The Whole Tooth and Nothing But The Tooth

My Wisdom Tooth Story

I was just blog surfing and came across a gentleman who was about to get his wisdom teeth extracted. Took me back to the time when I had that surgery, myself.

At the time I was a Temple student. Yeah, those were the days. Dirt poor, taking all sorts of classes, hanging out with friends. Seems more romantic looking back than it was at the time.

At the time, I had no dental insurance. So, I did what the next cheap-ass person would do. I went to Temple Dental school and volunteered to have the soon-to-be-dentists practice on me. I got all the best care, with only a little awkwardness. I even have a gold filling for my troubles! And all at the bah-gain prices of a dental school price compounded with a student discount!

Then I got word that I needed to have my wisdom teeth out, and even with the student discount compounded with the dental school prices, it was gonna be $100 a tooth. I was all ready to borrow the money from my in loco parentis when the dental school dudes said, but we’ll knock off another $250 if you take part in a drug study.

Like it was even a question.

So, the big day comes. I get newly-to-be registered surgeons and aen..anast..oh, those guys that put you to sleep, and a bottle of drugs that might be Tylenol with codeine, might be the new test drug, or might be a placebo.

I think they were A or B, as they worked just fine. I recall almost nothing from the time.

Of course, my roommate, who was kind enough to watch over me as the sleepy-drug wore off (good thing, too, because I would have choked without her there) said that the doctor was dancing with me. Otherwise, the surgery was completely unremarkable.

Well, except for the fact that I only had to pay $150 to get four wisdom teeth out!

(*)>