So for the past week I have had a swollen lymph gland in the left side of my mouth, so today I went to the dentist. It was quite clear even before I got there I had an abcess outside my left wisdom tooth (mandibular third molar).

Abscesses occur when an area of tissue becomes infected and the body's immune system tries to fight it. White blood cells move through the walls of the blood vessels into the area of the infection and collect within the damaged tissue. During this process, pus forms which was the reason for the swelling. Antibiotics usually take care of it, however I wanted to get to the source so I visited the dentist.

So they checked me out and was asked to go into the panoramic x-ray machine which is kind of cool because the machine rotates around your head when you are sitting in the middle of it.

After the X-ray I got the results confirming the abcess, and found out the source of the problem was not only a impacted wisdom tooth which can be classified as a mesial impaction where the tooth is not only stuck in the soft tissue but also growing in at a forward angle.

So step one, the 2nd molar in front of the 3rd had to get a root canal, which is quite painful. The dentist did give me anesthesia but it took 3 surenges of what I assumed to be novacaine and about 15 insertions of the needle before I could feel less. He proceeded by cutting the swollen areas beside my gum and the tissue next to the third molar to drain the abcess. Then he inserted the dental drill into the 2nd molar which hurt somewhat but nothing unbearable. He cleaned it out and we were done.

Monday morning I am to go back and have the 3rd molar removed which I am anticipating to be a horrible experience. The cost so far, about 200 RMB, not so bad, including the medicine to stop any infection from growing and pain killers that take away all emotions and excitement I may have. My synapsis are being lazy haha. And here it is about 1.5 hours after the novacaine injections and I still cannot feel my tongue or the entire left side of my face. Which is kind of cool but I'm afraid I might bite my cheek or something.