wisdom teeth are a curse!

after putting it off for four years, i finally decided to remove my four annoying molars.

since young, i was never really afraid of going to the dentist. i don't remember crying when the school dentist extracted my baby teeth, and i have no issues with the usual scaling and cleaning. but today, the fear hit home.

i was lucky that my left molars were not impacted, so a simple extraction did the job. and i chose to do that first to test my threshold of dental pain. even though the extraction was not painful (except for the injection of the local anesthesia which lasted for around two minutes) the procedure was extremely horrifying. the sound of the tooth twisting in my gums, and the eventual pull that the dentist made with brute force was enough to make me turn pale in the face and go weak in the knees. the aftermath was not as painful as i imagined, though the numbness in my tongue and lip left me struggling to speak like a stroke patient, for two hours. i waited, and waited anxiously for the local anesthesia to wear off, and for the pain to come back, but when it did, it was not as bad as i imagined. the bigger problem was the excessive salivating and bleeding in my mouth. my campbell soup tasted like iron, but it was better than not being able to eat.

the most unfortunate news is that this is not the end. four minus two leaves me with two more molars on my right, one of which would require a minor surgery.

YES! a minor surgery! the thought of going through this a second time is far too petrifying for me, not to mention that today was merely a walk in the park. imagine the cutting of the gum, followed by the chiseling and drilling of the tooth, then the sewing back of the gum, and lastly the inability to open your mouth for five very bloody days lest the stitch opens - this sounds like a gruelling marathon to me! okay, make that a biathlon, since i presume that i would be swimming in blood for the first couple of days.

in other words, i am scared out of my wits...

God, give me courage to book my next appointment!