I am now devoid of one wisdom tooth from top back of mouth, and $269 from top of savings. Mouth still bleeding a bit but the pain isn't that bad. Panadiene is great stuff - slept from 8.30 til 7.30 this morning. Feeling rested.

Dentist (nice man Graham from Welly, got his BDS from Otago) was not entirely happy with me, said if I leave wisdom teeth until they are that bad, there's not enough tooth to grab onto, and it makes his job very hard. He glared at me after extracting the painful tooth, and said,

"I want you to see this."
"Um, nar I'm fin", I replied, blood, spit and gauze clogging my mouth.
"No, I want you to see what sugar does to enamel."
[unable to protest, I make faint gurgling sound, as dental assistant retrieves said tooth from dental hose, which sounds like a marble going up the vacuum cleaner]
"See?" he says, shoving bit of brown-black tooth in my face. "THIS is why you come to the dentist when you start having pain, and not a minute later."

Got lecture on dental hygiene, but was told that I had excellent teeth and was very lucky.

So that's that then. Bit sore now though.

PS: I have lost 6kg. Very heavy tooth, obviously.