tooth no more

I visited a friend's dental clinic yesterday to have my tooth extracted. Yes, even dentists need extractions.

That's my tooth.....clean, caries-free, perfectly-sound.

Adult human beings have 32 teeth. Or are supposed to have. I happen to be one of those whose jaw is just not large enough to fit all my large teeth. With one lower lateral incisor congenitally missing, I only had to have 3 good premolars extracted for orthodontic treatment. That was completed way back in 1993.

Unfortunately, I also have impacted lower wisdom teeth. Yup, two of them. So after much hesitation, I finally braved myself to have the right one removed by a lecturer when I was a dental student in my third year. I had a horrible post-op experience when I took Ibuprofen for the first time and discovered to my horror that I'm allergic to it. My eyes swelled to the size of golf balls in half an hour. It took a visit to the A&E, a steroid jab and 4 days for the swelling to subside.

A year later, the upper wisdom tooth overerupted and was biting on my lower gums. Another extraction followed.

I kept putting off the surgery for the left side.....until I was about to leave the civil service. I got a friend of mine brave enough to have me as a patient, and the tooth came out in several pieces. That was in July 2006, I think.

Over the past year, the upper right wisdom tooth has again slowly but surely been overerupting. In the last couple of days, it had been causing much pain every time I bite. Looking into my mouth, I could see the indentation of the tooth on my gums.

No choice.....have to take it out even though I'm about 5.5 months pregnant.

Dr Jean is a very gentle and competent dentist friend. It was a rather painless procedure. In fact, her topical anesthetic was so effective, it even numbed my lips and tongue.

So now, I have only 24 teeth left (all caries-free, restoration-free). Joseph has 20 teeth. That's not a huge difference is it?