When dentists get a taste of their own medicine…
My boss and I took out each other's wisdom tooth after the patients left this evening.
My upper right third molar had been causing pain over the last few days - it was sore to open my mouth, and painful while eating. I've been eating ice cream to soothe it. His wisdom tooth was also playing up and he is a grown man of 42!
Gee… if I hurt you, you'll get your revenge afterwards.
I'm not stupid, why do you think I went first!
So, I numbed him up. He chose not to have topical anaesthesia. The palatal injection hurt. And it caused his left eye to tear (apparently, a parasympathetic response to getting LA). We were discussing the anatomy of the posterior superior alveolar maxillary nerve, and the greater and lesser palatine nerves. This wisdom tooth popped out after a bit of fiddling with the Couplands elevator - single rooted.
He used two different types of topical anaesthesia on me: 10% lignocaine cream and 20% benzocaine gel. The injections hurt a little, and there was one area of gingiva that did not go numb. I guess it was because it was very inflamed. Tooth came out with a crack - he broke a root tip. There were 3 roots on my wisdom tooth. Oh joy - nobody's going to go hunting for that little root tip.
It was great because we exchanged techniques and we experienced it from the patient's perspective. The best fun I've had in awhile.
I'm going to keep that tooth with me all the time so that I'll always be technically fully dentate! I can't bear to be partially edentulous.