Apicoectomy

I discovered during my last dental check up that I have an abscessed tooth and that I will have to see an endodontist for an apicoectomy. I found this description when I googled the word.

An Apicoectomy is the removal of the root tip and the surrounding infected tissue of an abscessed tooth. ... After the tooth is "numbed", the gum is lifted to uncover the underlying bone and the root end of the tooth. The root-end is removed with all the surrounding infected tissue. ... root-end filling is placed to seal the end of the root canal, the gum is repositioned, and a few dissolvable stitches are placed to hold the gum tissue back in its place until healing occurs. ... After a few months, the bone around the root-end has healed, and all symptoms are gone.

I had the procedure done on Thursday afternoon. Once the numbing wore off, it was pretty painful. Thankfully, I got some pretty good pain killers prescribed to me and I can now see why they are "controlled substance". I didn't know how the pills would affect me so I only took a half and it knocked me out cold clear into the morning. I woke up and notice that there was some blood on my pillow and I was in a bit of pain, so I took the other half of a prescribed pain killer again that morning and stayed home from work. It is now Saturday afternoon and the pain had considerably subsided. My upper lip area is still swollen, but it's no longer as tender to the touch as it was yesterday morning. Drinking my meals got old pretty fast, but I was able to have some scrambled eggs last night and this morning. I'm on the mend and planning on taking it easy the rest of the weekend so I can go back to work on Monday.

Next on the list, fix that chipped tooth I went in to see the dentist for in the first place ...