Mine were coming in at a bad angle, so my dentist recommended I have my wisdom teeth removed. I went in, they started the Demerol and whatever else, and I didn’t even need to count backwards… I was out! That afternoon, I was just sleepy, still from the drugs.
The pain wasn’t bad at all. There were only a handful of times when I got a dull ache, and when it got to be a little worse, I’d take a pain pill or two and it’d be fine, usually for the rest of the day. My cheeks didn’t swell up, either.
I did have to be kinda careful when I ate, though; the sockets were still pretty soft. But I was at work the following Monday (Had it done on a Friday) and no ill effects.
Your body gives you a warning (like pain near the wisdom tooth in question). If you react promptly, the odds of being pain free and cruising without a bruising are excellent.
Put it off even once and you are throwing the dice when it comes to pain and other big problems. The field of dentists who can handle bigger/delayed problems gets narrower, too.
Best time to visit a doctor or dentist is when the problem is covered in the Intro to Medicine 101. Don’t wait until you are an advanced case worthy of someone peer reviewed for pain management in the New England Journal of Medicine.
When I had my wisdom teeth pulled, the only pain was the needle.
The doctor yanked a little harder than needed, though, because his hand flew out of my mouth, and my tooth went skidding across the floor! He was terribly embarrassed, and apologized profusely, but I was laughing as best I could in my condition.
Geez, you’re all making me feel like a baby…when I got my wisdom teeth out I went under full anesthesia at a hospital and spent a couple days following wearing ice packs wrapped around my face. Worst spring break ever.
Man, I had all four of my (impacted) teeth pulled, and the needle didn’t even hurt (it was a butterfly needle, so it felt uncomfortable for about two seconds before I barely noticed). I was under anaesthetic the whole time and stopped using the Tylenol about a day or so afterwards.
Get the recommendation for a good oral surgeon and sue the pants off your wife’s doctor. There is no way what happened there was kosher.
Another person who had all four impacted wisdom teeth removed at once. I had had other teeth pulled before (for orthodontics) and so knew what to expect. They gave me nitrous, that night I took the analgesics, ate some soup and mashed potatoes. The next night I had steak (although I did cut it into little pieces).
My sister, on the other hand, had only one removed at a time and was swollen like a chipmunk for a week.
Your dentist sounds barbaric. Your best route is an oral surgeon. They are better equipped to handle extractions, especially ones that require more than a quick tug.
My wisdom teeth were impacted, but never bothered me a bit. You could see 'em there in the dental x-rays, but they never grew in, hurt, shoved other teeth around, or did any of the other evil things wisdom teeth are supposed to do.
Then one of them started a cyst, which also was utterly without symptoms, but which slowly grew over several years ( my dentist says it could have been there for a decade), and gradually ate out the inside of my jawbone. Finally got noticed when my dentist noticed some bone loss around a root in an x-ray.
The oral surgeon though he was going to have to take out a chunk of my jaw and build a graft form my hip bone. The rotted-out area was probably a third of my entire jaw bone. Fortunately, he was able to clean it out and let the cyst drain through a hole in my jaw and gum while it shrank and the bone grew back. Nearly a year later, I’m almost as good as new & still have my jaw and teeth.
Count me as a strong advocate for getting them out!!!
