I’m now on the 14th day of my very own self-imposed 30-day blog post challenge which also propelled me to restart doing other things I love as I’ve mentioned in my previous posts. And one thing I love to do is sleeping and that’s what I’ve been doing lately to recover from a recent tooth extraction I had. If you’re thinking of having your tooth extracted sometime soon and you’re more or less my age (I’m 40), then this post might enlighten you.

I had this problem with my tooth since 2014 and it’s just this week that I finally had it extracted. This is also why I’ve been quiet online.. the meds I’ve been taking made me so lethargic and sleepy!

Let me give you a little background first as to why the problem with my tooth lasted this long (4 years!)

 

BACKGROUND

I’ve always been conscious about my teeth since I was a kid. Having a bucktooth (sungki) runs in our family. My grandfather has it; my mom and aunt have it; I had it. So, during my teen years, I begged my grandpa to shoulder the expenses of letting me have braces. After a lot of begging, he finally gave in and from my junior to senior year of high school, I had braces on. I then had it taken off before graduation and I wore retainers until my college sophomore year.

My teeth were okay for a long time. When I was 29, I thought of getting braces again, because I felt like my teeth weren’t as aligned as they were after my first braces were removed, and mostly because I was vain and I could already easily afford it. Lol!

Suffice it to say that I had braces in my late 20’s and again in my 30’s. Then I had several other vanity procedures like whitening, brightening plus permanent fillings. Then I had this one particular tooth that was like half tooth and half dental filling. I was asked by my dentist not to chew on that side of the jaw coz I might crack the filling.

To make the long story short, I did crack the tooth a bit. I had another dentist look at it and that dentist told me to have the tooth extracted and replaced with crowns. I forgot how much that would cost me but I remember feeling bad about it coz it would cost me a lot of money, money that I didn’t want to spend on painful crowns. I was also in the middle of my “divorce” then and the only thing I was concerned about was to get my house mortgage paid up. I still had 3 years of mortgage to go at that time and I needed all the pesos I can earn to go to that budget. All other expenses were not a priority. Plus the tooth didn’t bother me at all so I just went on with my life.
 

IT STARTED WITH A TOOTHACHE

Years passed. So many things already happened. I moved on from my heartbreak. My house mortgage got paid up and I now own it. I lived a new life with Mahal, became a mother and now a farm co-owner. Then 2 weeks ago, my tooth started aching. An abscess has also formed on the gum above it. So I started getting concerned. I read articles saying that if there’s an infection there somewhere, if not taken care of, the bacteria might spread to the brain and of course I don’t want that to happen!

So I asked for recommendations from my FB friends. I got a couple of candidates and I chose Dr. Aileen Nadela Dagcuta of Nadela Dental Care. She’s a high school batchmate of mine from Lourdes College here in Cagayan de Oro City and my best friend, Mer, and goddaughter, Heaven, also have Dr. Aileen as their dentist. My other batchmates also go to her for their dental needs so I chose her as well.

I must admit that I really was so nervous when I first visited her in their branch clinic in SM Downtown. My last tooth extraction was when I was 22 years old. I remember being heart-broken then by the same ex and I thought no other pain could be more excruciating than the pain I was feeling from my heartbreak so I took that time to have my wisdom tooth extracted. Oh my goodness, was I so wrong! The tooth extraction was more painful and traumatic than my heartbreak! Lol! Since then, I really did my best to take care of my teeth so it won’t happen again. And now, this.

It’s a good thing that when I saw Aileen, after more than 2 decades of not seeing each other (except on Facebook), she immediately put me at ease. I think it’s her relaxed demeanor that helped me relax as well. She’s also soft-spoken and gentle and that made me feel a bit better.
 

PANORAMIC DENTAL X-RAY + ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTION

She checked my teeth and had me under a panoramic dental x-ray to really see what’s going on in there. As I expected, the tooth got infected because of years of food particles getting inside my cracked tooth. She also saw some parts that need to get dental fillings and recommended dental prophylaxis as well. But first things first. The infection has to be treated.

She then prescribed antibiotics for me. I am allergic to Amoxiclav so she prescribed Clindamycin. I took it every 8 hours for 7 days. I didn’t experience any negative side effects, thank God! And for some reason, the pimples on my face started to fade as well. When I researched about Clindamycin, I found out that it treats acne. Cool! Maybe I’ll apply it topically next time to rid my face of pimples. Hmmm… it’s something to think about. Lol!

 

CLEARANCE FROM A PHYSICIAN

Aside from prescribing antibiotics, she also asked me to get a certificate of clearance from my doctor if my tooth can be extracted with local anesthesia plus other medicines I needed to take. This is because I am already 40 years old and I have a history of hypertension. I am actually on Amlodipine 10mg which is now my maintenance drug since my OB and Cardiologist prescribed it to me in 2016. They are both in Manila by the way so who do I go to for the clearance?  Then I remember there was this one cardiologist I saw a few times here in CUMC (Capitol University Medical Center in Cagayan de Oro City) when I had my blood tests taken – Dr. Mejias, so I got the clearance from her.

Dr. Aileen Nadela Dagcuta then went to Manila for a vacation and when she came back after 2 weeks, I had my scheduled tooth extraction.

 

To be continued…