Wisdom Teeth
Jul. 14th, 2006 08:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebSix months ago at the dentist I was told that I need to have my two lower wisdom teeth removed because they are too hard to clean around and will get infected. One had felt infected a couple of times, but getting regular with the tooth brushing cleared it right up. (My two upper wisdom teeth are still lurking within the gums.)
An oral surgeon was recommended who comes by periodically but who is not on my insurance. I made an appointment and he confirmed that I should get this surgery and gave me an estimate of $700. I decided to wait until the next insurance plan year so I could have that money set aside pre-tax and thus save 15%.
Then I read a few stories about wisdom tooth removal and realized that this is not something you do lightly. You should give yourself some time to recover afterwards, like with other surgeries. (Do not do it before a vacation or a party, etc.) And you can have nasty complications. Depressing. I've hung around two people who've gotten their wisdom teeth removed; one was fine the next day and went back to work. One was moaning and groaning on the couch for a week while I fed him milkshakes.
So today I was back at the dentist. New x-rays were taken. This bothered me because I thought that x-rays show the position of your teeth, and mine aren't moving, so why do they need more? So I asked the dentist and he said because they can also see decay. If there is any, which there wasn't this time. (Yea!)
And the dentist talked about my wisdom teeth. One is obviously parallel to the one next to it and not causing any trouble. The other is growing in at a slant, so there might be trouble, but he tried flossing between it and the neighbor tooth and the floss fit just fine. So he thought that so long as I was willing to be diligent about cleaning that area, I didn't need to have it removed.
This made me angry. When I have an choice between annoying tooth cleaning for the rest of my life, which I have to do anyway for all my other teeth, or painful semi-expensive surgery with risky anesthesia, I really don't want to hear only the surgery choice.
I asked if the top and bottom wisdom teeth generally come in at the same time if they're all coming in or if they sometimes come in at wildly different times. He said that when they come in at different times, usually the bottom ones come in first. So even though I'm 43 I could still have more wisdom teeth coming in at some point.
Later, my dental hygienist, who had not been in the room during all this talk, said she thought I was going to have my wisdom teeth removed. I said, "That's one possibility." And then she told me about the infection problem again.
Well, I like her and respect her, and started thinking that my new plan to just keep my wisdom teeth might not work out like I hoped. What if everything works fine until one day when it doesn't, and by then I'm 72. I'll wish I'd had the surgery back when I was a spry 43 and was better at healing from these things. (I assume. I'm already at an age that is really terrible at healing from these things, from what I heard last time. That's why no one suggested pulling my top two wisdom teeth--since they weren't coming in, they weren't causing any trouble.)
I'm starting to realize this is another one of those areas where I'm going to need to do some reading on my own and make my own decisions rather than merely relying on trained professionals. Bleh.
***
When I got to work after my appointment, there was cake with strawberries and whipped cream waiting for me. Fortunately, I am the kind of person who has no trouble eating sweets right after a dental appointment.
Web site of the day - Are you better off single?, by Dawn Yanek. "While snuggling up next to a warm body can be pretty fantastic, according to a survey conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, your bedmate can cause you to lose an average of 49 minutes of sleep per night. Sleeping two-to-a-bed just isn't as restful as snoozing solo."
I've never seen an article from this perspective before. I've seen plenty of articles about why it's better to be married and stay married. You get richer. You get happier (at least the men do). Your kids are more well-adjusted.
So this article lists ten things that are better for single than married people. The one about sleeping better is not actually true in my experience. I think I do fine either way, and I know a person who definitely does better when he's not sleeping alone.
Other things depend like whether I have a better body.
Two are only true for women--single women tend to do less housework and be less depressed. Weird.
Another surprise: you're more likely to achieve great things if single. I always thought that if you had a nice, solid, supportive home life, you could take more risks outside of home and thus be more likely to achieve greatness. And that has felt true to me, too. (This one was tested only on men.)
And the other cautionary one for people in couples - single people tend to have more interesting travel tales.
The article is actually written for an audience of people who wish they were married but are still single, so it's oddly pro-marriage while espousing benefits of singlehood. Interesting.
An oral surgeon was recommended who comes by periodically but who is not on my insurance. I made an appointment and he confirmed that I should get this surgery and gave me an estimate of $700. I decided to wait until the next insurance plan year so I could have that money set aside pre-tax and thus save 15%.
Then I read a few stories about wisdom tooth removal and realized that this is not something you do lightly. You should give yourself some time to recover afterwards, like with other surgeries. (Do not do it before a vacation or a party, etc.) And you can have nasty complications. Depressing. I've hung around two people who've gotten their wisdom teeth removed; one was fine the next day and went back to work. One was moaning and groaning on the couch for a week while I fed him milkshakes.
So today I was back at the dentist. New x-rays were taken. This bothered me because I thought that x-rays show the position of your teeth, and mine aren't moving, so why do they need more? So I asked the dentist and he said because they can also see decay. If there is any, which there wasn't this time. (Yea!)
And the dentist talked about my wisdom teeth. One is obviously parallel to the one next to it and not causing any trouble. The other is growing in at a slant, so there might be trouble, but he tried flossing between it and the neighbor tooth and the floss fit just fine. So he thought that so long as I was willing to be diligent about cleaning that area, I didn't need to have it removed.
This made me angry. When I have an choice between annoying tooth cleaning for the rest of my life, which I have to do anyway for all my other teeth, or painful semi-expensive surgery with risky anesthesia, I really don't want to hear only the surgery choice.
I asked if the top and bottom wisdom teeth generally come in at the same time if they're all coming in or if they sometimes come in at wildly different times. He said that when they come in at different times, usually the bottom ones come in first. So even though I'm 43 I could still have more wisdom teeth coming in at some point.
Later, my dental hygienist, who had not been in the room during all this talk, said she thought I was going to have my wisdom teeth removed. I said, "That's one possibility." And then she told me about the infection problem again.
Well, I like her and respect her, and started thinking that my new plan to just keep my wisdom teeth might not work out like I hoped. What if everything works fine until one day when it doesn't, and by then I'm 72. I'll wish I'd had the surgery back when I was a spry 43 and was better at healing from these things. (I assume. I'm already at an age that is really terrible at healing from these things, from what I heard last time. That's why no one suggested pulling my top two wisdom teeth--since they weren't coming in, they weren't causing any trouble.)
I'm starting to realize this is another one of those areas where I'm going to need to do some reading on my own and make my own decisions rather than merely relying on trained professionals. Bleh.
***
When I got to work after my appointment, there was cake with strawberries and whipped cream waiting for me. Fortunately, I am the kind of person who has no trouble eating sweets right after a dental appointment.
Web site of the day - Are you better off single?, by Dawn Yanek. "While snuggling up next to a warm body can be pretty fantastic, according to a survey conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, your bedmate can cause you to lose an average of 49 minutes of sleep per night. Sleeping two-to-a-bed just isn't as restful as snoozing solo."
I've never seen an article from this perspective before. I've seen plenty of articles about why it's better to be married and stay married. You get richer. You get happier (at least the men do). Your kids are more well-adjusted.
So this article lists ten things that are better for single than married people. The one about sleeping better is not actually true in my experience. I think I do fine either way, and I know a person who definitely does better when he's not sleeping alone.
Other things depend like whether I have a better body.
Two are only true for women--single women tend to do less housework and be less depressed. Weird.
Another surprise: you're more likely to achieve great things if single. I always thought that if you had a nice, solid, supportive home life, you could take more risks outside of home and thus be more likely to achieve greatness. And that has felt true to me, too. (This one was tested only on men.)
And the other cautionary one for people in couples - single people tend to have more interesting travel tales.
The article is actually written for an audience of people who wish they were married but are still single, so it's oddly pro-marriage while espousing benefits of singlehood. Interesting.
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no subject
I had no idea it was dangerous. When I had mine removed at 15, they didn't mention that. Of course, I had 5, at least one was impacted, and they were severely crowding my other teeth to the point that I was persistently complaining of pain to dentists. So "if" they were coming out was less of a question and more of a "when".
The drugs knocked me out, then it was over. I was drugged the rest of the day (=worth nothing for work purposes) but could have done useful things the next day. If I hadn't been 15 and on vacation.
On sleeping with other people:
I do not get the better rested part. As a single person, I went to bed later because I had no motivation to go to bed. As a married person, I go to bed earlier to encourage him to go to bed. And because he encourages me to do so. When I am away from him, I often get less sleep because I go to bed later. I believe the same is true for him.
So, where is she getting the better rested?!
no subject
on 2006-07-16 02:41 am (UTC)On sleeping better alone: Okay, now imagine your partner is the type to hog all the covers. Or to roll around, accidentally hitting you in the face with his arm. Or to put his cold feet on you. Or to lie on your hair. Or to snore really loudly. In these cases, you might get a bit less sleep. It's shocking how many couples actually sleep apart because of issues like these.
no subject
on 2006-07-17 02:28 pm (UTC)And I sleep *much* better when Dave's there.
no subject
on 2006-07-27 04:39 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-07-17 04:17 pm (UTC)Did it strike you guys that the author of the singles article seemed to conflate marriage and children, as though she didn't realize that are actually two different decisions that can occur separately. I couldn't get a sense of what the supposed impacts of being married without children vs being single without children are. Yes, it's silly to question the rigor of an article like this, but it was sort of startling to see marriage and kids presented as a single package.
I also cannot recommend highly enough the simple tactic of simply making the bed with two top sheets/blankets to neutralize the cover-hog issue.
-sally
no subject
on 2006-07-27 04:47 am (UTC)Some people feel the same about "impacted" teeth, teeth that have not come in all the way or at all. So you might want to get a new opinion about those other two teeth. Being over age thirty makes things rougher, and that's only going to get worse with age. On the other hand, maybe removal is just not indicated, and you can stop worrying about gathering up any unneeded courage.
On the article: I'm used to seeing marriage and children conflated. People who want children tend to forget about us weirdos.
On sharing covers: Robin gets the sheet, I get the comforter.