Eight Teeth Lighter

Earlier in the year, our dentist "discovered" that D- still has quite a few adult teeth that have yet to emerge. Why this discovery occurred when D- was 17 and not younger is a mystery. Suffice it to say, D- has 4 adult teeth that seem disinclined to grow.

What do you do about that you ask? We could do nothing and let him deal with it in later life, but dire warnings about abscesses and bone grafts make us leary of this. So step 1 is applying braces so that the adult teeth that are already in-place can be adjusted slightly to allow the recalcitrant adult teeth all the room they need to emerge. We've done this... just in time for senior pictures.

Step 2 is to pull-out all the baby teeth in the way. There are five of those. And step 3 is to "expose" the yet-to-emerge adult teeth by attaching small sub-gum hooks to each so the orthodontist can apply upward pressure using the braces and tiny chains. The hope is that this pressure will get the teeth to grow.

Steps 2 and 3 require an oral surgeon. And because pulling the baby teeth and exposing the 4 adult teeth requires general anesthesia, both the oral surgeon and the orthodontist thought it a good idea to have D-'s wisdom teeth removed all at the same time. One fell swoop kind of thing...

Yesterday was the big surgery day for D-. Four wisdom teeth and five baby teeth were to be pulled and four adult teeth exposed. Two hours in a dentist's chair under general anesthesia. D- was nervous. Not so much from the post-operative pain but from being knocked-out. But what a trooper he was. Off he went. Two hours later the nurse came to get me. Unfortunately not all the work was completed. Four wisdom teeth and four baby teeth were pulled and two exposures completed. But two hours was the limit they wanted to keep him under; they did as much as they could. He has to go back for the rest in a couple of weeks.

I am very proud of him. Despite the braces and despite the oral surgery, D- has been his usual cheerful self. No complaining, no whining, just his usual upbeat self. When other folks would have gotten down, D- has retained his sense of humor. Even five minutes after his surgery yesterday, his good nature shown through. As soon as he got into the car, he grabbed my glove box camera and snapped a self-portrait. I couldn't stop him and he doesn't even remember taking the photo.

Because the photo was taken right after surgery, it's pretty graphic. So don't go past the jump if you're at all squeamish about dental aftermath.

You have been warned.
K-