Goin' in for wisdom teeth extraction.

[jcj]

Set up to have all four wisdom teeth removed on 10/21. One horizontally impacted and three that should be "fairly easy" to extract.

Any words of wisdom? Experiences seem to vary wildly from a one day recovery to a week in agony.

I despise having dental work of any kind done. I'm not exactly panic-stricken, but it just makes me a bit anxious.

[Mdunntn]

Set up to have all four wisdom teeth removed on 10/21. One horizontally impacted and three that should be "fairly easy" to extract.

Any words of wisdom? Experiences seem to vary wildly from a one day recovery to a week in agony.

I despise having dental work of any kind done. I'm not exactly panic-stricken, but it just makes me a bit anxious.

I had mine taken out while I was awake you feel extreme pressure, but I understand most people are sedated. Change the cotton out of your mouth regularly, sometimes it will get stuck to your teeth if you don't. Just relax until they heal up, and the blood coming out of your teeth is extremely thick. It doesn't feel too good, but Then again the doctor gave me hydros but They didn't help.

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[Erik88]

Well, I was really weird because I had 5 wisdom teeth so I was expecting it to be horrible. I experienced zero pain. None. They gave me very strong pain pills and I was fine after a few days. It's not nearly as bad as everyone makes it seem

[peejman]

Had mine removed years ago in high school. All 4 of mine were impacted, coming in at 45 deg, well below the surface. I had it done in the hospital and have a few interesting memories...

After the nurse gave me the sedative shot in my butt, I was laying on my back in bed. The room had the standard tile ceiling. I floated up above the bed to within a few inches of the ceiling. I reached up and touched the tiles and the whole ceiling rippled as if it was liquid. I recall being completely fascinated. The remainder of the experience was less fascinating.

As mentioned, change the gauge frequently. If you don't it'll stick and begin to scab. So you pull the scabs off when you finally decide to change it. That's.... unpleasant. The combination of drainage and meds made me nauseous so I didn't eat for a couple days. Barfing with 4 rather large, fresh holes in your mouth is ... unpleasant. Gargling/rinsing with a very mild, warm salt water solution helps keep everything clean.

I had them removed on a saturday morning. I was not ready to go back to school on Monday, so I stayed home. Weekday morning TV got boring very quickly. The dr. gave me percocet for the pain. They told me to take half a pill first, then the other half an hour later if it still hurt (if... ha!). I'd taken a whole pill when my parents left for work. I took another whole pill about an hour later. The next thing I remember is Mom opening the front door, home from work 8 hours later. I was still sitting in the recliner with the TV remote in my hand. After that, I decided one pill was enough.

I know people who had much worse experiences than me (dry socket, infections...) and some who played basketball the next day. YMMV.

[Ebow1]

Words of wisdom. Don't wake up. I woke up 4 times during my operation. One of the things they do these days is fracture the wisdom teeth before extraction. Makes them easier to remove. You'd think it'd be some fancy medical whatnot. It's not. They put a pair of pliers in your mouth and clamp down on the wisdom teeth. I woke up just in time to hear and feel one pop. As far as lasting pain, I didn't have any problems. Ate normal, and all that, got tired of the stitches and got 'em out myself with a toothpick from Red Lobster about a week later.

[Reservoir Dog]

I had mine taken out earlier this year. The operation was nothing. They knocked me out (don't know what they gave me, but I was out in about 10 seconds), and when I woke up, it was all over. Only minor pain after the numbness wore off.

You will need to take precautions in the 3 to 4 days after the surgery, so as not to dislodge the blood clots that form in the empty tooth sockets. Those are the key to proper healing. If you dislodge them, you could develop a "dry socket" and that can be quite painful, and require follow-up visits to the oral surgeon. He should give you some guidelines about care for those days.

Edited October 11, 2011 by Reservoir Dog

[Lumber_Jack]

Don't sweat it you'll be fine. You'll go to sleep, wake up groggy drooling with a mouth full of gauze. You'll be sore for a day or two, but nothing pain meds won't help you with. I quit taking pain meds after the first day cause I was tired I'd sleeping all the time. Just took Tylenol for another couple days. Worst thing I had was a piece of food got stuck in the hole and I didnt realize until my breath started getting rank. Use mouth wash after you eat and if you get food stuck get a water bottle and flush out the area. good luck

[gnmwilliams]

All of the above is good advice. Expecially the barfing isn't pleasant and the don't wake up part. I barfed up orange jello one day only to have it come pouring out of my nose a week later once the swelling started going down. I looked down at all the orange liquid and was like what the ?!?! I couldn't take all my oxy's because of the vomiting it caused me so I only took it to get to sleep. I would say the sugery wasn't the worst part but the two days after. Ice packs work wonders my friend. Oh and keep those sockets clean with salt water so you don't get dry socket. Not fun. In fact, rinsing with salt water regularly helped the healing process as well as the pain in my opinion. Best of luck to ya!

[DWARREN123]

I had mine done in 1971. Get drugs and take time off, do nothing for 24-48 hours. Hope your experience in much better than mine ws.

[Curiousgb]

If you smoke, don't. I had four done at once with just Novocaine it wasn't the most fun thing ever. Do exactly what he doctor says. Salt water rinse is good.

[oldogy]

I would assume the DR has suggested someone accompany you.

oldogy

[ls3_kid]

I don't remember getting mine out. Make sure you get one of those water syringes to clean out the pockets. That helped a lot especially from stopping dry pockets.

This thing:

[Oh Shoot]

Everyone's different.

My top two got so loose when I was about 55 I could have pulled 'em myself, no probs.

Doc wanted to take one of the bottom ones about 4 years ago, I told him to go ahead and do the other one just for balance .

Those were in there solidly, but he just numbed everything, didn't put me out. No probs, no real pain afterwards just had to not chew food on the pits for a few days.

- OS

[UncleJak]

I was advised to have mine removed 3 years ago. I think the doctor is a nut and I not gonna do it. n Good luck

[Guest Lester Weevils]

1968 one of em gave trouble, went to an ancient country dentist who kindly opened his home office on Sunday evening. He had an antique dentist chair and a small rack of well-worn midieval torture instruments. Shot of novocaine, loosened it up prying with something looked like a screwdriver (crunch, crunch, crunch), yanked it out with pliers and then a plug of cotton for a day. That one healed fine. I think the guy may have charged 10 or 20 bucks.

Six months later another wisdom tooth started giving me headaches (tooth was bigger than the jaw space it was growing into). Was off to school at GA TECH so got referred to a fancy Atlanta dentist with a posh office and lots of "modern" equipment. He put all kinds of tubes and fixtures in the mouth, broke the tooth into pieces and dug out the pieces. Took a long time to finish the procedure. Just novocaine, no gas, anaesthesia, or pain pills. He charged a bunch of money. About a month of food budget. It took a long time to heal. Maybe that was a more difficult tooth, dunno. Or maybe the old country dentist would have done it better in 15 minutes with his screwdriver and pliers.

Didn't want to wait til the other wisdom teeth gave trouble to have em out, so about a year later found an excellent very-painless Chatt Adventist dentist to take the other two out, one at a time a couple of months apart. Those worked out fine too.

Wonder if it is less pain getting em out one at a time? Or maybe the suffering is about the same regardless if you get 1 or 4 pulled in one session?

[Guest WyattEarp]

Set up to have all four wisdom teeth removed on 10/21. One horizontally impacted and three that should be "fairly easy" to extract.

Any words of wisdom? Experiences seem to vary wildly from a one day recovery to a week in agony.

I despise having dental work of any kind done. I'm not exactly panic-stricken, but it just makes me a bit anxious.

had mine yanked when I was in the army, and i panicked and ended up swallowing one when he pulled the first one, he had to gag me to get me to toss it back up.

I hate the dentist, one of my biggest fears. anytime I go for anything more than a cleaning or routine exam, I make them give me a sedative, and put me to sleep so it let's them work without me fighting them, and I don't have to just lie there in terror, praying for it to be over with. much easier process, and I have no recollection of anything that happened. I can deal with the after pain, i just hate someone poking and prodding and drilling in my mouth while I'm laying there eyes wide open, and about to go to into cardiac arrest.

if it were me, I'd demand a sedative and have someone drop you off and pick you up. They always try to talk me into nitrous (laughing gas) to calm me down, and I just tell them "sedative, or i'll take my business somewhere else who will do it the way I feel comfortable, and the only way is for me to be unconscious while the dentist works. end story, no negotiation. lol, my fear is that bad, and I have no desire to "overcome it".

[Tedro2022]

I had mine done in college. They put the gas on me to knock me out and right before I went under I looked at the nurse and said "You're f_ckin hot!" Next thing I know, I'm waking up in recovery and she's smiling at me. She was nowhere near hot.

Went home got a couple hours of sleep, and then my boss called me into work. I was pretty useless after I got there, but that was his fault not mine. Ha ha!

The next day I was as back to normal as one could be, with swollen cheeks packed full of gauze.

You'll be fine!

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[mav]

I had mine taken out three years ago at the dentist's office. No problems for me, although my dentist was having a fit trying to get a good grip on the tooth to pull it. The only time I have ever experienced any pain at the dentist was when he gave me a shot in the roof of my mouth. I climbed the seat a little on that one.

Edited October 12, 2011 by mav

[jcj]

Thanks for sharing the stories and advice! I'll manage I'm sure. My ex-wife is driving me to and from my appointment (Dr's orders). I'll be sound asleep during the procedure. They have to put me out of my misery because one of the wisdom teeth will require cutting into my gum tissue to fish it out. I can take a lot, but I don't think I could handle that with only local anesthesia.

I think I'm more terrified of the bill I'm about to receive.

I have insurance, but it only covers 50% of "major" procedures. I'm guessing I'll be on the hook for somewhere between $700-$1000. They're supposed to call me tomorrow and let me know the estimated cost after insurance.

[Caster]

Be sure you have some "sssthoop" and some instant mashed 'taters to get you by for the first day or two.

[Mdunntn]

Thanks for sharing the stories and advice! I'll manage I'm sure. My ex-wife is driving me to and from my appointment (Dr's orders). I'll be sound asleep during the procedure. They have to put me out of my misery because one of the wisdom teeth will require cutting into my gum tissue to fish it out. I can take a lot, but I don't think I could handle that with only local anesthesia.

I think I'm more terrified of the bill I'm about to receive.

I have insurance, but it only covers 50% of "major" procedures. I'm guessing I'll be on the hook for somewhere between $700-$1000. They're supposed to call me tomorrow and let me know the estimated cost after insurance.

shew mine was free at the health department, hints the no sedative lol.

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[chemprof]

Had all 4 done when I was 37 years old. Took me a weekend to recover.

1. Do exactly what the doctor tells you to do.

2. Get some ice packs to help with swelling.

3. Embrace the Demerol or whatever they give you! (I went off two days early, and was fine just with regular Tylenol).

4. Don't use a straw to drink.

5. Get some of those "Ensure" or other protein drinks that taste somewhat like a milkshake (close enough--LOL!)

6. Do exactly what the doctor tells you to do.

7. Do exactly what the doctor tells you to do.

OK, you get the pic. Best of luck!

[jcj]

Thanks again for all the suggestions, folks. Went in at 8:30am. Took back for surgery at 9:30.

IV inserted, room started getting a little wobbly, and suddenly it was 10:30 and I was trying to keep my eyes open in recovery.

Overall not a bad experience. One tooth required significant bone removal so that side of my face is in the most pain. Currently living on the couch with a bottle of antibiotics, hydrocodone, and ice packs wrapped around my head.

[Caster]

I remember when they put me on the table, they never told me when they were going to anesthetize me. I just remember sitting there with an IV in my arm thinking..."You know, I wonder when they're gonna put that stuff in my.........................................."

[Mike]

I has all four of mine cut out by my friend. He did an excellent job. I took some Advil and went back to work after I left his office.

Mike