Wisdom teeth

Whoever said getting their wisdom teeth out was easy is either way more tough than I will ever be, or had a much more effective anesthesia than I did. The area around my upper left wisdom tooth had been hurting since about Friday, so on Monday, I went to get it checked out. I went to King Faisal’s hospital, which is supposedly one of the best hospitals in Kigali – not that I have much to judge by. The building was a bit old, but otherwise it seemed to be modern, well-equipped, clean, etc (in my obviously expert opinion). The dentist there told me that the reason my mouth had been hurting was that the gum was coming in between my two wisdom teeth so I was basically chewing on it all the time, and the best solution would be to get one of them taken out. So they took an x-ray, again told me how lucky I was that my wisdom teeth weren’t impacted, and recommended a different doctor in a different hospital.

Wednesday morning, I went off, slightly apprehensive but generally thinking that this would not be a big deal. I waited in a less modern, more crowded hospital while the dentist saw the other patients. Finally it was my turn, and the very friendly Indian woman took one look at my xray and said, “well, all your teeth are impacted – which one did you want to get out?” She gave me two shots of local anesthetic, which I was fairly convinced weren’t doing anything because I could still feel everything… It was the most incredibly painful thing I’ve ever experienced, and that includes falling off a cliff, and… well, every other painful experience ever. She used a pick-like thing to try to wiggle the tooth out, which was so painful, and every time I told her it hurt, she’d stop and then have to start all over again. After an eternity, I asked if we were at all close, got a look, asked if we were really far, got another look, and then she just said, “I haven’t even started yet.”

I felt so bad, because I was such a wimp about the whole thing, and definitely drove the dentist crazy – at one point she asked if I wanted to be sedated… I think she was hoping I would say yes. Finally they switched to a clamp-thing to pull the tooth out, which was much faster, if just as painful. They stitched it up (at which point we discovered that the local anesthetic actually didn’t do anything because I wasn’t supposed to be able to feel them putting the needle in, but I definitely did) and now it’s totally fine. It hasn’t hurt at all since I got it out, so that’s good. I am so grateful for the program assistant, who held my hand (or rather, I almost crushed his…) and took me out to ice cream before going back to class.

So now I’m ¼ less wise.