Let’s face it: no one likes to go to the dentist! Our headphones (www.surgicalheadphones.com) are making a big hit in the field of dentistry and here’s a man who decided to use music in his own way with a dental implant procedure. Enjoy!
“I had to get up early–0500h–in order to travel to the Big City and get a tooth implant. For those of you who don’t know, a tooth implant is a titanium screw that is placed in the jawbone as an anchor for a permanent tooth approx four months after the implant is embedded. It is the best solution for those looking to replace a missing tooth, the other options being a bridge or no treatment. Bridges are usually fine and have been used for decades, are usually lower cost, but the downside is that you have to ruin two perfectly good teeth in order to install a bridge.
So I didn’t go with the bridge, because I am a relatively young guy and I don’t want to give up two more teeth–bridges can result in root canals in a long-term run–and my doctor recommended the implant. He’s a nice guy, great with oral surgery. Did my wisdom teeth (third molars). The only problem I had with the implant was that I needed some bone grafting done in order to anchor the implant firmly. These days they grow bone tissue in test tubes, so I didn’t not have to give up any of my bone for the procedure.
I was a bit scared at first, because I remember when I had my wisdom teeth removed. I had all four teeth growing in, two of them impacted, so I had to have two of them pulled and two of them cut out. It wasn’t pretty. I remember waking up after the surgery int he recovery room thinking I was at some kind of party or social event at which I had imbibed too much alcohol. The feeling after being aroused from the anesthesia is remarkably like being intoxicated. The nurses had a hard time getting me to lay back down. I then spent the next two weeks recovering from my procedure, spending lots of time with my mouth open over the toilet as blood and ooze drained from my cavities, suffering pain unimaginable when my codeine ran out or I had to eat–I remember lots of chocolate malts. What a way to spend spring break.
So this time I was a bit unnerved about the whole ordeal. Getting my mouth opened up and having some bone and titanium implanted into my jaw didn’t sound like a lot of fun. So I get to the Big City and get into the office and they talk me through the thing and let me choose my anesthesia and I’m looking around at all the tools and stuff laying around the small operating area and I want to ask lots of questions–not out of worry, but curiosity. I don’t ask those questions, though, because I’d rather these nurses concentrate on making everything go smoothly as possible. I wake up about two and a half hours later in the recovery room, this time completely ready for the wave of intoxication to wash over me. There is is. I lay back down, knowing that I got little enough sleep the night before and that I’ve got time here, and now, to get more rest without feeling guilty. I just had a major operation done. So I lay back down, listen to the girl crying next to me–her first time, I assume–and just let the anesthesia work its magic.
My mom drives me home after that; I’m not allowed with all the drugs in my system. I brought my mp3 player and listened to soothing music to facilitate more rest, in case the pain kicked in early. Last time we didn’t have any drugs and I was in howling torture by the time we got home. Not this time. They gave me some really great pain killing stuff at the hospital. Injected it directly into my mouth.
And I sleep most of the rest of the day, nearly completely pain free. Yesterday I went out to a client’s house and hooked up her computer and configured the printer with no problems. I slept early last night and woke up in some pain, but I took ibuprofen for comfort, no Darvocet. ” Whenever you can manage dental pain with a little ibuprofen and no narcotics, THAT’S a successful music-amplified anesthesia! (http://ordinarilyuninteresting.blogspot.com/2010/02/its-business-time.html)
Get you headphones here: www.surgicalheadphones.com.
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