I’m now on the 15th day of my very own self-imposed 30-day blog post challenge which also propelled me to restart doing other things I love and one of them is blogging about anything and everything about my life. This is why I started telling you about my dental visit in my previous post and this is the continuation of it.

So now that I’m done with my antibiotics, and I also have the clearance to go ahead with the tooth extraction, what’s next?

I confirmed my appointment with Dr. Aileen Nadela Dagcuta of Nadela Dental Care here in Cagayan de Oro. It was supposed to be last Sunday, right after we came back from the farm. But it was her day-off so I got rescheduled for Monday in their main office in Capistrano-Macahambus St. I got there before 10:00 AM all anxious and nervous, hoping and praying that the extraction won’t be painful and that everything would be fine…

DENTAL STAFF WILL PREP YOU

As I was waiting for Dr. Aileen to arrive, the staff had me fill out a form. It’s the same form I filled out in their SM Downtown branch. Basically, it’s just about my information and health history. They also had me sign some papers stating that I am doing this procedure voluntarily; that should they discover some stuff in my teeth that weren’t discovered during the dental exam, that I would be willing to spend for the additional procedures; that things were thoroughly explained to me;  and that should anything go wrong, they won’t be held liable for it… something like that generally. I signed them all.

Me at the dental clinic last Monday.

Then my blood pressure was taken. I just came back from the bathroom then so my heart was racing a bit. Add to that the fact that I was also nervous. So as expected, my blood pressure reading was high. They had me relax first and rest for 5 minutes before they took my blood pressure again. Thank God, it normalized! The assistant said that in cases where the patient’s blood pressure is really high, tooth extraction won’t be done anymore to prevent severe negative side effects to the patient like having an anaphylactic shock. Sounds scary!

DENTIST WILL PREP YOU

I was then asked to go inside. Dr. Aileen warmly greeted me and again, her presence put me at ease. She asked about my previous tooth extraction experience. If this was my first time, she would need to do a skin test on me just to check if I would have an allergic reaction to anesthesia. Since I’ve already done this before, we didn’t need to do the skin test anymore.

She had me sit on the dental chair and talked to me a bit as she was preparing the materials so I can relax. And relax I did.

TOPICAL ANESTHESIA AND INJECTION

The whole time I was seated on the dental chair, I had my eyes closed because I didn’t want to see anything in there that will trigger my anxiety and nerves and cause my blood pressure to shoot up. Okay, fine,  I opened my eyes for a little selfie first, lol! After that, I closed my eyes and tried to doze off or at least think of something else other than the needle piercing my gum to put anesthesia in. Dr. Aileen injected me twice after putting lots of topical anesthesia to the gums surrounding my infected tooth.

Ready or not!

TOOTH EXTRACTION

When my gums felt numb and swollen at the same time, Dr. Aileen started the tooth extraction. I honestly didn’t feel a thing! Her assistant was holding my jaw for support. My face was being tugged, as gently as Dr. Aileen could. She asked me from time to time if I felt pain and if I was okay and I was really feeling okay the whole time, no pain whatsoever.

The procedure lasted until about noon give or take. She had a hard time extracting my tooth because the 3 roots in there were really strong. She also did 3 sutures where the tooth once was after the extraction was done.

ANESTHESIA STARTS TO WEAR OFF

As the anesthesia started to wear off about 30 minutes after the extraction, I started feeling a little bit of tingling pain. Dr. Aileen gave me Dolfenal mefenamic acid and it worked its magic because the pain I started to feel slowly subsided.

MORE PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

She then prescribed me other medicines to take:

• Clindamycin for 3 days every 8 hours.
• Ponstan (Mefenamic Acid) every 4-6 hours or as needed depending on the pain.
• Tranexamic Acid (Hemostan) 500mg every 30 minutes or as needed if there’s bleeding.
• Cetirizine once before bedtime.

MORE PAIN OR IS THAT JUST PAIN MEMORY?

Whenever I was in bed, and even after I’ve taken Ponstan, my teeth would start feeling pain as if I was in the chair once again and my tooth was still being extracted. It’s weird. It’s just probably memory of the pain and not real pain. It subsided pretty soon as I began to doze off. And as long as I took my meds on time, I felt fine.

MOUTH CARE

When I got home, I immediately put a cold compress on the side of my cheek where my tooth was extracted.

Then for one whole week, I am to obey the following do’s and don’ts if I want my gum to heal and prevent “dry socket“:

• do have a soft diet
• don’t use a straw when drinking
• avoid alcohol, caffeine, hot drinks and anything acidic
• don’t eat salty foods
• don’t do anything strenuous
• do rest

NEXT DENTAL APPOINTMENT

I am scheduled to see her again after a week. She will be taking out the sutures and we’ll see if we can already do the dental fillings, prophylaxis, and dentures.

So… until then, folks! At least now you know what you can expect before and after you have your tooth extracted. I hope my posts helped. And if you’re in Cagayan de Oro and need some dental care, do visit one of the Nadela Dental Care clinics in the city and they will take care of you like they did me.

0916 986 6666

This is not a sponsored post by the way. I just wanted to share my experience with them because I expected something terrible to happen to me but on the contrary, I had a surprisingly lovely experience.

Keep smiling and take care of those teeth!