Fear and Oral Surgery

I went to the local dentist on the 15th after being woken up in the middle of the night by rolling waves of pain in my face/jaw. I won't get into all the nasty details, but needless to say- I have to go to an oral surgeon this coming Thursday to have 3 teeth pulled- 1 wisdom tooth and 2 molars- all on the right and all in bad shape. He said my wisdom tooth was impacted and rotten, though to my understanding wisdom teeth are generally never in good shape when they come through. He put me on Amoxicillin for the infection and gave me Hydrocodone for the pain.

Guess who the dentist wanted to send me to??? Psycho "Steve Martin" oral surgeon. That's who this dentist usually sends people to. I told them about my experience with this other guy and so he chose someone else for me to go to- a lady oral surgeon- newer and younger, probably more apt to be gentler.

The dentist told me though that the other guy had had some trouble about 2 years ago- right around the time that I went to him- that there was a lack of good communication in the OS's office and probably the reason I didn't get the gas or any local anesthetics...and that a lot of his staff had to be let go of around that time because there was scandal going on in his office- embezzlement or something.

Still makes me queazy to think about it though, that even if it was his assistants who forgot to tell him I wanted gas, it still should have been double checked and I couldn't very easily tell the OS I was supposed to have gas after he'd chocked my mouth open and I couldn't speak.

This dentist seemed to understand though and laughingly said the other OS ruined me on going to the dentist since I hadn't been in 2 years because of that incident. I'm hoping things are better this time around, though from the sound of it- I'm in for more than just these extractions. The dentist wants me to come back to him a month after these get pulled so he can get a better idea of what teeth can be saved and the ones that can't be.

Really rather freaks me out, but I know I need to do something about it because I have been awful about taking care of my teeth over the years. I already told my mom that if more than 1/2 my mouth needs work or more than 1/2 my remaining teeth need to be pulled- well...I might as well just have them ALL pulled and get dentures. Not sure yet though. We'll see.

Haven't been able to concentrate on anything though. I have thought about my revisions and such, but just haven't been able to bring myself to open it because I know my attention span right now is too short to invest real quality time and concentration on my work. I hate this, but after all this is out of my way- I'll dive in and get back to what I love to do, not worrying about dental issues.

Will update again once I've had the teeth pulled Thursday and am feeling up to it.

T