Well tomorrow is a big day in our house. There’s not a book coming out or a birthday or anything like that. Tomorrow is the day my oldest daughter has her wisdom teeth removed. The whole situation went down in probably September or October. I wrote a blog on it and it was so far back I gave up looking for the reference date. Having wisdom teeth pulled seems like a normal, understandable event. So why am I so disturbed? Here’s a refresher. Ever since my daughter and I went for a “Consultation” with the oral surgeon things have not felt right about this. He held up the x-ray to the light for a few seconds and said, “My staff will make the appointment for the extraction of the wisdom teeth.” What happened to the “Consultation?” We jumped right into surgery. So I asked what was wrong with her teeth. He told me nothing was wrong now but it was best to pull them out now so that there wouldn’t be a need to do so for any reason down the road. To me it sounded the same as saying, “You might get arthritis in this hand one day so we’re going to cut it off, just in case.” I explained I still had all my wisdom teeth and I was fine. Then the doctor warned me my teeth would start to decay and need to be pulled one day. I disagreed and disagreed but in the end, who has the diploma on the wall? So I signed my daughter up to have her wisdom teeth pulled and the day for it is tomorrow. Some of the teeth have already started coming in. I don’t know if that makes the process better or worse. All I know for sure is my baby is going to be in a lot of pain and I am torn as to its necessity. My cynical side thinks this is just a way to drive up business for oral surgeons in a town saturated with dentists due to the two dental schools. How do you get more patients? You tell them they need to have their teeth pulled as a preventative measure. On the other hand, my dentist always tells me there’s decay on my wisdom teeth. Perhaps one day they will need to be pulled. Will I wish it had been done when I was young? It’s hard to say. And it doesn’t matter anyway. My parents didn’t have money to have my wisdom teeth pulled. Clearly with my daughter I have bought into the terror tactics and agreed with the oral surgeon. If I had not done so then there would be no appointment for tomorrow. I just can’t shake this feeling that I’m doing something unnecessary. My wife defers to my judgment and I listened to the dentist. I suppose I should look at it this way. By having it done my daughter will have some discomfort now but avoid a potentially tough situation down the road when she’s a struggling adult. Aside from the initial pain, there is no downside to having the teeth out now. So I’m going along with it. That doesn’t mean I’m happy about it. My poor daughter.
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