Is Dental Surgery Ever Nice?

        This week I had some minor dental surgery.  I had a small growth inside my lower lip. It was in a position where I would accidentally bite it about once a month . Of course , the pain and surprise were pretty intense. My dentist took it off in 2002 but it grew back right away.

       So when I went for my regular dental check up in March, I told the dentist about the little growth and asked him about it. He remembered taking it off and was surprised that it grew back and said that he would take it off again and do a "better job."

       All the necessary weapons were laid out and the deed was done on Friday at 11:20 AM and I was home in time for lunch with four sturdy stitches to close the wound. As I was eating lunch I said, "I think these stitches are coming out." Sure enough two stitches had let go and disappeared while I ate lunch. A third stitch disappeared in the afternoon. Now what do I do at six PM on a Friday evening with only one stitch left? So I can phone this dentist after hours. He told me that he would see me in the office on Sat. at 10:00AM. He looked in my mouth and was surprised that the stitches were gone! So this time he put in seven stitches altogether and two different kinds. Guess what? As I was eating lunch I could feel that stitches had given away. By evening I had lost four stitches. So phone my friendly dentist again. This time he said, "It will heal without stitches so let's leave it." The position of the surgery was were there is much movement of lips and teeth. As I said the location is exactly where my teeth meet so the teeth would catch on the stitches ans soon loosen them.

     Now getting the growth cut out was not a problem but getting eleven stitches leaves your lip full of twenty-two little holes that HURT. So I learned a lesson and my dentist also learned a lesson about the challenge to put stitches in a lip.