Scenes from my oral surgery...

Two weeks ago I had oral surgery to correct an abscess within my gum from a tooth that I have had two root canals performed on. I was given the option of this surgery, which is at best 88% successful in stopping all future infections or problems with the tooth, or to simply have the tooth removed. I opted for the surgery seeing as I have already invested in the root canals & crown for the tooth.

The surgery was quite painless - lots of freezing and pain meds - but it involved opening a flap on my gum, cutting through the jaw bone to expose the root of the tooth and removing a tip off the end of the root, as well as sucking out all the abscess gunk. The surgery was successful and I have no lingering after effects.

Throughout the surgery the doctor was taking digital photographs of his progress. He has a high end dental photography set-up that hovers over his shoulder and an assistant remotely snaps a picture when he tells her to. It was pretty cool. He got a kick out my asking him to send me some shots and said he would. He was good to his word....

Below are some amazing, albeit a tad bloody, shots from the surgery.

Just before cutting my gum open to begin the process.

The gum cut open and the bone cut away to expose the root of the tooth.

Working on the exposed root. The doctor did a lot of this work while looking through a high resolution microscope.

All stitched up and ready to go home. One week later I returned to have the stitches removed.

Pretty interesting experience to go through. A little discomfort but I was eating steak the next night so I can't complain. Hopefully I'm within the 88% that has no further problems....