Counting Down: My Quick Wisdom Tooth Extraction

Daily writing prompt

Have you ever had surgery? What for?

View all responses

When I think of surgery, I imagine titanium kneecaps that took two hours of scalpel, three months of rehab, plus the post-operation vacation that comes with small doses of Ketamine. Wisdom teeth removal is the last procedure I consider surgery. Likely on account that my wisdom tooth extraction was a Mickey Mouse operation compared to other excisions.

I still remember the oral surgeon telling me to count from one hundred.

“By the time you reach one, I’ll be done,” he had said, a tad too cheerful for someone about to cut open my gums, but his calm demeanor was reassuring

By the time I reached ninety-three, he was finished. I came out of an anesthetic dreamland, surprised at how quickly it was all over, reasoning with the surgeon why digging my wisdom teeth out of the disposal bin was a good idea. He didn’t budge.

By the end of my recovery, I was craving anything that didn’t squish easily beneath a spoon.