After years of trying to avoid it, it was time to remove another molar. I’d already had my wisdom teeth taken out when I was 17. Later, thanks to bad dental hygiene and periodontal disease, they’d removed the molars next to where my wisdom teeth had been.

Although I’ve been good lately about brushing and such, another molar had to go. It’s the last one on my lower right jaw.

Since molars have 2 roots, it sometimes happens that when you’re pulling on the molar that one or both of the roots will snap off and get left off in the jaw. If that happens, there’s some complicated drilling to get that root out. To avoid that mess, the dentist used a tool to cut the tooth along the middle so that he could pull on each root separately. Now, I didn’t actually look at this tool but it certainly sounded like a circular saw. I could easily imagine sparks flying from where the blade ground against the tooth.

As the dentist was grinding away, I noticed a smell like burning hair. I’d noticed this before when I had Lasik eye surgery and they burned my eyeballs. I guess they’re all made of the same stuff.

After splitting the tooth. he was ready to pull on them, one at a time.

I felt some pressure.

As he pulled on the tooth segment, I eventually heard some cracking sounds echoing thru my skull. Apparently, there are some ligamenty things connecting your teeth to your jaw. They make cracking sounds when they separate.

The pressure eased and that half of the tooth was out.

More pressure with more cracking sounds and the other half was out. All that was left was the bone grafting and stitches.

There’s been talk of more drilling into my jaw and posts and a false tooth to replace the one that was taken out. Right now, I’m not ready to think about that.