Posted by Farah on October 16, 2000 at 10:58:09:
In Reply to: Wisdom teeth.....ouch! posted by Pete on October 16, 2000 at 02:12:09:
Okay, I don't want to scare the beegeezees out of you, however, when I enlisted in the Navy last year, *any* recruit that still has their wisdom teeth had them extracted. One of my bunkmates had ALL 4 of hers removed in one day with only novicane (sp?). She did get 2 days of SIQ (sick in quarters) and she was in so much pain.
I have all four of mine in completely and they are fine and healthy. While I was at boot camp they wanted to remove *one* of them saying, "there's an infection" I got a case of the shakes and told them that I was going into the navy band and PLEASE not to remove. Luckily, they did listen to me and I was able to keep it--after seeing what happened to my friend, I was sooooo happy.
When you have that kind of thing done in the military, they make you sign this kind of form that says you know that in about .5% of cases, you can loose feeling in your jaw or lips because when the wisdom teeth are removed when they are fully mature, a nerve can be severed. Don't be too concerned because if you have a good Dr., you won't have this problem. I'm not exaggerating, but if you are thinking about enlisting in the Navy, get those puppies taken out before you go out to boot camp. I walked by a few of the rooms where the "oral surgery" took place and it was something straight out of that "Little Shop of Horrors" movie.
Of course, this is only the Navy that does this because they (big bad evil dudes) don't want you out on a ship then have to fly you back to the states for emergency surgery. They only do cavity and cleanings on the ship.
Farah (still shuddering at the thought that I was going to see lots of blood)