At 9am this morning, my 17 year old son Justin got an IV in his hand, went to sleep, and woke up about 30 minutes later, minus all four of his wisdom teeth. Needless to say, he’s not having the greatest day of his life today. He’s swollen, sore, and thanks to being able to read about all the things that could possibly go wrong (like dry socket) on the Internet, just a little bit worried. In a day or two, I’m sure everything is going to be just fine, but in the mean time, we’re just taking care of him … ice cream, yogurt and pudding will probably be his diet this weekend.
Even with insurance, dad’s credit card took a bit of hit, but compared to what Justin is having to deal with, I can hardly complain about a silly little thing like money. 
I remember when I got my wisdom teeth out, I didn’t have to pay anything. It was my very first dentist appointment after I came in the Air Force. The dentist got my x-rays back, and was rather excited to discover that I still had wisdom teeth. He then told me that they would have to come out. I, of course, asked why. Here’s what I was told: if you don’t take them out, food could get stuck back in there, and it would cause problems. That sounded reasonable to me, so I got em taken out.
… and for about the next year, I had little holes in my mouth where those wisdom teeth used to be. Every time I ate, food would get stuck in there, so I had to take a little syringe filled with water, and flush out the holes.
It just struck me as kind of ironic, that I ended up experiencing exactly the problem that this procedure was supposed to hypothetically prevent in my future.
Hopefully things work out better for Justin.
