Recently, an article in The Straits Times featured a case of a chef suing a dentist for causing him to lose sensation of his tongue after a wisdom tooth surgery. Certainly, for a chef, such a complication can be a career-ending event. So, how does a wisdom tooth surgery lead to numbness of the tongue and what can be done about it.
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Continuing the story of debate on “Better Competency Development for Safe and Quality Dental Care”, this blog discusses the other oft-cited “higher risk” procedure, wisdom tooth surgery. So how complicated is wisdom tooth surgery? What kind of training do dentists need to perform this surgery properly.
Today, I removed the four wisdom teeth of the son of my first ever wisdom tooth patient. His father was my first ever wisdom tooth surgery patient thirty years ago. I was in final year dental school then and removal of that one tooth took two hours. It was a most traumatic experience, not just for the patient, but for me as well. He was bleeding and I was sweating. It was an arduous climb up Mount Everest. Post-operatively, the swelling was tremendous and the corner of the mouth was thoroughly bruised and abraded with all the tugging and pulling. Thirty years later, he sent his son to me for wisdom teeth removal.
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