Hi Sacrilege,
NUCLEAR submarines!!!! Oh my goodness!! Just the thought of living in a submarine makes me shudder never mind the nuclear part :-(
You don't have to answer this but...... what made you choose that as a career?
It seems a bit odd to me that they would consider these "silent" wisdom teeth as a possible problem when there are so many other things that could occur unexpectedly that would be potential inconveniences (to put it mildly) for the mission at the time. Why these teeth I wonder?? I understand that they are considered an abnormality, but so are alot of other things. Oh well, they are not going to let you on the boat with those teeth, so I guess you have no choice!
The Navy OS does about 4 of these a month?? Civilian oral surgeons do several of these cases every day..... that's a big difference in experience. I'm sure he projects confidence in doing this surgery and hopefully would tell you if he felt otherwise. When are you scheduled?
I wish you all the best in all of your ventures. I hope and pray that your journeys are all safe ones! If you can, we would love to hear from you from time to time!!
Take good care and God bless!!
Bryanna
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sacrilege
Bryanna,
Thanks for the reply!
As to why it has to be removed: I'm going into the nuclear submarine field, and all submariners require that they pass a physical which determines whether they could have future problems that would require the submarine to deviate from their mission to fix the problem. In my case (and all submariner's cases) that means that if there are abnormalities (i.e. odd wisdom teeth) it must be dealt with before getting underway. The surgeon and dentist both acknowledge that, if not for the submarine thing, the surgery would be unnecessary.
As to his skills...well, I will admit that I am a little worried, but the surgeon himself is 55ish, and has been an Oral/Maxillofacial surgeon for 25 years. He told me not to worry, that he does about 4 of these a month (he is the only such surgeon in the navy at Naval Base Great Lakes), and that about 10-20% of his surgeries require that he go into the sinus cavity.
I am relieved that you have heard of my situation before; that was my primary concern, as to whether I had such a unique situation that there may be unforeseen complications. While I definitely would be happier if I could avoid people riffling around in my sinuses, I trust the doctor himself to do a good job; he seems to be very competent and knowledgeable, and at the same time understands that messing me up permanently would be a very bad thing for the Navy (lots of money in training, education, etc).
Thanks for your reply!
~TJ
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