I want to thank Dr. Lee and his staff for a better experience than I had anticipated in having my wisdom teeth extracted. I have allergies to the common meds (fentanyl, versed, the list goes on) that oral surgeons tend to use to sedate patients during surgery. As a teenager, I had an anaphylactic reaction to isotretinoin (accutane) in which my airway began to close up. I had visited several other oral surgeons prior to finding Dr. Lee and staff at LACOMS in order to figure out how to proceed with this surgery given my allergy history. Other oral surgeons seemed hesitant about operating on me, but the confidence in their training that the oral surgeons at LACOMS have made me feel comfortable with proceeding.
A week prior to my surgery, I had my consultation with Dr. Walline who made my parents and I feel very confident in proceeding with my wisdom teeth extraction via local anesthesia. On the day of the surgery, my mom and I requested to speak with Dr. Lee, in which we confirmed that the procedure would occur with careful regard for my allergies. Being very cognizant of my history of medication allergies, Dr. Lee was careful to not use anything other than lidocaine during the surgery, which is a medication that I had used in the past without any allergic reaction.
I was afraid that I would be in pain with such minimal medications used, but I did not feel a thing. I had requested that Dr. Lee start with the one tooth that had been bothering me the most, and he did just that. I did not feel any pain during the surgery (I only heard some cracking/drilling, in which my headphones came in handy), and asked him to proceed with removing all 4. Dr. Lee, his assistant Val, and the rest of the staff made me feel very comfortable during the surgery by constantly asking if I'm still doing okay. I could not be more pleased with my experience - Dr. Lee did a fantastic job.
Post-surgery I experienced some pain and discomfort as to be expected. I made sure to use the ice wrap provided to me by the staff, and I was shocked to see that my swelling had gone down by the night of my surgery. Dr. Lee was careful not to prescribe me anything that I may be allergic to, which I appreciated. Therefore, I was not prescribed strong pain meds or antibiotics. The only medications I took post-surgery were extra-strength Tylenol and prescription-strength Ibuprofen. I was in pain, however I managed to go to work just a few days post-surgery. On a Saturday night, I called their on-call doctor, who kindly prescribed me another pain medication that I knew I was not allergic to, and this helped to lessen more of my pain. It it now just a little over 1 week post-surgery for me and I'm still experiencing some pain, but have decreased my pain meds and am back to eating normal foods. Thank you Dr. Lee and staff at LACOMS for an amazing experience - I highly recommend! read more