It's Like Pulling Teeth!

Literally. I had four of mine pulled out yesterday. Clinically, the teeth extracted were my top and bottom binary cuspids. Humorously, my husband tells me I've been de-fanged! I guess I won't be able to dress up as a vampire for Halloween this year, or any year thereafter. The thing is, I had second thoughts about going forward with the procedure after my friend Margaret's harrowing tale of her extended painful recovery. In her own words, she was "curled up in pain for three weeks" afterward! Uh-oh, I thought to myself. What am I getting myself into? Up until that morning, I had had no qualms whatsoever about the procedure. It turned out I had nothing to worry about! Thank goodness. What my friend's dentist failed to tell her, and what mine emphasized after the extraction was the following: no sucking through straws or doing anything that can create a vacuum in the mouth, no touching of teeth sockets with finger or tongue, and no heavy lifting. The main concern is that you don't somehow manage to dislodge the blood clot in your sockets. This is called a dry socket, which is very painful and what poor Margaret had experienced. Anyway, just thought I'd share that and hopefully prepare someone who one day may need to be de-fanged, too!