m a total chicken when it comes to needles and I’m supposed to get a wisdom tooth pulled out next week and I’m terrified.
Could you guys tell me that you’ve been through it and it was ok?
Two regular wisdom teeth taken out by my dentist-local anesthetic some pain-chomped on the wadding and did follow up to prevent dry socket. Two impacted done by the oral surgeon, again under local, he said I was nuts-no big deal home in an hour after hitting the chair. YMMV.
I do have a very high pain tolerance level. 
I had all four pulled when I was 16, out of it for a day on morphine, then codeine. No sharp foods for a couple of weeks. Mine had some trouble healing, and I had a hole for a year or so. Had to keep food out of it as it slowly closed up, but no pain after the first few days.
I had a wisdom tooth that needed to be pulled. It was super easy, and painless for the most part. First, the dentist’s assistant put some numbing gel on, and after a short wait I got the novocaine shot. Then the tooth got yanked - the only part of that I didn’t care for was the sound of it coming out - but I didn’t feel a thing. I went back to work right afterwards and took Advil (the dentist instructed me to take 4) for the pain. No dry socket or anything.
Mine was pretty painful for a few days before it got pulled, so being rid of it was a relief. There is nothing worse than a wisdom tooth that hurts, so be thankful you’re getting it out now instead of waiting for it to start causing pain…on a Friday…like mine did. Waiting for Monday morning and the dentist’s office being open was one of the longest waits of my life!
I had all four taken out, two at a time. I was given Valium first, then local shots (and you won’t even feel the needle if they use a topical first). One of them was particularly stubborn. The nurse and another person held me down while the dentist basically straddled me (standing on stools) to pull it out.
Do what they say to prevent dry socket. Just do it. Trust me, you don’t want it.
I had mine in high school. All four at the oral surgeon. Local anesthesia only… general can make you sick for a couple days afterwards and I wanted to avoid that. It really wasn’t bad. They went in and broke the teeth into pieces and extracted the pieces. Sounds worse than it feels. I went back to school in the afternoon and only took one pain pill. They healed quickly and I had no infections or problems.
Good luck!
Mine was nothing. It had grown in straight but had a huge cavity where eventually half the tooth crumbled away. 15 minutes at the regular dentist, and $50 later the tooth was gone.
I even broke all the rules - on the way home I drank Coke through a straw and smoked cigarettes - no dry socket.
Had 'em all out a few years ago under conscious sedation (intravenous demerol, I think). What this means is that technically, I was conscious during the procedure, but I was very, very relaxed and form no memories of the experience. So, from a subjective perspective (mine) I was “out.” From an objective perspective (the dentist’s) I was awake and responding to questions and other stimuli. I am VERY phobic at the dentist so this was an excellent choice for me.
Two of mine were impacted and two were basic extractions. I do not process opiate painkillers well (constant puking), so loads and loads of advil were the way to go for me in terms of pain reduction. My dentist stressed getting plenty of protein to aid healing. I got kind of bored of the same old things: Jello, puddings, yogurt.
Duh, I meant oral surgeon. I had them out at an oral surgeon. Called Dr. Fear. Seriously.
I had three pulled by my dentist. Very little pain afterwards.
The fourth was surgically removed. I was eating normally in 3 days.
My wisdom teeth were taken out by the father of my ex-boyfriend. He’s an oral surgeon that specializes in trauma, like people who’ve been severely messed up in car accidents. He gave me a local and put me under. I had four impacted teeth. He was apparently extremely gentle with me, because I had almost no swelling. I had them taken out on a Friday and I was back in classes by Monday. I only took one of the pain meds (Vicodin, I think) that they gave me and had no problems at all.
I apparently never had wisdom teeth. The dentist asked when I’d had them out - I didn’t.
Apparently I’m just slightly more highly evolved than the lot of you.
I had mine done about two years ago. I was so nervous while signing the release papers that they gave me a tranquilizer (I think it was Valium) for the morning of the extraction. I took it at 6am and man I was so happy and I didn’t have a care in the world. I sat in the chair once I got there, decided to close my eyes and the next thing I know, I wake up, and they’re taking out my wisdom teeth! I had opted to get gassed, so I simply put the nose thingie tightly over my nose, took a HUGE whiff and I was in la la land.
I got all four taken out, and it didn’t really hurt. I was mainly sore for a week, but I took a few Advil to make it managable. I guess I have really high pain tolerance. I ate countless jars of applesauce and I went through a few 6 packs of Ensure. It wasn’t so bad, I got to watch tons of tv and my brother had to do whatever I asked him to do 
“Norm!”
“What?”
“Could you get me a couple of videos from your room and put it in my vcr and push play?”
“grumble grumble…”
Oh, and my boyfriend’s mom made a wonderful contraption for me! Get one pantyhose leg (not the whole stocking, just those ones that fit over one leg), and with safety pins, pin two icebags so that you can wrap the pantyhose around your face (vertically), so the icebags are over your cheeks, and you tie the ends at the top of your head so you don’t have to hold the icepacks on all day. (I hope this makes sense!) This wonderfully bizarre looking contraption kept me sane because I didn’t want to hold the icepacks on or just lay down with them on the bed. You will look like a fool with that on, but hey, I gave my family a couple of good laughs, and laughter is good! 
I got all four of mine out at once (via conscious sedation). While the procedure itself was painless, the next couple of weeks was awful! Everything that went wrong could. I couldn’t open my mouth wide enough to eat, which was bad because I was told that I had to take the pain pills with food or else I would throw up. So I spend a couple of days throwing up blood.
Then I got TWO dry sockets! While I was on vacation, no less. Spent most of the time in the cabin while everyone else was out jet skiing. I also had a horrible pain in my right ear for a few days, I assume it was caused my the wisdom teeth thing because I don’t know what else it could have been from. And the sockets oozed this horrible nasty foul tasting pus for about two weeks.
Once everything was all healed up, though, everything was fine. Never had a problem sense. Sorry if I scared you and I hope your surgery goes WAY better than mine did!
Oh I forgot to mention that since I took Valium on an empty stomach (you can’t eat like 16 hours beforehand), during the procedure I apparently woke up, pushed the dentist’s hands away, turned my head and puked in his direction. I vaguely remember my dentist jumping back and saying “WOAH!” Then I turned my head back and promptly went back to sleep LOL!
I had all four out at once when I was 20. I was knocked out for the procedure, which was done by an oral surgeon. There was a lot of pain the first day, it was hard for me to eat anything other than mushy foods (yogurt, mashed potatoes, etc.) for three or four days, and the stitches were sore for a while after that–but by far the worst part for me was spending the day of the surgery coming out of anesthesia and then belatedly remembering that my body does not react well to codeine. Nothing beats lying on the sofa all day switching ice packs from one side of your face to the other, wishing you could just conk out but never quite making it all the way to sleep…ugh.
What condition the tooth is in makes a big difference. My brother had his taken out the same day as me. His teeth were much more severely impacted than mine, and the result was a greater amount of pain and swelling that lasted a couple days longer.
All that being said, everything was fine for both of us after a few days–neither of us had any problems with dry socket or anything like that.
Yes, about twenty years ago. I had them done under the normal local anaesthetic, two at a time, with a fortnight’s break between the left and right side.
It’s not the most pleasurable experience, but then again, people go through it every day a live to complain about it. Don’t get too over anxious about it. The first day or two just take the pills they give you and sleep a lot. If you are going under a general, think the most happy thoughts before you go under, then you should come out of it smiling. Live on soft stuff for a couple days afterwards, things are usually healed up pretty good in a few days.
I had all four done under general anaesthetic 10 years ago
I have heard from British friends that in the UK it is normal procedure to check into the hospital for a few days when you have wisdom teeth taken out. Eek!
You will need someone to drive you home from the oral surgeon, most likely.