Oral surgery on the horizon

It looks like my newly stockpiled emergency fund is going to see it's first real hit... a trip to the oral surgeon.  bleh.


When I was a teenager and all of my friends were having their wisdom teeth out, I considered myself pretty darn lucky that A) I only had one wisdom tooth and B) that one little wisdom tooth was not moving.  Over time both of my little sisters had their wisdom teeth removed and still my lone tooth refused to budge, although it was sitting just below the gum surface and facing sideways so it would be a problem if it did decide to move. And I was fine with that, let it stay there and let me not have to experience the pain and swelling that everyone else was going through!


When I moved to Tampa back in 2006 my new dentist sent me to an oral surgeon to see if I should go ahead and get the tooth removed.  That surgeon said the risks (potential nerve damage) and cost (no insurance) of the surgery outweighed any benefit since the tooth wasn't moving and therefore wasn't doing any harm.  Plus the procedure itself would include breaking part of my jaw bone since the bone was no longer the pliable bone of a teenager and the tooth was still embedded!  So I gladly declined the surgery!


But early last week I started feeling some pain and tenderness back there and by last Friday I was in enough pain that I decided it was time to head to the dentist to see what the problem was.  Turns out that my wisdom tooth has finally decided to emerge at the age of 31!  The dentist took one look at the new x-ray and said "it's about time!".  And out the door I went with a referral to another oral surgeon.  


Part of me is glad that I have great dental insurance so I'm pretty sure the surgery won't cost me too much (although I haven't actually checked into the plan costs yet) but the other part of me, the part not thinking about money, is terrified of having surgery!  When I meet with the surgeon in a few weeks I'm hoping they'll be able to calm my fears because right now I'm remembering all of the horrible reasons I didn't go through with the surgery back then... until then I'll just keep putting money aside to cover the surgery...