An account of my Oral Surgery.

Problem:
About 3 weeks back the Right side of Lower jaw swelled, inflicting severe pain. Something that had happened about thrice in past 2 years. Reluctant to visit a dentist, I ignored thinking it would subside in a day or two. But it only got worse and I had to visited a dentist, where she asked me to get an X-ray. I went back to her after 3-4 days with the X-ray and she told that my Wisdom tooth is impacted, i.e. it’s growing tilted outwards exerting tremendous pressure on rest of dentition. I almost skipped my beats when she told me that I’ll have to undergo an operation to get it removed. An operation since the tooth wasn’t externally visible yet!!! Hell, I said to self!!! After much reluctance I visited a dentist and now I’ll have to see an Oral Surgeon!!! GOD help me!!!

The Solution:
On my brother’s insistence I went to Dr. Suhas Vaze, who, incidentally, is also H.O.D of his college. He said that this doc, apart from being an excellent Oral Surgeon, is also famous for his insurmountable cool temperament and patience. Indeed! After my first appointment with him I could sense it and my apprehension subsided after chatting with him. He scheduled my operation on 3rd of Dec, Friday. Much frightened, I reached his clinic on scheduled time. The typical odour in hospitals and clinic, reminiscent of the special chemicals used to keep the hygiene, made me feel so nauseating. After being seated on his chair, he pulled out an injection and I almost instinctively opened my mouth. Doc almost chuckled and said that this was to be administered on my arm. It’s purpose was to reduce the secretion of juices in my mouth to keep gag reflexes at minimum. Later he administered local anesthesia in my mouth, with equal skill. The way with his feather-light hands he injected me, I was coming to have more and more faith in his supreme medical abilities. Just at the same moment I saw only a few (literally 4-5) simple enough instruments on his tray. I was expecting an array of instruments today! GOD! This is really cool! Seeing my clenched fists, doc said ‘don’t worry son, even if I remove all your eight teeth you won’t feel slightest pain’! He then took a long incision on my jaws to expose the jaw-bone. Mind you, the tooth had not yet grown fully, which necessitated grinding jaw bone to expose the tooth within. He revved his 30,000 rpm micro motor (drilling machine, in colloquial terms) and put it in my mouth. It gave out a shrilling sound when it touched my bone, but much skillfully he grinded off requisite amount of bone. I felt doc smiling. Now the tooth was much visible and he put an instrument in my mouth and started pushing it upwards slowly. When it was sufficiently visible, he along with his assistant, started pushing it out harder. This was a little painful and doc had already warned me. The pain was because of pressure I felt on both ends of lower jaw bone, exactly below each of the ears. Seeing doc put the tooth on this tray, almost 40 minutes had passed now, I saw ordeal coming to an end :-) It indeed was!!! That’s it, I said to self. I bet, had it been any other dentist, he would have messed a lot! Despite the fact that he was working in the furthest end of my mouth, I didn’t feel slightest discomfort in my mouth during operation. Well, I’m speaking this of my previous experience of having, to my credit, three root-canal treatments!!! You better believe me! Taking a few stitches he wrote a prescription and explained me the drug schedule. Surprised!!! I saw only one steroid prescribed there! Stupefied, I asked 'only this much'! ‘Yes’, doc said. I got more explicit and asked what about pain-killers! He said I won’t need one, and in case I do, he asked me to take any of combiflam or brufen. The prescribed medicine was to keep a check on infection. Indeed, I didn’t need any pain killers, except for one. After the effect of anesthesia was evanescing at night, I felt severe pain. When it grew almost unbearable I took one brufen and went off to sweet sleep! I was expecting a LARGE swelling on my cheeks the other morning! But no! I was much happier being the Saturday morning! Touch Wood! Except for little a discomfort due to the fact that I cannot chew on hard food stuffs, I’m absolutely comfortable! Touch Wood!
I know, you are hell-bored now, so lemme get down to morals.

Moral 1:
If you have any dental problems, I would strongly advise you to visit this dentist, Dr. Suhas Vaze in Kothrud.

Moral 2:
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent.
It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

Mother of Morals:
Some agonies are physical.
Some are mental.
But the one which is both is ... DENTAL!