Two weeks ago, I had the joy and pleasure of getting a gum graft. The gum in front of one of my front teeth was dangerously low - a "recession" - and my dentist (and the one before) was worried that the root would be exposed, leading to problems and eventual tooth loss. I finally set up an appointment with a periodontist (Dr. Rena Baroudi at 450 Sutter St) to get the graft done..after rescheduling it so I could eat during Dine About Town since I knew you were supposed to eat only soft foods for a while after the procedure. The procedure is to take a piece of tissue from my palate and graft it over the recession on my lower gum.
The procedure itself turned out to be relatively simple and quick - they injected Novocaine into my lower gum where the graft was to go as well as my palate (getting Novocaine shots never feels good but I've had enough dental procedures in the last year to just bear it and move on), spent some time prepping my lower gum, then moved on to my upper palate. I thought they were just prepping it when next thing I knew, the doctor was like "ok, got the tissue, suturing you up." So it's pretty safe to say I didn't feel a thing. The graft itself took a bit longer but she was soon suturing it into place and next thing I knew, we were all done. I felt just fine coming out of the office, a bit numb of course where I'd been Novocained, but otherwise fine. But taking their advice, I went home (it was a 2:30pm appointment on a Friday) instead of going back to work, even though I felt weird doing it since I felt like I wouldn't have a problem going to work. Turns out that was a good idea.
When the Novocaine started wearing off, I started feeling the pain - to my surprise, it wasn't just the specific regions of gum and palate that hurt. My whole lower jaw was in pain, at first just like I had braces and just gotten them tightened - a general soreness of the teeth - and then starting to feel like my jaw was on fire - a low burn, to be sure, but definitely unpleasant. Then, my palate joined in and soon I was just completely miserable. After taking 3 Motrin (they'd given me 600mg IB pills but there was no way I was swallowing those) and frequently icing my jaw (to reduce swelling), I felt no difference in the misery, and eventually gave in and took a Vicodin. That stuff is amazing. I didn't notice the difference at first, and was just sitting on the couch watching TV (I'd been working from home but after kicking off a test, abandoned sitting at my desk). However, when my sister came over to pick up some stuff, I started chatting with her and soon noticed I felt great. Basically no pain, none of that general sense of misery...I wasn't sleepy either. I was a bit perturbed to notice it seemed like my teeth had moved, though, which I pointed out to my sister and my bf.
The next morning, I was even more perturbed to note that my teeth seemed completely out of line. I'd been paying for a new retainer to help straighten out the *other* tooth and now the one she'd worked on seemed to have sunk a few mm and pushed forward so it interfered with my bite. Rather worried, I contacted my doctor, who opined it was probably just the swelling but that there was nothing we could do until it healed a bit anyway. Since I was to see her in a week, we would just wait for that. On the plus side, even though things were bleeding from time to time so my mouth didn't taste too good, nothing really hurt. I kept taking ibuprofen b/c my sister had advised that it helped reduce inflammation, rinsed with warm salt water, and used the Peridex they had given me, but no more vicodin was necessary. On the food side of things, on the first day I just had a Carnation Breakfast Shake (which I quite enjoyed) and left it at that. After that for the next couple days, even though they said I could eat soft foods like pastas, I decided not to take a risk. Had yogurt, carnation shakes, butternut squash soup (courtesy Trader Joe's), steamed egg, instant pudding, soy ice cream (being lactose intolerant) and other such basically slurpable foods.
On the third day I started getting bolder about eating quite by accident. I got a tomato bread soup from Boudin, forgetting that actually had chunks of both tomatoes and bread in it. Oops. I carefully chewed on one side of my mouth and did ok. Also treated myself to a McDonald's sundae without nuts, one of the few things I really like at McDonalds. Had a Peanut Butter Moo'ed at Jamba Juice for lunch a couple days later b/c someone online had said the protein in it was good if you were mostly having liquid lunches, but almost regretted it when I realized the thing had almost 900 calories. Probably only a few fewer calories than I had had the first day after the procedure! Eventually I started eating pasta with marinara sauce very very carefully and slowly, and udon even more slowly. I'd stop eating after a while just b/c I was so tired of it and my food had cooled down. This wasn't because of any actual pain, mind you, it was because of paranoia. After my great bleeding incident when the sutures came loose a week after my wisdom teeth were pulled several years back, I've gotten rather paranoid about dislodging sutures in my mouth.
A week in, I had my first followup appointment and apparently everything looked good. I'd been told not to brush or floss the affected areas, and those orders held, but at this point she removed the sutures from the top of my mouth and told me I could eat whatever I felt I could handle as long as I didn't bite into anything. I kind of broke that order a bit the next day when I hit the Ferry Building farmers market and started sampling the orange slices and such they had out. Oops. I started eating pretty much normal foods, though still avoiding crunchy stuff or anything overly hard. Then two weeks later, I had my next followup appointment (this morning) and she said everything was looking really good. In fact, she seemed so pleased with the progress she was disappointed we hadn't taken a "before" photo - I think she wanted to show off the case! I still can't brush or floss that particular tooth, and I'm still supposed to avoid biting into stuff (hard to do - I got a chocolate hazelnut croissant from the Crocker Galleria farmers' market today and had a hard time just ripping pieces off to eat), but everything is looking good. Next follow-up: 2 weeks. On the sort of minus side, I now can wear my retainer again. Got an appt tomorrow morning with the orthodontist to adjust it as needed, but I'm not looking forward to that =(.
That building at 450 Sutter St has seen me so much in the last year it's kind of scary...
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