Everything I know is wrong....

[Maria]

Griff,
By the time I had my wisdom tooth looked at--at 40 years old-- the oral surgeon said that it was now too big, and couldn't be taken out without risking damaging the nerves that controlled my face. And that if it wasn't hurting me anymore, he recommended leaving it alone.

I agreed, and got out fast.

I am a surgery-phobe.

[Griffon64]

My mom had her wisdom teeth removed at age 54.

I wouldn't want to go through that It looked really painful!

[Primula Baggins]

I've put two sons and a husband through the same thing—Mr. Prim was maybe 35?

Anyway—the swelling was no fun, but they all said they felt little or no pain through the whole process, including healing. The anesthesia and pain drugs are really, really good. And I was the one bathing their fevered brows etc., so I would know if they'd had pain to complain of.

Impacted wisdom teeth can give you chronic sinus infections or even meningitis! Not something to ignore. They also can make headaches worse or more frequent. Mr. Prim has had almost no headaches since having his teeth out, and sinus infections have gone from three or four a year to one every three or four years.

No question it does get harder as you age—but do you really want to end up your mom's age and HAVE to have them out?

<rap rap rap> This ends today's presumptuous little motherly lecture.

[Maria]

Well, damaging the nerves that control my face is an unacceptable risk for something that isn't hurting. There's no swelling, and since the teeth in question are on the lower jaw, no headaches involved. My upper wisdom teeth are out and doing fine. It's almost like the lower ones are in storage, in case they are needed for replacement. As long as they are covered with flesh still, they aren't going to get cavities or anything. They are just waiting and I'm not interfering with the process! None of my father's wisdom teeth ever erupted. No reason to think my lower ones will ever go further than they have.

Except for those occasional, imaginary pains I have, on one side!

[Primula Baggins]

I was lecturing Griffy (because I know how much she loooooves it ), not you, Maria. The nerve damage risk is one I wouldn't want to run, either.

[Griffon64]

Prim

My wisdom teeth isn't really acting up yet. I have none of the earaches, headaches, sinus trouble and misc associated with troublesome wisdom teeth.

My mother did, for years

If they have to come out, they come out. I will avoid that as long as possible, though!

My mother suffered - pain during the process, pain during healing, swelling like you wouldn't believe

Maybe health care is more advanced in the US?

Of my four wisdom teeth, not one has managed to make it to the surface as far as I know. They're all still covered with flesh, which as Maria says is important for them not getting infected or cavities or such - except for the lower left one, which has the teeniest corner poking out. So that is probably the one who will give me trouble.

If they tell me there's risk of nerve damage, I won't do it either

[Primula Baggins]

Mine all just grew in and my regular dentist just pulled them out when I was a teenager—back then you didn't see oral surgeons for something so straightforward. So I can't really compare from personal experience.

I'm not claiming medicine is more advanced here than in South Africa, Griffy, but sometimes new technology spreads unevenly or particular practitioners are faster or slower to adopt it. I just wanted to say that it is possible (because I've seen it three times) for the experience to be pretty much painless.

[Griffon64]

I sure hope I manage to land a dentist that can provide me with "pretty much painless" in most of my dental care experiences!

Maybe I should move to Oregon and go to the Prim family dentist

[Primula Baggins]

You probably should. He's the best ever—I've been seeing him for 20 years and he finally got me over my terror of dentists. And we've been through a lot together—I had a lot of terrible dental work as a kid that kept breaking down and causing problems. Now I'm all set.

I haven't felt any pain during dental treatment in many, many years. Dr. C. even gives painless Novocaine shots, Scout's honor.

But the technology really is amazing now, Griff—because of fluoride treatments dentists are scrambling for patients now (my three teenagers have NO FILLINGS AT ALL), and so they have to make sure their patients are happy.

[Maria]

I realized about 4 hours later that you were talking to Griff and not me, Prim. But I was at home by then, and our internet connection there only works sporadically, so I couldn't say anything.

[vison]

I had one wisdom tooth. It came out of wherever they are born and into my jaw in a seemingly normal fashion, but it "bothered" me. I would not say it was bad pain. It was a nuisance, though and I complained constantly to my dentist.

X-Rays revealed that it was the only wisdom tooth I had. For pete's sake, I still had baby teeth in my 40's! At any rate, I endured this darned thing for years and then, I changed dentists.

The very first day I saw dear Dr. Bill? The very first thing he said, upon looking in my mouth? "Oh, I think we'll take that fella out, eh?" and he gently, oh-so-gently, touched that wretched tooth with his finger.

Out it came, only minutes later. And the relief! My word, I can hardly express it. It had been a constant, low-lying drain on me for a very long time. I could bear the pain, of course I could. It wasn't "bad" pain. But it was stupid. The other dentist would say, "I don't pull perfectly good teeth" as if that should satisfy me. What a dork.

As to why it hurt? It was crowded, there was nerve pressure, it was sitting sideways, it was a useless excresence and I will always remember Dr. Bill with fondness because of it. He was the best dentist in the world as far as I was concerned and I cried when he retired. The fellow who took over his office, a lad of about 16 by his looks, did himself in as far as I'm concerned when I went to my first appointment with him and he said, "Hi, Sheila!". Oh, no, kiddo. I'm "Mrs." to you and you've just lost a patient.

Now I go to Dr. Glamorous, she is a wonder but, man, she must spend it all on her clothes. I never saw shoes like hers on a dentist before!

[JewelSong]

I have one wisdom tooth that came in with no problem...the other three tried to come in but were coming in sideways and impacting my other teeth.

Out they came, one, two, three. They put me into twilight sleep with an IV and a couple of minutes later, I woke up, sans teeth.

I went home and slept and the next day just had a little pain leftover from the extractions. It wasn't the most pleasant experience in the world, but it wasn't awful, either.

The last time I went to a dentist (before I left for the UK) she gently suggested that I have the fourth tooth out, too...since it is basically not doing anything, as it isn't opposite any other teeth.

Having your wisdom teeth out is a fairly routine procedure and can often really help the health of your other teeth!

[Maria]

All this talk of wisdom teeth is making my jaw tingle again...

[Maria]

Yesterday I was tired and worn out and grumpy when I got home. After supper, my husband sat down on the couch and read the paper, and I sat down next to him, kicked the foot rest up and relaxed and did absolutely nothing.

I didn't feel like turning on the TV or reading, and decided to play with the hypnotic state and see if I could make myself feel better. I closed my eyes and sank deeper and deeper and my husband reached over and started playing with my leg. I dragged myself up a tad and managed to say, "Dont, that tickles..." and sank down again. He reached over and held my hand instead. I let it be, not having the heart to tell him what I was doing and that physical contact was distracting.

I was fluctuating up and down between alpha state and probably dipping down into theta- because I got to the point where I couldn't form language in my thoughts anymore. I could barely hold onto the concept of what I was trying to fix in myself. I could feel a sluggish response-- self healing hasn't been working too well lately-- and my husband started snoring. My hand holding his was tingling, and I decided to see if I could help him. I've been worried about his triglycerides level, lately.

My usual method of "energy healing" is to open up my "shields" and let universal energy come flowing in and through me into him. It's slow, difficult and not very effective. This time was different, because of the stuff I've been reading. I just willed energy to start flowing into him and he immediately stopped snoring. I didn't move at all, being too deep, and felt energy sparkling into existence all through my body. It was very strange. Like micro fireworks, or fireflies twinkling into existance all through the interior of my body. Not entering my body from outside and flowing through- but appearing inside me and flowing through my hand into his body. It was the most powerful healing effect I've felt yet. I didn't try to modulate the flow or tell it what to do- being beyond language at that point- but felt that it would help him.

After what seemed a long time the flow slowed, and he woke up and took his hand back and stretched and smiled and said, "Wow, some power nap, huh?"

I smiled back and tried to ground myself like you are supposed to after energy work, but there was no excess left to let flow into the earth. I felt energized and happy. I then put on an SG1 episode and cleaned house for an hour.

I think I've been too self-centered about healing for a while now, because this sure worked better trying to help someone else that just helping myself. And the idea of the energy appearing inside of me in sparkles was just really interesting. Kind of like some quantum energy jumping in from another dimension or something.

I tried to replicate the effect this morning and give him another dose, but although I was able to get a few sparkles going, there was no need for it to flow to him.

I don't know if last night's session helped him or not, but it sure energized me.

[vison]

Lovely, Maria.

Your husband is lucky.

[Maria]

I just wish I knew if it really works on others or not, Vison! When I'm telling him I'm trying out stuff like this on him, he always says it helps, but that could be psychosomatic, of course. He could be doing the healing himself, or my actions could have been hypnotizing him into thinking it was helping- but just suppressing symptoms.

I just can't measure it. I don't have the tools. I know that his triglycerides have been up since the weekend, when he drank 5-6 beers at my boss's party. He didn't get drunk (it was spread over about 5 hours) but alcohol pumps up triglycerides and he already has a problem with them.

Triglycerides interfere with oxygen transport, so that when they are up, and he does physical exercise or work, he's essentially doing in anaerobically-- the metabolic shortcut that leaves sore muscles-- because there just isn't enough oxygen to do what he wants to do. The symptoms are massive sweating, quick fatigue and feeling quite ill after exertion. And of course, being sore all over. He can get around this by taking a supplement called dimethyl glycine (DMG) which increases the oxygen transport capacity of the blood. Some Olympic athletes do this as a legal trick to give them a competitive edge. Anyway, when he knows he's going to be working hard, he takes a DMG first.

Sunday, the day after the party, he ran the log splitter thinking it didn't count as exercise. However, after just an hour or so, he was exhausted, with all the other symptoms. Normally this level of exertion wouldn't have bothered him, but this time he should have taken a DMG. Monday, when he got back from Judo, I asked him how he felt. He'd taken a DMG, but still felt wiped out- like it wasn't enough.

So, that's why I think his triglycerides are up again.

And that's why I was trying to help him yesterday.

But ... there isn't a home test kit for triglycerides that I know about. So, the only way we can check them is a doctor ordered blood test. We do that once a year- but that isn't much help for day-to-day things.

And even if he does better in Judo tomorrow, it won't mean that I helped him with an energy transfer. It could be that it's just been long enough since the beers for his levels to get back to what's normal for him. (way high for anyone else, though)

I haven't told him any of this this time- just hadn't got around to it. I think I won't tell him at all until after tomorrow and he tells me how Judo was. Not that that will really tell me anything.

It's really an inconvenience being interested in the stuff, and having a scientific background. I want tangible *proof*! I want numbers! I want a controlled double blind study with before, during and after blood tests! And MRIs of my brain and whole body. And CAT scans. And Kirlian photography! (Whatever that is.)

Instead, I feel like a kitten dabbling her paw at the reflection in the water dish.

[MithLuin]

It is frustrating when you can't really test for effectiveness. I teach 4 classes of chemistry, and (usually) I teach them all about the same. But I would really like to know if what I do in one class works, and if it will work for my other classes....but all I have time for before the next group walks in the door is a quick self-evaluation. It's not like I can sit down and grade the work from the first group before I teach the second group....

So, I gauge it based on their response. Sometimes, it's pretty clear when I've lost them and why they get frustrated, so I change those things. But it isn't a full-fledged experiment, and it certainly doesn't tell me (conclusively) what worked. Sometimes, I think I taught it the same way to two different groups, and their response varies significantly. So...hard to tell, sometimes!

(But teaching is a bit more straightforward than what you're doing - after all, I can test them to see what they've learned!)