Today, I had my last two wisdom teeth removed. One wisdom tooth on top right and second one located bottom right. Good thing both wisdom teeth were on same side so I can use my other side of the mouth to eat after surgery.
I am actually impressed with this new oral surgeon’s office. This office is so high-tech. Everything is done electronically. Before my consultation appt with my new oral surgeon on Oct 24, I filled out a patient form online then submitted it electronically. When I met with the office for the first time on Oct 24, they had all of my patient information into their database. There were some other documents I needed to sign and I had signed those documents electronically as well by using an on-screen signature pad.
In my former oral surgeon’s office where I had my bottom left wisdom tooth removed years ago, I remember seeing stacks and stacks of patient file folders and signing all kinds of paperwork manually.
On my consultation appt day Oct 24 at my new surgeon’s office, I noticed that their patient rooms are named after Bay Area bridges. I sat in the Carquinez Bridge room. Each patient room has a fancy frosted glass sliding doors. Inside the patient room, it has a 30″ flat screen TV where they showed a video of the procedure and risks of wisdom teeth removal. Also, I got to see a detailed panoramic x-ray of my teeth.
At my former oral surgeon’s office, their patient room has a wooden door that looked like it was made in the 1970s. Inside the patient room, they still used a VHS video machine and a tube TV to show the procedure and risks of wisdom teeth removal. At this office, I never got to see an x-ray of my mouth.
After talking to my new oral surgeon, I made an appt with them to have my two wisdom teeth removed on Thurs Oct 27. About 8 hrs before my surgery, I had to take two tablets of decadron (to treat swelling). Two hours before my surgery, I took one tablet of robinul. My oral surgery was at 8:30am. That morning, I was not supposed to drink or have anything to eat. While my husband was having his Starbucks drink and donuts that morning, I was getting very hungry!
At 8:30am, they took me back to the Carquinez Bridge room. There was a table inside the room which had all the instruments they needed to use for surgery. When I sat down on the chair, the dental assistant took my blood pressure, placed some electrode patch thing on my chest and put this temperature indicator sticker on top of my forehead. Also, this fingertip pulse monitor device was placed on my right index finger.
After being prepped by the dental assistant, the oral surgeon came in and put this oxygen mask onto my nose. Next, he needed to insert a needle into my arm to administer the general anesthesia. Since my vein is not close to the surface, the surgeon took 15 mins to find a vein in both of my arms! He kept poking and poking. About 15 mins later, he finally got the needle inserted into my vein on my right arm. There were three people inside the room with me. The third person sat behind me looking at the flat screen monitor above me. I can see her typing notes of what time the oxygen mask was put on me and other medical procedures. The surgeon told me it may take about 1 min or two for the anesthesia to take affect. But I think I was knocked out already in matter of seconds!
When I woke up, I woke up outside of the patient room near the end of the hallway next to the exit door. There was a wheelchair next to the bed where I was laying down. The dental assistant was telling me something but I was still trying to wake up. Then my husband came in with our son Nathan. When I was a little more awake, I got off the bed and sat on the wheelchair. Gee I can’t even remember getting into the car. I didn’t even realized when we got home! I guess I must have fallen asleep in the car.
After surgery, my oral surgeon saved my wisdom teeth which were kept inside this small white container. One of them is still intact while the other one is broken into three pieces. At my former surgeon’s office, I couldn’t even keep my wisdom tooth. Not sure why.
Not only my mouth was soar from the surgery, my arms were soar as well after being poked with the needle numerous times. I couldn’t even carry my son!