Wisdom Tooth :-(

[Mojo workin']

The oral surgeon wouldn't do it all at once. He would only do one side at a time, and even then the roots curved around my main jaw nerve, so they had to be crunched and taken out one piece at a time to stay away from the nerve, which took twice as long as it should have, The sound of crunching those teeth in such proximity to my ear sounded like concrete being broken up with a sledge hammer.

Almost my exact same experience. My orthodontist was not subtle in crushing the teeth, by leaning on the crushing tool with a lot of his body weight until the tooth cracked.

But the worst part-the pain of your breath rushing over the open, unhealed sockets just after the novacaine wears off. Ask for perkasette or stronger.

[theanalogkid]

I had five of my wisdom teeth pulled. Yes, five! I've got the sixth one up in there still, but at the time it wasn't close enough to mess with. Side fact, some people can have up to 8 wisdom teeth!

Anyway, I had the 5 pulled, and waited a couple weeks to play as per the doctors orders. Playing was fine after though. Something to make note of to your oral surgeon during the consultation. Make sure you tell him you're a brass/tuba player. There's a nerve that runs to the lips right near where the wisdom teeth can root, and if he's not careful, he can nick that nerve and that's that. For any average joe, it wouldn't be a be big deal, just some numbness in the lips, that's why they don't really mention it. But obviously it's a BIG deal for us.

I don't want to startle you or anyone else having wisdom teeth removal surgery, but this is a real concern. I can remember coming out of the anesthesia and the first thing I asked was if the nerve was ok. When he said yes, the craziness that anesthesia causes set in and I started crying my eyes out - haha!