Friday, March 2, 2012

What a mouthful

What started out as an uneventful Thursday turned into a whole lot of pain -- literally. Six weeks after I got my wisdom teeth out, the hole on the left side of my mouth had never healed over. This meant another trip to the oral surgeon in Provo, the bane of my existence. I HATE PROVO.

When I got there, I waited for about a half hour for the oral surgeon to finally take a look. When he did, it was bad news. Apparently my wisdom teeth were so impacted that the hole was too deep and the tissue couldn't grow back together. Translation: I would have a hole in my mouth for the rest of my life. Not cool. The solution was a bone graft using a tiny bone from a cadaver and then stitching the tissue over the top of it with sutures. I about threw up. Seriously? You're about to put some dead guy's bone in my mouth?!?

Yes. They did do that. They numbed my mouth, inserted a bone, stitched up the tissue, gave me a prescription for antibiotics and sent me on my way. Now my mouth is aching and I'm starting to look like a chipmunk again. Sigh.

Just so you know, having a bone graft after wisdom teeth surgery is VERY uncommon -- as in this only ever happens to 5 percent of people who have their wisdom teeth out. Moral of the story: If you have a hole in your mouth that never heals up, it's probably a bad sign. Hopefully this is the last time I have mouth problems like this! It's kind of scary.

After all the trauma at the oral surgeon, I ended up chopping my hair off. OK, so it wasn't exactly a cause and effect like that; it just ended up that my cousin could cut it last night, and I was ready for a change. I would post a picture, but my mouth is swollen on one side. Nobody needs to see that. I will tell you that it was inspired by Berenice Bejo's hair in The Artist. Oh my word, I am so obsessed with that movie. You should have seen me during the Oscars when it won Best Picture and Jean Dujardin won Best Actor. And I just found out that it's released on DVD/Blu-Ray on my birthday. Is that amazing or what? Here's a picture if you haven't seen the movie (and if you haven't, go NOW).


Isn't she adorable? I still look nothing like her, but I'll post a picture of my new hair once the swelling goes down. Wait for it! :)

2 comments:

  1. OMG, that sucks so bad. I hope the pain doesn't stick around. I cannot wait to see your hair!!!

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  2. So many thoughts went through my head while reading this post, the most prominent being "Now you can tell people your mouth is haunted," closely followed by "I MUST see your new Oscar-winning haircut."

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Thanks for sharing your beautiful thoughts! I love reading them.