Wisdom Teeth

Ethan needed to have his wisdom teeth taken out.  It's unusual for a 15-year-old because the "sweet spot" for the procedure is 16-19 years old.  The last time the kids went to the dentist I asked if he would take a panorama of Ethan's mouth to look at his wisdom teeth.  He is such a nice guy so he did it for me.  The dentist was surprised to see that Ethan's wisdom teeth were coming in sideways and the roots of the other molars would be cut by the root of the wisdom teeth if they weren't taken out soon.  The dentist gave us a referral for an oral surgeon but, after calling around and talking to people, we decided to go a different oral surgeon.  The surgeon's mom was in our ward before the boundaries were changed and she is such a nice lady.  She works at his office so she gave me a bunch of information and a nice discount, so we went with her son. ;) 

Ethan wasn't too excited but he didn't really have a choice.  Bryan gave him a blessing Wednesday night and then Thursday morning Ethan and I were in the office.  Ethan's appointment was at 9:30 am but they asked us to be there at 9:15 to fill out paperwork.  I had been given the paperwork previously so I had them all filled out when she showed up. 

At 9:35 they called Ethan back.  I went with him and answered some questions.  They had him swish with an alcohol mixture to kill bacteria and then the doctor came in.  He talked to us for a few minutes and then invited me to leave.  I asked how long the procedure would take and he told me 20  minutes. 

I went to the waiting room and let Bryan know that Ethan would be finished around 10:00.  At 10:00 the doctor came out to let me know that Ethan was finished and he had done great during the surgery.  One of the teeth was easier to remove than they had thought it would be so the procedure went easily.  Ethan was in recovery and we could see him when he woke up a bit more.

They called us back and this is what we found:



And, much to Courtney's dismay, Ethan wasn't weird on anesthesia.  He was a bit tired and you could tell he wasn't completely with it, but he wasn't goofy like Courtney wanted.  Oh well.  He did let me take a picture though.

We were out of the office and in the van by 10:20-10:25, I believe.  It was crazy how easy it was done and quickly.

When Ethan got home he took out the gauze, swished his mouth (with a lot of blood coming out), and put in some more gauze.  He was still under the influence of the pain medication they had put in his IV during the surgery but the nurse told us to keep him pain-free if we could.  So we switched off giving him a pain pill and then 4 hours later some Tylenol.  He didn't have too many problems.


A couple of days after the surgery his left cheek was kind of puffy but he never bruised or looked like a chipmunk.  It was a really easy recovery.

It has been a week and he still has a few of the stitches but he hasn't needed pain medication for a couple of days.  He was so happy to be able to eat again.