It began last week with a slight sharp sensation near the end of my jaw. Being the carefree person that I am, I just shrugged it off. There was a perfect explanation for that: I was growing a wisdom tooth. I could see the milky white surface surrounded by pink flesh.

Wisdom teeth always hurt when they first appear, right?

But soon enough it got worse. I knew that there was something wrong with my bite; I could feel that that part of my gums was swollen, and I couldn’t eat properly anymore. The pain was tolerable but I decided to visit my dentist anyway.

She took one look at the oral X-ray results and said that it was bad.

Apparently, my wisdom tooth was too big. It would never grow out properly because it was impacted, no more space left for it to grow on, and it was just going to hurt more and more if it wasn’t removed ASAP.

“Remove my wisdom tooth?” I gasped. How the hell are you going to remove a tooth that hasn’t even come out?

I should have gotten the first clue about how bad it was going to get from my dentist’s answer: Wag mo ng itanong. Ako na ang bahala.

And then hell descended upon poor little me.

A three-inch long needle pricked my mouth four times for the anesthesia delivery, and after a few minutes my dentist got this small little scissor-like thing and began cutting something inside my mouth (later on I learned that she had to cut away all the flesh surrounding my wisdom tooth so it could be exposed.)

Thankfully the anesthesia worked well, although I recognized the metallic taste of blood.

Next was the extraction itself. I didn’t really feel my tooth being pulled out, but after the extraction I knew that I was in trouble when my dentist jabbed a whole ball of cotton on my gum and it came out all red.

She did it three more times, and all of the cotton balls and gauzes came out all red too. In the end I needed four stitches to close the wound.

My dentist said that it was going to hurt when the numbing drug wore off, and I should have believed her. When we got home I started to feel my mouth again, and I also started to feel the pain. It hurt so bad that for the first time in a long, long time, I cried myself to sleep.

Not even Adam Lambert’s slick and suave get-up was enough to take my mind off the pain.

I feel a little better now, although it still hurts a lot. My dentist said it’ll feel like this for a few days. I guess Mefanamic Acid is going to be my new best friend.

On the other hand, I did ask my dentist for my tooth, and I have it at home. A little souvenir of this very painful experience.

You think the tooth fairy will pay me a visit?