have you gotten your wisdom tooth extracted?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

I had all four of mine out under general a couple years ago. The worst part was that it took them forever to hit a vein for the IV, which worried me because if they can’t do that, can I trust them to pull things out of my head while I’m out? and also I had splendid heroin-addict bruises all over both my arms for weeks. The actual recovery was uncomfortable, but I managed to get by only using Advil for pain (they did give me real painkillers, but I didn’t want to take them.)

My brother’s having his out in a few weeks, and I’ll be home by then to watch him suffer. He’ll have to go to school a few days after, too. (I had mine out over the summer–I did have a band meeting two days after and a sectional to run three days after, but I think school would have been worse.)

22

CBCD-you heard wrong.

I had one impacted tooth on the lower jaw and the the one on the upper jaw removed when I was 18. Nothing wrong with the upper one, but they don’t like to leave you uneven.

They offered me local, or local plus a big old shot of IV sedatives. I took the sedatives, because I hate dentists at the best of times. Can’t remember a thing about the procedure, came around about 45mins later in an armchair in the recovery room. Usually people come around faster, but I’m small, and they didn’t titrate the dose to my weight, just gave me the standard shot. They’d numbed me up, so I couldn’t feel anything except the stitches poking out of my lower gum.

Mum drove me to McDonalds because I’d been fasting since midnight and was starving, and I had a milkshake and some fries. I took some Ibuprofen when the local wore off, and for a couple of days afterwards not a big deal painwise.

The problem was that I reacted badly to the antibiotics they’d given me (Erythromycin, I’m Penicillen allergic, so they had to be a bit creative) and 3 days later I ended up with apthous ulcers (canker sores) all over my mouth, tongue and throat…and a couple on my toes! One of those incredibly 1 in a million side effects that they don’t bother to ward you about because it almost never happens.

Couldn’t eat or speak for a week, subsisted on eggnog drunk through a straw and lost about 16 lbs…now THAT was painful.

I’d have my wisdom teeth out again any day…but with a different antibiotic.

23

I just had one pulled last Monday, No pain at all, but my dentist never mentioned anything about dry socket, just gave me a piece of paper with directions od post oral surgery do’s and don’ts. My major complaint is the huge hole in the back of my mouth, where I can get food stuck.

24

That’ll grow over in time. I remember how much it sucked, though.

25

I’ve got a temporary crown on one, waiting for the permanent one.

A crown on a wisdom tooth? How weird is that? (to the tune of $775, no less)

Can you imagine what a bitch it is for them to get back there to drill? Aigh. They had to practically disconnect my jaw and shove it to the side.

But, see, I had all my six year molars pulled. (parents couldn’t afford root canals and crown). So I need all the teeth I can get.

And Ace309, I’m missing one of the three. Not as evolved as you are, but getting there.

26

Dr. Fear? Is he related to Dr. Doom, by chance?

I haven’t had mine out yet and hopefully won’t ever need to (knock on wood), but my mum had hers out under general–didn’t feel a thing, and her teeth are doing fine.

27

I had mine out at a very reputable oral surgeon’s when I was 18. I was supposed to be out cold, as I was getting all 4 out and some were growing in sideways and they were going to have to break them in my jaw first before taking them out.

I have a thing with anesthesia apparently- I’ve had several procedures done under ‘twilight’ sedation (that thing described earlier where you can respond but remember very little and feel little pain.) For whatever reason, when I get twilight sedation I can feel pain, and do remember, and during the procedure I am quite insistant about that. I’m not making complete sense, mind you, but I definitely feel and remember any discomfort and pain. So I told the oral surgeon about my previous experiences with twilight sedation and we decided I should be ‘out’ for the procedure.

Anesthesia is a tricky thing though, because I woke up on the chair with several people’s hands in my mouth while the surgeon was trying to crack one of my teeth. It was very, very uncomfortable. Not so much pain, but a lot of discomfort. I started trying to talk to them, in my not-quite-there state, so that they’s realize I was awake. One of the assistants says to me, “Oh relax, relax, go back to sleep! We’re almost done, only 3 more to go.” *3 more to go??!!! * I only have 4!

So I was awake and distressed, and they didn’t want to give me any more sedation, I guess because it can be pretty dangerous when you fool around with large doses of that kind of thing. So my experience wasn’t good. On the plus side, the surgeon felt so bad about it he made sure I had a significant supply of demerol, etc., do get me through the recovery. The recovery wasn’t bad at all though, one day of pain, then just inconvenience of being swollen and not being able to eat solid foods.

I hope that doesn’t unduly stress you out! Good luck and let us know how it goes!

28

I had all 4 cut out when I was 13, plus an extra tooth that was trying to come in at an already occupied location. The only thing I remember, is the wild turkey painting on the wall. Just as I was going under, that booger was climbing off the wall and comming to get me.

The ride home was interesting. My sister decided to stop at a convenience market. While she was in the store, a woman pulled up beside our car, took one look at me passed out in the passenger seat with swollen cheeks, and started screaming. Bitch, woke me up. And my sister was mad at ME for causing a scene. :rolleyes:

I had yet to learn the trick of swallowing horse pills, so I never took my pain pills. I took the antibiotics and tylenol. But, I have a very high pain threshold.

29

I got all four widsom teeth removed when I was, oh… 20? Two were impacted, so the surgeon had to do a bit o’ digging and I had these neat lil, well, pits in the back of my jaw. I woke up after the surgery itself totally zonked out of my gourd. I was so damn stoned on the drugs they gave me that I couldn’t quite remember a sequence of events and thought we still had to get to the doctor’s office. Luckily, the doc gave me a perscription for percacet. Lemme tell ya… 24 hours of blissful sleep in a bottle. It hurt for a few days after the perceacet ran out, but it was still pretty mild all in all. I’ve had stomach cramps which hurt more.

30

Oh, god, that reminds me of my ride home. I was so zonked at this point that I could not figure out how I’d gotten from the chair in the operating room to a chair by the back door (apparently I walked, but I wasn’t any kind of conscious). But my dad decided he had to stop at Best Buy on the way home, and I wasn’t really alive enough to object. I sat in the car propped against the window with swollen cheeks and bloody gauze in my mouth wanting to die. I got some pretty weird looks from the other people in the parking lot…

31

I had all four yanked out at once. I opted to be knocked out. Spent a week on Vicodin. (Whoooooooooooooooooooo!)

Wore a scarf around my jaw in the winter ( this was November) because it ached when cold was sucked in on a frigid day. Ate loads of soup that week.

Overall, it was worse than childbirth with zero work involved on my part, but with better drugs and no presents.

32

My experiences have a lot of commonalities to ones here, but I’ll describe anyway:

I had to have eight teeth total taken out: four wisdom and four others that were causing crowding that would make trouble for my future braces. So I had four on one side taken out, then four on the other. It was quite painless, although the large needle used (this is in the mid-90’s) was a little scary. As mentioned before, the sounds, and imagining what you couldn’t see, was the worst. Other than a little personal “nausea,” it wasn’t that bad. My recovery was spent in bed with pills, soup, ice cream, and TV. The pills were just regular aspirin-type pain medication, but it wasn’t that painful. Mostly achey.

All in all, the years of braces was worse, although this experience was more intense.

33

Yes, I had them all taken out when I was around 15, under general anesthesia at an oral surgeon. I will regale you with my tale:

Away I went to the oral surgeon. Before the procedure, there was a short video about what was going to be done and why. Then, into the operating room. I reclined on what you might call a very flat chair or a very bent bed. After attaching a heart monitor and that clip that goes on your finger that I don’t know what does, an IV was inserted in my arm. After no more than two seconds, I suddenly found I could no longer control my eyes: I lost focus, then they rolled back. The last thing I remember is the fuzzy image of the ceiling and florescent lights. (Odd, this bit. I’ve been put under a few times since, but never experienced this eye thing again.)

Sometime later I vaguely recall being half-carried down the hall. I have no memory between this hazy event and getting the IV, although I’m told I was very interested in where the doors in the corridor led and was speaking in some nonsensical gibberish about them.

Later still, I remember becoming conscious that I was sitting in a chair in the recovery room, with an ice pack wrapped around my head. Still more than a little drugged-up, I was feeling absolutely fine. A short while afterward, I was up to walking, and we (that is, my mother and I) went out to the car and headed for home.

I was prescribed some Vicodin followed by Tylenol with codeine, which I took at some regular interval I don’t recall. There was the occasional soreness and I couldn’t eat solid food for a few days, but on the whole, it wasn’t at all bad. No nausea, no significant pain. The stitches came out on their own before it became necessary to have them removed, so that was the last of it.

Now if you want stories about a surgery that didn’t go so smoothly, I can tell you about my kidney stones…

34

Oh, I’m sure it will. I just wasn’t expecting it, because when I had my two lower ones removed, they had stitches that held them closed. THey were both impacted below the gum line and lots of digging had to be done. Incidentally, I also learned the hard way that tylenol 3 makes me vomit. And infected gums/jaws are a real bitch.

35

I had all four out when I was 17. They put me under general anathesia. Afterward they gave me some powerful pain pills, and I don’t remember much of the rest of that week. I got two impacted sockets, and those hurt. A lot. Again the pain pills helped.

36

I think they share a small office building with Dr. Phibes :eek:
I had all 4 wisdom teeth removed years ago - first one side, and then the other. There was no pain or discomfort at all. All the grinding, breaking and cutting sounds really loud because of how bone transfers sound to the ear, but that’s about it. My dentist at the time doped me up, but I was awake. He prescribed (I think it was something called) Darvocet. I slept for 3 days straight, and everything was pretty well healed when I woke up.

37

I still have all my wisdom teeth, but they keep pestering me to have them out.

They all came in nice and straight, and my mouth is plenty big for them (shut up), but all four have cavities and they don’t want to hassle with filling them. Lazy dentists.

Four years ago one told me that if I didn’t have them out soon, I’d be back in a matter of weeks in horrible pain. Years have passed and they haven’t hurt yet. On the basis of this one event, I’ve concluded that all dentists suck and I can safely ignore their advice.

38

I had all 4 taken out in high school. ouch! :frowning:

39

Had all four taken out at once with local anesthesia by an oral surgeon. No pain, no swelling, no problems afterward, but I’ll tell the tale of the removal as it was different from what anyone else has posted…

The doc was concerned as the X-rays showed the roots of one of the lower ones growing down into my jaw bone, and both the upper ones growing up into either the bone, or the sinus passage. So he gets me in the chair and gives a shot of novacaine next to each tooth. Goes to the first tooth to pull it, and I wince from the (slight) pain. He frowns saying that I shouldn’t feel anything. (This was a place that had big signs up saying they practiced ‘painless dentestry’ and I think he was offended that I was making him a lier).

He put more novacaine next to that tooth and went on to the second one. Grab, wiggle, wiggle, yank. Out it came, easy as you please, no pain, no problem.

Back to the first tooth. Still some minor pain when he tried to wiggle it. More novacain.

On to the third tooth. Grab, wiggle, wiggle, yank. Out it came, easy as you please, no pain, no problem.

Back to the first tooth. Still feeling it when he tried to pull it. This time he split the tooth into two peices (which didn’t hurt at all, it only hurt when he tried to pull it) and shot novacaine right into the root of the tooth.

On to the fourth tooth. Grab, wiggle, wiggle, yank. Out it came, easy as you please, no pain, no problem.

Back for the final time to the first tooth. Grab 1/2 the tooth and try to pull, it still won’t come out even through there is no pain. (Hell by then I’d had so much novacaine, I couldn’t feel most of my jaw on that side.) Grab the other 1/2 and Yank! it came right out. Back to the first half and Twist! Yank! out it comes finally!

Looking at that first half of the tooth, we can both see that the root hooked around in a 90 degree arc like a fishook! No wonder it wouldn’t come out, and why I could keep feeling it. The bottom of the root wasn’t even close to where the novacaine was being put.

After all that, I had no swelling, and only took one pain pill later that day once the novacaine wore off. By the next day I was fine and had to force myself to remember to be carefull of my mouth (no using straws, gentle saltwater rinses, etc.)

40

I’m not gonna tell you my story. Maybe after you have gotten all better, then maybe, but not now. Just remember–if anything seems weird, or you have a lot of pain and your dentist is giving you the run around, if he/she prescribes you anything strange (theraflu?) or if you just don’t feel like you are receiving adequate care and concern, run. Run far and fast. Or, if the procedure is already over, get a referral (and don’t take any shit about that, they have to give them out) and hie thee to a different doctor. Seriously. :mad: