Removal of Impacted Teeth – Teeth Straightening Part 1

It was a pain in the ass.

My teeth is not perfect and I really wanted to straighten my teeth. But what set me back for the past few years was the ugly metal wire of braces and the food restriction. I am not ready to embrace my 2 years of youth with braces. No, never!

Then, Invisalign was introduced to me and I was all so happy to get started with my treatment. (I will talk about it later) But my worse nightmare began when I went for an X-Ray and was found that I had 2 impacted (hidden) teeth in my hard palate. 

Gosh! My doctor told me that I had to remove my impacted teeth so that I can start on my teeth straightening treatment, otherwise it will obstruct the process. In other words, my doctor would have to operate on me to remove them. By all means to cut my whole hard palate, drill it in, extract the two hidden teeth out and stitch it back.

I was devastated. I was all so ready to commit to a long term commitment with my Invisalign aligners. Guess I will have to postpone it after my surgery….

So after going through so much worrying and debate over to do the surgery with my family and friends later, I decided to be brave and go for it. No choice, 爱美就是这样。 (I’m too vain) (glad that I will be on Anesthetic or else the pain would just kill me)

I went for extra CT scans and after a few consultation with my doctor/surgeon, I had set a date to operate on November 2014. But, I was struck with flu on the operation day and I had to postpone my operation to December because my doctor said that the infection risk was high. Sigh….

Fast forward to December 2014. It was my first time entering a surgery room, I was wearing a new hospital gown that was given by one of the nurses to get me ready for the operation while they prepared for the surgery room. I clearly remember that there were a few nurses and all eyes were on me till 2 doctors came in. It was a fearful yet exciting experience as I have no idea what will they be going to do next and to imagine them cutting my gum open was just horrendous.  The nurses attached me to a heart monitor through a few circular patches on my chest. At first I wondered what were those and if those hurts. Hahahahas My doctors then assured me that it would be the best sleep I would ever have and injected me with anesthetic to put me to sleep.

The whole process took about 1 and the half hours but I woke up only about 3 hours later the surgery due to the drug injected on me earlier on. 

Yay! It’s kinda like an achievement for me as it was a virgin experience. I was very scared and worried that something may happen to me, though I know it’s just a very minor surgery. (LOL I was afraid that I couldn’t smile and eat happily again!) 

Things went well and I was happy that the operation was successful. All thanks to my surgeon who have so much experience. I get to be discharged from the hospital on the day itself, so I went home right after and rested.

However, I had to bear those ugly stitches and also wear something (a custom-made plastic mold) on my hard palate and for two whole weeks! Gosh, I recalled that the first few days I had to blend all my foods so that I can drink it instead of chewing it. It was really uncomfortable, I really had to endure as it was very unmalleable and tough. Plus, it drops easily which made me very paranoid as I kept thinking that I may choked to death by that piece of plastic.

It took me about 2 weeks to be fully recovered without any stitches and mold on, to be able to eat properly. I realized that simple daily actions like to be able to chew your food are so precious. Hahahas, I actually consumed more foods after I recovered (for a brief period of time only!) but luckily I did not really gain any weight.