Re: Wisdom teeth


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Posted by Tom Holtz on December 05, 2000 at 16:25:07:

In Reply to: Wisdom teeth posted by Kevin Young on December 05, 2000 at 09:05:12:

I have done this through the military, and it was not the most fun I've ever had. I had all four wisdom teeth extracted at the Dental Clinic at the Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C. a few years ago. After the procedure, I was given five days off initially, and a follow-up exam at the end of the five days. I was given another four days after that, based on the follow-up exam. When I attempted to play on a job the following day, I could not play without extreme pain. I needed a total of three weeks before my mouth felt normal enough to play tuba. After having the NCOIC of that job report that I couldn't play the horn, our Ops chief kept me off of all commitments until I had healed enough to return to duty. Rather than have me return to the dental clinic every few days for a new chit, he decided to handle the situation in-house.

Everybody's situation is different. My sister-in-law had her top two wisdom teeth removed, and in two days, she was crunching Doritos like nothing had ever happened. Having wisdom teeth pulled can cause serious trauma to your mouth, or it can go very smoothly. You may or may not need stitches. You may or may not be tasting blood for a week. However, I think 48 hours is an extremely optimistic estimate for recovery time.

You need to do two things. First, get in touch with everyone in your chain of command, unit leader up to the C.O., and let them know that you're getting only 48 hours of recovery time for a wisdom teeth extraction, and that it likely won't be enough. Chances are that somebody in your chain of command has had wisdom teeth pulled, and they will know that 48 hrs. is not nearly enough time. You are useless to your unit if you can't perform your primary duty, i.e. play tuba. If your command backs you, you can walk in to the dental clinic and request a chit for some substantial time off, like 5 or 7 days. Second, no matter how long your chit for recovery time is, pick up the horn on your last day of recovery and play a few notes. If you feel ANY DISCOMFORT AT ALL, call Tricare or whoever and set up an immediate appointment for sick call. This option is ALWAYS open to you. Do not tough it out, do not try to hide it, do not impress anyone with heroics. Get back to the dentist and tell them it hurts when you are playing, and get some more recovery time. Repeat until fully recovered.

The best thing you can do for your band is to get better as fast as possible. This means you may have to go toe to toe with somebody at Dental to get the necessary time off, and you may have to get help from your command to do that, but you have to take care of yourself and do the right thing for yourself. Be professional about everything, and your chain of command will take care of you.

Best of luck!

GySgt Tom Holtz, tuba
United States Marine Band


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