On Friday morning I went into Wilshire Center Dental to get my perio graft surgery.  I didn’t realize until that morning that I was actually going to be awake for the procedure.  That was a weird experience.  First the doctor swabs you with anesthetic, then comes back later with needles.  Some I felt and some I didn’t.  Eventually I couldn’t feel anything on the main area(my left upper gum-line), but I could hear all the horrible sounds.  The doctor had the Woodstock movie reissue on the monitor on the wall and he kept pausing to watch a performance.  Towards the end of the procedure I started to feel some things.  The other side of the teeth hadn’t been numbed, and the doctor needed to put stitches through there to hold everything on the front in place.  He explained that it would be more painful to stick me with a needle full of anesthetic than to just go ahead and stitch.  And, in truth, it wasn’t horrendously painful.

The worst part of the surgery was the after effects.  The left side of my face swelled up and I wasn’t able to eat anything without pain.  Eventually the swelling subsided, but the ends of the stitches still poked my mouth.  To anyone who has had braces this poking is a familiar feeling.  Eventually your inner cheek just scars up and you don’t feel the poking anymore.  For me this took about six days, until then it hurt to smirk, talk, eat or do anything that would make my lips move.

I also had to take an antibiotic for five days that prevented me from eating dairy, and for a week after the surgery I was forbidden from eating solid foods.

I still have to wait another week to get the stitches out, but what my boss (a dentist) is telling me is that I might have to get the same surgery in other spots in my mouth where the gumline is receding.  At $2300 a pop I’m not sure I can afford to do that.