I noticed nobody has mentioned nitrous oxide.
I’m having the two on my left side taken out on the 26th, and I’m pretty nervous about it. My dentist gave me the choice of being knocked out, or using novacaine with nitrous. I don’t want to inconvenience my family and friends, so I need to be able to drive home. He told me 5 minutes after the nitrous wears off, I’m good to go.
So, can anyone tell me what nitrous is like?
I’ve had nitrous for regular dental work (I have pretty severe dental anxiety and that’s about as low a level of medication as I can get by with any more). It makes me feel a bit loopy, though not in a “fun” way. I remember telling the technician that I was surprised people did nitrous recreationally.
It also made me more relaxed. And per the dentist, it seems to work with the novocaine to help the novocaine work a bit better. Certainly when I had a crown done a year or so back, the novocaine killed the pain nicely (normally I’m tough to anesthetize). And with nitrous, you can drive yourself home afterward.
I personally don’t think I’d do an extraction with just nitrous/novocaine, but I am terrified of dental work. I might consider doing it with nitrous + novo + oral sedation, but then you’ve still got the “can’t drive yourself” thing.l
Re wisdom teeth: I had mine out in the early 80s. The oral surgeon gave me the choice of local, or IV sedation. He said “you won’t feel anything, but you’ll hear cracking” which was more than enough to make me say “IV please!”. Last thing I remember was saying “I’m not out yet”. Then I was coming to, while they were finishing up, and groaning loudly. A voice said “that doesn’t hurt” so I shut up (evidently I thought I should be in pain so it was time to yell. I wasn’t in pain, though.
They kept trying to have me hold an ice bag against my jaw and I literally could not. They’d place the bag in my hand and hold it against my face, and let go, and the hand would droop right back down. And tears were running down my face - no idea why.
My friend drove me back home and fixed me some noodle soup before I took the Percocet they’d given me.
IIRC, the pain was never terrible. I did bleed all over the pillow I was lying on (so I’d suggest you use an old pillow case, and maybe stick an old towel inside that between the case and the pillow). I had it done on a Friday and tried to go back to work Monday but was too loopy still - I’d quit taking the Big Drugs on Sunday but I guess it took a while to wear off.
The biggest annoyance was that bits of food would get stuck in the sockets and would be hard to get out. That went on for a couple of months.
Ugh. I’m having all four of mine out on the 27th, and then will be taking the weekend to recover. After reading this, I am both reassured and a little freaked out. I have to make the 2.5 hour drive back up to college on Sunday night, so the tales of long recovery times are worrying me a little, as is the part about IVs/needles (I hate needles. HATE.). I can’t afford to be out of commission any longer than that weekend right now (in the middle of two senior projects, about a month and a half away from graduation). Oh well, I guess it’ll go the way it goes, and I’ll deal with it then.
This made me queasy.
I had mine out years ago, with nitrous oxide only. I went to a party that night and received many toasts to my bravery. Probably repeating other posters, but be sure to do the post-op rinsing and such. You DO NOT want to get dry socket.
No chance it could wait for summer, huh? If you are of traditional college age, you should be fine–it’s us older people who take longer to heal.
The IV needle is not so bad. The dr. told me it would be a little pinch and it was. I didn’t even see it. I would much rather have that than the needles full of novocaine jabbed into my gums (I got that, too, I think, but I was out and didn’t feel them or know what was going on at all.)
I had my wisdom teeth out back in high school. Also general anesthesia.
The procedure and recovery weren’t too bad, honestly. I had heard horror stories but I didn’t have a bad time of it.
My one bit of advice with regards to the anesthesia - don’t do what I did. See, they did the procedure. I was actually kind of aware of the procedure while it was happening, I guess they didn’t completely knock me out. No pain or anything, but I do remember the sensation of the surgeon gripping and pulling.
Anyways - after I started to come out of anesthesia, two nurses came in to help me to a couch to lay down. Two smallish women and I was a strapping 18-year-old boy. So of course I tried to tell them I didn’t need any help getting to the couch which was only five feet away.
Mistake.
I swung out of the chair and on my first step my knees buckled and I went face first into the floor. Guess that anesthetic wasn’t completely worn off, heh. Luckily I was still loopy enough that I didn’t feel a thing.
I had my wisdom teeth removed when I was around 26. I was anxious going in, but my oral surgeon and his staff were really reassuring and that helped. I opted for something called “Twilight Sleep”. They use sodium pentathol via IV for that. I did not want to see, hear, smell, or feel anything that was going on!!
I am needle phobic and so they gave me nitrous until I was loopy as all get out (I swear to this day they were having a ridiculous conversation about walkmans) then they got the IV started. Which hurt and snapped me out of my loopiness for about 2 microseconds, then they started the oxygen thing in my nose, told me to count backward from 100. I don’t recall getting past 99.
I did wake up a little when they stabbed me with the needles in my mouth to numb the areas around the teeth. It was funny because I know I said “Ow” and I head the Doctor in a Monty-Pythonesque voice go “Sorry”. Then I have no memory until they were trying to wake me up.
The waking up part was funny as the nurses had a hard time getting me up. I am normally not a difficult person to wake up, but I was enjoying my sleep SO much, they really had to work at it! As I was flitting between dazed sleepiness and waking up, I asked about where my teeth were (I wanted to keep them and had told them this before going under). “They’re in your hand”. I looked down to see them in a nice little clear blue envelope thingy and said “Oh.” Two seconds later: “Where’s my teeth?” “In your hand” Look down “Oh.” Repeat twice more.
Then, the next fun part was getting me down the hall to the recovery room while they went to get my friend who’d driven me there. I could not walk a straight line to save my life! Those poor nurses were getting bashed into the hallway walls the whole way down to the room.
Then, they lay me down on this cot thing and get in my face and said “Don’t you go back to sleep! Don’t even BLINK!”. At this point, I was taking things very literally and I was trying very hard to stare at the ceiling and not blink. I was coherent enough by this time to think about what my face must look like, so I was able to sit up and look in a mirror they had in there. No puffiness, bruising, or anything. If not for the wide-eyed stare reflected back at me, I wouldn’t think anything had been done! I felt my face and realized that I couldn’t feel anything. That was cool. I had fun poking at my face for a while until my friend came in to get me.
She walks in to see me staring wide eyed and I’m sure she had to stifle a laugh.
I had no issues with nausea until we were just about to my house (I still lived with my parents at the time) and I started to feel that awful hot feeling as if I were going to lose my cookies. She doesn’t do well with vomit, etc., so she sped like a demon to get me home. Once the car was stopped and I could just sit still for a moment, I was fine.
I had some issue with a stitch in the lower jaw. There was a lot of pressure and pain from it (I only used Motrin for pain and it worked) and went back to the surgeon’s office. They took out the stitch and filled the socket with some Oil of Clove soaked cotton strip. When it was time to take that packing out, it was like a magic trick. They just kept pulling on this fabric strip for what seemed like eons. I was half expecting a handkerchief or underwear to come out at the end!
My jaw sort of locked up for about three weeks as well. I think the muscles were revolting against the beating they took during surgery.
I lived on Carnation Instant Breakfast and Wendy’s frostys for a good two weeks. Frosty’s are the absolute BEST when you’ve had your teeth extracted. I remember how good that cold felt!
I’ll second the advice of “Definitely follow your post-op directions!”
Even though I’d been given the all-clear to eat certain soft foods, I made the mistake of eating rice and got a grain stuck in a pit. That hurt like the dickens!!! I can’t imagine how much that would have hurt if I’d tried it sooner than when I’d been given permission to eat it!
This is about right. Word of advice: If you have sharp pain after 2 days, go back to the dentist. You may have a dry socket. Please don’t delay. You aren’t a baby. It happens occasionally.
Well I had the surgery about 8 hours ago, and apparently I was having general as I originally thought, and not the sedation. The laughing gas was a lot of fun, and I apparently woke up from the anesthesia singing ¨Lime in the Coconut¨. The pain hasn´t been all that bad, except after I threw up a vicodin and whole lot of blood. Thanks to this thread, though I´m terrified of getting a dry socket. It hasn´t been that bad so far, so thank you to everyone who responded.
The procedure was painless, thanks to good local anesthesia. It was just odd to feel such tugging at my gums and hear a sort of creaking as the dentist worked the wisdom teeth out. After the anesthesia wore off, there was a general soreness in that part of my mouth, nothing acute. The empty sockets were tender for a few days, so I avoided chewing anything in that area, or putting cold things in my mouth, until they closed up and became desensitized.
I had my Wisdom teeth out last year and, after foolishly not reading the instructions properly, sucked on a drinking straw earlier than I ought to have, and that caused a loosening of the healing gum, giving me a dry socket.
It was temporary; after a little bit of lingering ache for a couple of days longer than I otherwise would’ve, it was fine.
(In fact the surgeon was surprised at how rapidly I healed, which was a surprise to me too, as I always figured my mouth area was a cesspit and was trying to kill me)
I had to have one removed Friday. My regular dentist declined to do it and recommended an oral surgeon, but the closest one is 150 miles away.
Found our new town dentist that wasn’t as afraid of it to help me out.
While I was filling out the paperwork I could hear the dentist talking on the phone in his office. When he walked out he stopped so short his shoes squeaked. Littlest guy in town, meet the biggest! I swear I could see him mouth, “Holy Shit, what have I signed up for?”
Didn’t really fit in their fancy new panoramic x-ray machine, but we managed to get a decent picture the first time.
He was prepared to break the tooth up or cut it out if necessary, but managed to just yard it out in one piece while sitting on my chest. For a little guy he’s got some serious tugging ability and knows all about leverage.
From start to finish I was in the office less than 20 minutes. Read the after care suggestions while lighting up a smoke in the rig right afterwards. Stopped in the local tavern for a few beers. Was eating normal foods the next day.
You guys all had me worried about dry socket business too, but I must have escaped it since it’s been more than three days since the extraction.
I think I freaked out the whole office when I told them I wanted my tooth back to hang on my wisdom necklace.
I think I know why I was having so much pain last week. Yesterday, they removed all the medicated gauze and, since I was no longer having pain, told me I was free to go. This afternoon, I decided to try chewing a piece of gum for the first time since the surgery. After I was chewing for a while, my tongue felt something kind of hard and strange in the lower left socket. Well, I just came home and looked in the mirror–looks, to my untrained eye, exactly like a big chunk of tooth! I think the surgeon left something behind!
I guess I’ll call the office…again…tomorrow. It doesn’t hurt (now), so I don’t think it’s an emergency. Is that likely to come out on its own? Anyone else have anything like that happen?