Taking out Wisdom Teeth in Japan

Spoiler Alert: It's not fun. But when is visiting the dentist ever fun?

So little ol' me back in Canada decided I would hold off taking out my wisdom teeth when I was in University, because fuck all the pain I have to go through when studying wasn't pain enough. But here I am, a decade later, cursing my University self. Why didn't I pull them out when it was even free???

It is what it is, I guess. And as I write this, I am swelling with pain from my second surgery, here to tell you all about how it's like to go through this process in Japan. Especially as someone doing this procedure in their 30s.

(A silver lining is I get content to write, I suppose)

My dentist looked over my teeth and basically told me the same thing my Canadian dentist did. My lower wisdom teeth were impacted inwards, but not necessarily a cause for concern. The only problem over time is cleaning them and having food stuck in there. Which had been an issue since the beginning. I didn't need to take them out, but if was I should pull them out sooner than later.

What about the top two, I asked.

He explained they were no problems at all, since they grew out perfectly fine, except if I was going to get the lower ones out, it's best to also pull out the top ones so they don't dig into the lower gums later on. Which made sense.

My dentist gave me some time to think about it before I made the decision, and he referred me to a nearby (and probably affiliated) hospital to do the surgery at.

The Referral

Having the referral meant I didn't have to pay extra money having no referrals. I also had data from my dentist on my teeth, giving them one less things to charge me on to do. They processed me through, registered my Japanese health insurance information and I was waiting in front of the designated dentistry area in no time.

From there, I had my consultation with the surgeon that was going to do my surgery. Since I didn't speak Japanese in complex medical lingo, we connected via an iPad to an in-house interpreter. I asked some questions about the procedure, while he explained the complexity of the surgery to me. Since I had impacted lower wisdom teeth, they would be the most time consuming, estimating the time to complete each side to be 30-45 minutes.

We also talked about whether I wanted to do all the teeth or just the lower ones, then we talked about some risks involved and lingering effects post-op due to the position of where my teeth where. Especially since I was doing this in my 30s, the teeth have grown harder and closer to the nerves and jaw bones, which complicates things a bit. I asked if being in my 30s is a bad age to do the surgery, and he said it was still an ok age. Of course, the prime age would have been in my 20s, but it was relatively still fine. It's once I hit 40 and over where things would be much more complicated. He suggested if I was going to take some out, I should probably do all of it. The talk of costs came up, and the doctor said it's probably extremely cheap to do it in Japan compared to most other countries. He gave me a rough estimate of 30000 yen total for the procedure (about $300 CAD). We ended the chat talking more about the procedure, whether I was going to be put under and scheduled surgery dates once I had no more questions and concerns.

Just before ending the appointment, he scheduled me to get my blood drawn so they can prep for the day of the surgery.

Miscommunication

So I spoke enough Japanese to get by at work and in daily life, but when it came to medical lingo and more specific requests, I struggled. Like, I can ask to get pain medication very easily, but I wouldn't be able to explain that I feel this weird pulsing pain under my jawline and the gauze you just put in my mouth is too packed in there and it's really making me uncomfortable in perfect Japanese. I mean, of course I can use kids speak and probably got my point across, but you get what I mean - there are just words that I never really learned to explain myself better. And I'm sure any one of you living in Japan and don't have native-level Japanese can relate.

So yeah, there was definitely a HUGE misunderstanding between me and surgeon on the day of the surgery.

The surgery was scheduled two months from my initial consultation when I agreed to go through with the surgery. We had decided at the consultation that I would do all of one side in June 2023, and the other side in July 2023, giving me a month in between to recover. Which he was confident was ample amount of time.

Well, he wasn't wrong entirely... but ample was a bit far-reaching.

The day I went in for my surgery, it was a Thursday afternoon. At 1:30PM. Despite having the appointment at that time, it wasn't until 2:15PM that I was called in. And the nightmare began.

He sat me down, and somehow, he seemed restless. He told me he was going to start and sedate me for the procedure. I did a double take. Sedation? Hold up. That's not what we agreed on, I said. I asked you if you were able to put me under and you said yes. He apologized and said that there must have been a miscommunication because he was only going to sedate me. And yes, he COULD put me under and knock me out, but I would need to go through the inpatient process, and do two overnight stays at the hospital in order to put me under (an overkill if you ask me). Of course, it was going to be expensive too.

I panicked, naturally. This wasn't what I envisioned.

We sat there for a few more minutes, with the surgeon also giving me an out to simply cancel the procedure and call it a day. Looking back, I should have taken it and looked for a different surgeon - because fuck me, I visit my surgeon at the Dentristry department of this hospital more than I call my own mother... which I will get into why in a minute.

But also fuck that shit, I already took half a day off to do this from work.

So not willing to admit defeat, I went through with it. The surgeon was quite uncaring and unsympathetic to my discomfort, overall. He kept telling me to keep calm and stop taking deep breaths in a rather condescending manner. He'd tell me to "stop heavy breathing so much" like I was a dumbass for panicking when I felt the pain from him literally pulling my teeth out, or because he was shoving the mirror in my mouth wihout a care of where he was placing it.

Look man, I get you guys are stressed and done this so many times it's kinda second nature. But sir, at least be a bit sympathetic that this is clearly my first time having this done to me and feel PAIN.

Anyway, all said and done, I survived. He also somehow found a cyst which was honestly the least of my concerns at that moment. Or maybe I was just too sedated to care. Who knows. But afterwards, he sent me to a recovery room so receive some IV drip with pain medication for an hour before sending me home.

The whole thing took me about 2-3 hours to complete.

That night, I had the gauze in my mouth up until I went to sleep, ate a bit of bread and the next day I was back at work teaching. Against my will. It was a semi-open lesson and I had to teach it. It really wasn't fun at all. All I wanted to do was not talk, but basically my job just said "fuck you get over it". :)

I was scheduled to go in the next week to get my stitches removed. Up until that point, I was on pain medication and was eating somewhat normally. Maybe too normally. But the pain was bearable. To be honest, I wasn't and couldn't be as careful as I wanted to. I mean, I didn't use a straw but I still just ate things that required biting when I should have tried to avoid it. I was talking a lot because... job. But the pain was going down.

At least until I got my stitches removed.

That's when it became hell on earth and I experienced what I now would know as... "dry socket".

A dry socket is a condition when the blood clot in the hole of your pulled tooth becomes dislodged, exposing the bone or whatever it is under your gums. And it was a world of hell.

Fun fact, this was also around the time of my birthday, and my bf had taken me out to a dessert buffet date. I hadn't known that I had a dry socket then, but I knew the pain was increasing just two days after I had my stitches removed. Not only that, but the pain meds I had been prescibed only worked to ease the pain for a mere 2-3 hours instead of the 5-6 hours I had gotten earlier. I was also getting sharp pains that come and go through the side of my face that I had done surgery on. I had other symptoms that were associated with a dry socket like bad breath, and waking up to weird tastes in my mouth. So that Monday, at the advice of some of our twitter friends telling me I should get some medicated gauze to get some instant relief, I immediately called and initiated this endless routine of meeting my surgeon every week.

Second Time's the Charm

Then July rolls around...

I wish I could tell you this time goes much more smoothly and I didn't get a dry socket, but boy... as if you didn't see this one coming.

Basically, I did try to be more careful. I ate more Chinese congee instead of stuffing myself with normal foods. I brushed carefully and rinsed my mouth without spitting. Heck, classes already ended and I couldn't even blame my job for making me talk this time!

But alas. Here I am as I type this, with another dry socket.

Honestly, I cannot tell you if my surgeon just sucks or what... but why does this happen every time he takes out the stitches? Is it me, or is it him? I don't know. I realize a dry socket could happen to the most careful of people and that's just the way it is... but still.

The good part is that I noticed all the signs quicker and rushed myself to get that medicated gauze of relief much, much faster before my face started to want to fall off. But yeah, guys. My experience with getting my wisdom out really wasn't all that great. But here I am, 4 wisdom teeth less.

And hopefully I don't come to regret this more in the future.

I'll let you guys know.

Cheap, yes. But I would have easily paid a bit more to not have to come to the hospital so often to get things fixed.

At least they were kind of right about the cost. It was cheap. I paid 20000 yen the first time, then 9000 yen the second time. And every hospital visit in between costs me about 200 - 600 yen depending on whether I need medicine refills. It's worth it if you have the time to get it all done, and definitely be prepared to have to take time off for appointments. Most hospitals only operate and see patients in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon until 4PM. And Saturday mornings (but those get crowded and they surely will not operate on patients then). So if you run into complications, it's very unlikely they will accommodate you after work.

So that's it. Have you taken out your wisdom teeth yet? How was your experience?