One day I woke up with a pain on the side of my face and thought that maybe I had slept in an odd position to cause the pain (like with my foot in my face).
I thought that the pain would go away after a while but it gradually became worse.
I then noticed that I couldn't grind my food properly and that I could only chew on my food with my front two teeth - my teeth had somehow become misaligned and it was incredibly painful to eat anything.
After spending some time with Google-sensei, I came to the conclusion that a remaining molar tooth grew to a point where it started to push my upper set of teeth out of sync.
I went to a local dentist to ask his opinion and he wrote a letter to refer me to a dental hospital.
This is a photo of the x-ray that they took at the hospital - you can see the last wisdom tooth in the upper left of the photo - get it out!
Zooming back in time a wee bit - need to fill in a load of papers before being attended to. Most of these documents are in Japanese and the nurses generally presume you can speak Japanese too.
Folks who need English speaking dental services should consult Google sensei.
When I was trying to diagnose myself, I saw a lot of stuff I couldn't unsee which included a load of gums being cut up just to remove the wisdom tooth ><
I was given this to read while waiting which seemed to confirm what I read about being in pain for weeks after the tooth is removed ^^; I love the illustration of the angelic tooth ^^
This tooth plushie didn't help ease my mind either ^^; The wisdom tooth is called "Oyashirazu" [親知らず[おやしらず]] in Japanese.
It was only a few weeks before AX2014 and I really needed that tooth out as not only did it push my upper set of teeth out of place but gave me constant headache too.
I was given a choice of a local or full anesthetic which would render me half conscious - I would have to wait another few weeks for the full anesthetic as they needed to have a doctor come in to read me a load of stuff - most of it being disclaimer stuff incase I die ^^
I decided to have the tooth pulled out there and then so after two huge needle jabs to my gums, this fellow started to tug and pull. Luckily he was able to pull out the tooth without any gum cutting which would have then involved stitches.
I went to a university hospital where they train students - usually one sensei trains about 20 - 30 students on live patients from what I observed. I was made to sign a disclaimer where I agree to let students practice on me ^^;
The government have a load of these university hospitals (known as 大学病院) and it is common knowledge of the citizens that they are used to train the next generation of doctors. Are these university hospitals common in your neck of the woods too?
Even though under local anesthetic, I could still feel the tooth being pulled out - literally like a bone being pulled out from the flesh ><
I was lucky that I didn't have one of those sideways growing wisdom teeth which would have certainly involved slicing n dicing.
I actually asked for a towel to strangle with my hands which helped with the pain a bit during the extraction ^^;
And this is it! It looks kinda gross - all of this apart from a small part of the crown was inside the gum. I would have thought it would be white but feels kinda like velvet ^^
After the tooth was pulled out, I was surprised that there was absolutely no swelling and that I could speak as normal which was the opposite of what everybody else around me seemed to have experienced.
There was however a really nasty tasting fluid which seeped out from the socket for about a week ><
I think I'll plant this in my garden to see what happens.
Ah, nearly forgot to mention the cost - was about 5,000 yen to have the tooth pulled.
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