fine but he did notice the bump, which he called a fistula. He was concerned about it, took some x-rays and referred me to an oral surgeon.

I went to the oral surgeon yesterday to have him do an exam. Based on the x-ray and looking in my mouth, he determined that he needed to do surgery. This tooth is one I had a root canal and crown put on while I was in college. Apparently my body is reabsorbing my tooth. He showed my on the x-ray where about 1/3 of one of the roots was already gone. Since this was done about 12 years ago, he thinks this might be due to an infection. If this had happened soon after the root canal, then it could have been attributed to the fact that sometimes the body will reject the packing material as foreign matter.

He also thinks that it was not the antibiotics that made the pain go away but that the liquid in the fistula, which had built up pressure, thus causing the pain, had broken through some of the tissue and were now draining. Thus the pain went and stayed away.

I'm scheduled for outpatient surgery on New Year's Eve, at 10:00 a.m. Yeah! Not. Since I had almost all of my benefits for the year on my dental plan available, he wanted to schedule me so that I could use them this year, and not lose them, and so that I would have all of my benefits next year. I was given a choice of Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve. My first choice was Christmas Eve since I already had that off but after a phone call to my wife, it was changed to New Year's Eve.

During the surgery he will remove the fistula, peel back the gum around the tooth, clean out any infection in there and check the tooth to see if the root is cracked. If it is, the tooth will have to come out immediately. If not, I may be able to keep it. He tapped on the tooth and decided it felt solid, so it would be worth saving if possible. I agreed.

He said I did not have to be knocked out for the operation but recommended that I be. I agreed again. So Stephanie will have to be along to drive me home and care for me. After the surgery, he will have me on antibiotics for two weeks. About a week after surgery I will go back in to have him remove any remaining stitches. After the two weeks on antibiotics he will have me go two more without before coming in to see him again. He will then take some x-rays and examine the area to see if any infection has returned. If not, I should be good to go. If it has gotten re-infected then the tooth will have to be removed.

I asked what the options were if I had the tooth removed. He said my dentist could talk to me about the specifics but in general I could, because the two teeth on either side of the infected tooth were in good shape, get a fixed bridge, or I could get a removable bridge (which he did not think I wanted at my age, again I agreed with him) or I could, once the bone had healed, get an implant with a crown on top, which is the one he would recommend. Once again, I had to agree with him.

The recovery after having my wisdom teeth removed was not a fun experience and I don't imagine that the recovery from this will be much better, except that it will be only one area and not four. If you remember this on New Year's Eve, I would appreciate any prayers made on my behalf.