Dentist and General Life Update

Yesterday I finally went to the dentist to have my wisdom teeth removed. When I set up the appointment, I thought I was only going to be getting x-rays done and to talk about when we wanted to remove them as well as how we wanted to handle my broken front teeth.

I went to my childhood dentist in Columbus, so I stayed a few days at my grandparent’s house. It also meant that ,since I was in town on a weekday, I got to go visit friends I haven’t seen in awhile. It was nice to get out and hang with them before the anxiety-inducing dentist appointment. We talked dolls, autism stuff, memories from when we were kids, and a ton of other random things. It was all around a good time and I can’t wait to see them again.

Anyway, on to how the dentist appointment went! I got there and got checked in quickly. They called me back to have my teeth cleaned. All the staff there were very nice and let me do what I needed to keep calm, like when my gag reflex kicked in and I had to sit up for a moment so I didn’t cough to death while lying down. Also my 80% purple tinted glasses did an amazing job at making the bright light they usually have in your face seem like nothing.

After the cleaning was done I went into a 2nd room where I sat down and talked to my dentist (I have known him since 1994, so pretty much all of my life) and discussed if I wanted those teeth out right then or not. I messaged my husband to let him know what was going on, as well as my grandparents (since they were my ride). After a bit of freaking out in my head I decided that yeah, I will get the teeth removed while I am here.

We then proceeded to get me ready for the tooth extraction procedure. I asked if I could have the lead apron they have for weight to help keep me calm. The one dental assistant was a bit confused at first, but then I explained why I asked for it and she actually thought it was cool. I also got my tangle out of my purse so I could have that to help focus my anxiety out of my head.

During the procedure my dentist talked me through what all he was doing, what I should be feeling, and if I felt something different to let him know so he could add more numbing. I ended up barely feeling anything and didn’t even realize that they had got the first tooth out. The second one I felt a bit more – for whatever reason it wasn’t taking the numbing stuff as well as the other side. But I didn’t feel it too much, just a couple tiny jolts of pain. Which in comparison to the pain the tooth normally gave me was nothing.

Post tooth extraction selfie.

After the procedure was done they had to put gauze in my mouth for a half-hour. The tinier pieces kept causing my gag reflex to kick in. So my dentist got larger pieces that had to hang out of my mouth, so in case I needed to pull them out it was easier. Also, since they went the whole length of my mouth on both sides, biting down on them ended up being better and no gag issues. I got to take them out once I was back at my grandparent’s house. 

And now I am home. Yesterday evening my grandparents and my husband met halfway between Columbus and Cleveland so neither would have to drive the full trip. It’s good to be back home, though I have a lot of stuff to work on.

 

Also, back in July was TrotCon, which is the convention I run. It was our 6th year. We had a few last minute changes thanks to a misunderstanding with our venue. But I was able to magic the schedule in a way to where no panels or events had to be cut. The con went pretty well despite the changes. The attendees loved it as usual and loved the new events we added.

I also hosted my autism panel, though this year only around 10-ish people ended up attending. Last year I had a full room. The panel went well though, and a few of my friends joined as panelists. We mostly went over various subjects from my blog and how they affected us as a varied group of Autistic people. And we answered questions from the audience.

For the kids’ room at the con this year I made sensory bins with sand and slime. They were a hit with the kids who attended. We also had cartoons playing the whole time in the room. For the quiet room which was across the hall I put out coloring sheets and quiet stim/fidget stuff. Every time I visited the room over the weekend it was really great to see that the toys had been played with. So I will def be bringing back both sensory bins and quiet stim stuff for those rooms next year.

In November I will have a table at OCALIcon to sell stim/fidget items. So I am excited about that. My store will be under the name Neurogeekery. I already have a printed fabric banner for the booth, I just need to tie dye it rainbow. And I need to figure out how I want to do the booth layout since its a 10×10 space. So far I have one of my friends coming with to be my booth helper. Will post another update on my OCALIcon booth once I have some more information from the event.

Lastly, I have been getting back into dolls again. I have a bunch of ideas for doll clothing and carrier bags. So I have been working on making stuff. But that’s for a later post!

The Dentist Office

So I have a lot of teeth related issues and have for awhile now. All my wisdom teeth are impacted and my front teeth are either chipped or the enamel is gone. I am not the best at taking care of my teeth, I know this.  Though I am trying to do better, I have stopped drinking soda. I only drink water, milk, and tea now. Though tea is basically water and milk combined…at least for me.

About year ago I tried to go to the dentist as my mouth was in a ton of pain out of nowhere and I also had an ear infection pop up on the same day. It was terrible. I made an emergency appointment to go see a dentist and find out if they had something for the pain I was in. Well the dentist I saw then kept treating me like I was stupid and would also talk to my husband instead of me. Like somehow me mentioning I was Autistic made him think less of me or something. I only mentioned it because I wanted him to be aware of sensory issues and why I have them. Anyways the way he treated me pissed me off and kinda put me off from going to the dentist for well a year now. Dentist offices already scare me and cause me to shutdown, I don’t need to be treated terribly on top of that.

So for the past year I have been dealing with the pain by taking Goody’s Headache Powers as pain medicine and using a face caddy cold pack thing. Which works most of the time anyways for pain control. If any of you are wondering about the headache powder, I cannot swallow pills at all. So powder is sooo much easier for me, on top of that the flavor I get is Mixed Berry and it tastes like a pixie stix.

Fast forward to this past Saturday (Feb 11th), the left side of my mouth decided it wanted to be in pain for 24 hours. And my body decided it was going to ignore all medicine I gave it to make the pain go away. And my cold pack was only sorta helping. I did however discover that music helps pain go away, so music (The Beatles) was making the pain vanish or at least be bearable pain…

On Sunday after I awoke after I had finally fallen asleep after laying in bed awake from 11pm to 1pm…I emailed my old childhood dentist in Columbus. I live up in Cleveland. I let them know my maiden name and how long I had known the dentist (since 1994). And also in my email I told them I was autistic and explained why I prefer not to do phone calls. (Since I did not get my diagnosis until 2015, they did not know I was Autistic. The last time I went to their office was in 2006-2007.) My dentists wife is the secretary there and she made me so happy by letting me make the appointment via email. And she even worked with my schedule of when I will be in Columbus. So I have an appointment next week to get x-rays and then we will discuss where to go from there on removing my painful impacted wisdom teeth.

I am happy I finally decided to contact them instead of looking for a dentist near where I live. I feel a lot better and less anxious about this appointment since I know them. And I know they will take my sensory issues and accommodation requests seriously. I will likely request using the lead apron as a sort of weighted blanket if he can do the wisdom teeth removal there. And possibly see if I can have my headphones and my music playing as well.

Anyways expect an update next week sometime with more on getting my mouth fixed.