Dr. Arsalan Ahani, DDS, MD - Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon in San Mateo

This is going to be one of my random, non beauty related posts, kind of like this one.

I'm a horrible, horrible procrastinator when it comes to my health. Anything dental? Even worse. I've had so many horrible dentists, it literally took me 6 years to go see one when one of my molars started to fall off in chunks because the decay was so bad. And then I had another horrible experience. Apparently no dentist could numb my lower molars, and I went through a root canal that was carried out through several sessions sober. Actually, my lips were completely numb, my tongue and front teeth were numb, and my right eye was twitching--the dentist said he put about three times the amount of local anesthesia he would for a grown man in me, so there's nothing else he could do for that un-numbable molar. I cried like a baby throughout the process.

When my wisdom teeth began to grow in, I recalled a past dentist telling me they would be impacting. I was extremely optimistic and hoped that they wouldn't. A part of my lower, right wisdom tooth started to poke out of my gum, right behind my second molars. Success! Or not... 7 months later, with increasing pain and swelling of my gums, I finally gave up hope and called Dr. Ahani's office. Initially, I wasn't able to grab an appointment for another  month. When I called back a week later because the pain was getting unbearable, they were able to get me in the next day (6/16) for a consultation.

There, I discovered that the little bit of tooth poking out was actually the back of the molar; it was growing head on into my second molar--same with the opposite side. One on top was sideways and the other was growing onto the adjacent second molar. They all looked hideous. Dr. Ahani also pointed out why my past dentists weren't able to numb my lower molars--my nerves are just positioned slightly differently. I now know to tell my future dentists to "aim higher" with the needle. During the initial exam, I was being informed on everything he was doing so I wouldn't feel nervous. He then answered all my questions patiently for an hour or so, and went over all my options for the types of anesthesia. Naturally, I opted for the general anesthesia. Who wants to hear their teeth being broken? Not me.

On the day of the surgery, I was really nervous and arrived before my SO who parked in the rear (plenty of free parking!), and he came in and being the car geek that he is noticed the car that Dr. Ahani drove. I told him that there's no way we can tell if it's his or a patient's and that it's rude to ask. I'm still not sure if we're car people or not--would true car fans stick a full grown Doberman in the back of a 996 for 5 months, until anything that was leather had claw marks or had been nibbled upon and chewed up, and all the alcantara had dog fur stuck to it? When I went in for the surgery itself, and whatever was in the IV drip started to flow, apparently I lost my sense of politeness and asked Dr. Ahani if it was indeed his car. He replied yes, and I completely knocked out, and had the best rest of my life. Ever. I woke up with gauze packed in my mouth I was told to bite down upon and in several minutes was able to walk on my own without any wobbliness. Dr. Ahani told me I would have chipmunk cheeks within a few days and I was told to ice each side for twenty minutes, switching off, but I iced each side for twenty minutes and then fell asleep. Fail. I was awoken by a call from Dr. Ahani asking how I was doing--along with a reminder to ice. I pretended like I had been icing it all day.

I took my meds and waited for the dreaded chipmunk face. Much to my surprise, I only had about a quarter to half an inch of swelling on each side. It wasn't noticeable unless you had seen me on a day to day basis to know exactly what I looked like. Sculpting powder made it pretty much unnoticeable. A few days later, I started to react badly to the Vicodin (the nausea was unbearable--I was gagging all the time) and so I came in on Tuesday, and was given a prescription for Darvocet instead and was given an antiemetic shot. I was given the shot on my non dominant arm and was warned my arm would be sore for the next day. Just like how he said I would have chipmunk cheeks, the Dr. failed to deliver on his "sore arm" promise. My arm never had a tinge of soreness to it. Best shot ever. Seriously, can this guy give me my vaccinations? I got my prescription when the pharmacy opened and 9 and then took a nap until 4 p.m., and then took a darvocet. Apparently my body didn't like that either, because not only did it do nothing for my pain, my nausea had returned. I called Dr. Ahani's cell phone (which is listed for emergency/urgent purposes in their voicemail), and left a lengthy voicemail about my nausea and pain, totally panicked because I had finals to take on Thursday (today). Then I left another one with my name and number. He soon called back with the suggestion to take half a vicodin, then take the other half an hour later if I felt fine, and if it didn't work to call the office staff the next morning for another appointment.

Wednesday, I went back in and my hole? wound?--socket was packed by one of the surgical assistants with medicated dressings. That got rid of the pain but they're seriously, seriously disgusting. They've killed my appetite and I've been brushing my teeth 6 times a day now--I'm even getting up twice at night to brush them. Now the pain is pretty much gone, and I'm just on ibuprofen, and I was able to write up essays for my finals with the added bonus of nausea--which honestly, wasn't as bad as it was when I was on vicodin.  It just really, really tastes bad, and I'm very hypersensitive when it comes to tastes and smells. Dr. Ahani actually called an hour earlier to ask how my finals went and how the pain is doing--even though I have another follow up appointment scheduled for tomorrow.

Between the patience and accommodating natures and practices of the staff and Dr. Ahani, his expertise (just look at the wall in the waiting room, no chipmunk cheeks even though I didn't follow his directions, no complications), the super luxe and chic exam chairs, and the fact that I've been just about the worst patient ever and none of the suffering I've had has come because of anything other than medications and facebook-food-porn-torture, I highly recommend Dr. Ahani for anyone in the Bay Area who needs an oral surgeon.