Saturday, April 24, 2010

Gum Graft - Yuck!

I had a gum graft last week which is definitely not a pleasant experience. The process took about 2 hours. That was probably the best bit because the freezing at least makes it painless. I did get a little freaked out when the dentist lost the sewing needle between my teeth. Not really his fault; I have trouble getting dental floss between my teeth so anything larger would not be easy.

Afterwards, there was a little pain - not much really - a bit of bleeding, swelling and a week long (and counting) bruise on my chin and neck. I felt a little self conscious at first but got used to it. It was mostly yellow so I don't think too many people noticed it. The people I know would have said something if they had.

Late this week, the stitches started coming out of the site on the roof of my mouth where he took the tissue from. That has been nothing short of distracting, not to mention gross. The stitches kind of hang down in the mouth. It's really difficult not to play with them with my tongue constantly.

On the bright side, I have lost between 5 or 6 pounds. It's difficult to eat when you can't open your mouth very wide. I would have to say that I'm pretty tired of soup and all week was generally hungry. My fruit snacks were not so easy to eat when I only had a couple of molars in use.

Tonight I finally had an almost real dinner. I made cedar planked salmon with a leek and brie sauce and roast potatoes. Very delicious and satisfying.

Fingers firmly crossed that the procedure worked. I do have to go through it again on the other side of my mouth. I'm not sure I really want to do it. Maybe I can put it off until next spring so I can again lose those few winter pounds!


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