As mentioned in my first post, my invisalign treatment plan would require all my wisdom teeth to be gone, so arrangements were made for that.
Based on the X-Ray I took at OSD, my two upper wisdom teeth were straight and could be extracted as per normal. The lower two were considered impacted, however, and would require surgery to remove them.
For financial reasons, my wisdom teeth surgeries were done at another clinic. And for considerations on pain tolerance and ease of eating, I split my surgeries up into two appointments such that I'll remove the wisdom teeth on the right side first, and then the left.
I chose local anaesthesia for the surgeries and fortunately, that worked out well for me and was painless throughout both surgeries. The first surgery was uncomfortable though, mainly because I haven't felt any dental drilling for so long and partly because I was anxious about how it was progressing. It helped that my partner accompanied me all the way :) Emotional support is important!
First surgery came with complications for my case, however. Possibly because I had very deep roots for my wisdom teeth, bleeding at the extraction site (which was not sutured) did not stop entirely for me even 2-3hours post-surgery. After checking my first gauze when I awoke from my nap, I figured the gauze had to be changed as it was completely soaked with blood. And that was when the horror began, because whatever little blood clot there was came off together with the gauze removal and I literally "bled like mad". It was a frightening and panicky situation for my partner and I but, to cut the horror story short, a return trip to the clinic solved the issue as the clotting managed to stabilise with this tiny sponge-like thing placed over the site together with fresh gauze. And simple reassurance from my dentist and partner that I'll be fine, and won't die :P My right cheek was very swollen, however.
Recovery phase was pretty normal, with the wound slowly healing up and me gradually progressing from soft foods to a normal diet. Some bruising on my right cheek/jaw emerged around the 4th day of recovery, and unfortunately stayed there, very visibly, for quite a longer while than normal. It was still faintly there even after I recovered from my second surgery, in fact :(
The second surgery was arranged two weeks after the first, and was a lot better with no complications, which I am very grateful for in view of the nightmare I went through for the first round. Swelling wasn't too bad, clotting was fast, and bruising didn't stay for long :)
After full recovery from the two surgeries, which took about a month in total, my final set of teeth were ready for the master impression (a mould of your teeth) to be made for invisalign! The master impression is what the invisalign treatment will be based on, and therefore it is very important that it is accurate and gives a good picture of exactly how much space is available at my "empty" wisdom teeth sites so that my other teeth can move in nicely :)
Once the master impression is completed, my dentist can do up the customised treatment plan and simulation, show it to me to confirm if the simulated results are ideal, and then go ahead to send the order for my aligners. For my case, my dentist demonstrated two simulations, one with just my 4 wisdom teeth gone, and another with further extraction of four premolars just in case I wish to push in my teeth even further. In view of my strong reluctance to remove my premolars, I kept to the original plan and my initial options, and my full treatment plan was confirmed :) Hooray!
