When I say 'interesting', I am being somewhat sarcastic...
After what feels like forever (almost), I had a dental appointment last Thursday to have two molars extracted under intravenous conscious sedation. Because the dental practice I'm registered with doesn't offer sedation, I was referred (at my request) to another practice for the procedure. As I had never previously had any dental work done under sedation, and therefore had no idea how it would affect me, I felt anxious. However, my mindset was that I just wanted the procedure done and out of the way.
The dental practice is one of the largest ones I know of. I had assumed that because I would likely feel unsteady on my feet after the procedure, I would be in one of the treatment rooms on the ground floor. Instead, the treatment room I ended up in was on the first floor, which consisted of navigating a winding staircase. My son had been told he could remain in the room until I was sedated. As the minutes passed, we began exchanging glances and thinking the same thing, "Why does nothing appear to be happening?" I had been hooked up to a blood pressure monitor, but the dental surgeon was sitting in a chair doing nothing, and the dental nurse appeared to have gone AWOL.
Eventually, after many more minutes, the dental nurse returns and tells my son he needs to leave the room. Accompanying the dental nurse is one of the senior dental surgeons, and it soon becomes clear that the reason for the delay is that he's the one who will be sedating me. A cannula gets placed in my right arm, and I watch as the senior dental surgeon injects Midazolam into me. As I turn my head to respond to a question I'm asked, I am immediately aware the sedation is kicking in because I feel decidedly spaced out.
I had zero recollection of the local anaesthetic being administered, but was aware that the left-hand side of my mouth felt numb. However, despite feeling numb, there were moments when the extraction process caused me discomfort. Throughout the procedure, the dental surgeon repeatedly had to ask me to open my mouth wider. Due to having a small mouth, this is something I really struggle with. To me, it felt like the dental surgeon was wrestling to get my teeth extracted.
After the procedure was finally completed, and a roll of gauze had been placed inside my mouth, the dental surgeon then gave my face and neck a wipe. This was something that I would have preferred to do myself. The dental surgeon then asked me to stand up and hold her hands, and to keep looking at her as she guided me into a recovery room where my son was waiting for me. Having been left there for approximately ten to fifteen minutes, the dental surgeon returned and asked how I felt. My response was that I couldn't wait to get back home and get dosed up on pain relief. Although I was still numb, I felt like the left-hand side of my lower jaw bone had been dealt a hefty blow.
Prior to my dental appointment, I had been feeling headachey. The treatment room at the dental practice had felt stuffy, which hadn't helped. After arriving home, I was aware that my headache had progressed into a migraine. It was not an ideal situation to find myself in. Some hours later, my son had taken himself off to the bathroom to have a bath and a shave. Fortunately, he had more-or-less finished when I burst into the bathroom and promptly knelt on the floor with my head over the toilet bowl. My son was very good and insisted upon taking a look inside my mouth. Within minutes he had donned a pair of surgical gloves and placed a fresh roll of gauze inside my mouth, as he could see that the blood clots had been dislodged and that my sockets were bleeding.
One of my fears had been that something would happen to dislodge the blood clots and that I would end up with dry sockets. Having experienced that a good many years ago, and knowing how excruciatingly painful it can be, I am keen not to experience it ever again. Therefore, I am endeavouring to follow my aftercare instructions as closely as I can. As my tolerance to pain is low, the sooner my mouth heals, the better. 
