Well, when I went back in 6 days to get my stitches out, I had already healed completely around the stitches. That was an unpleasant experience, but better that than complications. Of course, I was only 15 years old, so that probably helped me heal faster. I only remember hurting very much for about 2 days.
Well, I can’t really speak to “healed,” but it didn’t bother me that much.
I was 17; the teeth were bad but not horrible. (I also had a couple of regular molars removed about a year after, because my jaw was “too small.” I guess I was past the warranty period.)
I went in first thing Saturday morning, had the procedure, and woke up in recovery with my face in a puddle of drool. I have a memory of walking groggily to the car, then again from the car to the couch at home. I slept there for a couple of hours.
When I woke up, I felt fine. A bit of discomfort, but no real pain. I drank some soup, went outside, and chopped wood for over an hour. I went to a high-school party later that night, also. And when Monday came, I was there in first period, no problems. I took regular Tylenol for a day or two, and then just stopped. Piece of cake.
My dad, on the other hand, was in bed for three weeks. He had some weird thing where a tooth hole actually connected through a crack to his sinus cavity, and some food or liquid or something got up there, and he got a horrid infection. :eek: His experience and mine, obviously, were night and day.
Please allow me to wish that your experience will quickly come to resemble mine.
I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed around 8 years ago. All of them were impacted and I didn’t have any problems with the surgery or recovery. I pretty much came out of surgery, had my mom drive me the pharmacy to pick up some drugs, and take me home. I spent the next 2 days eating jello and soup and pretty much thinking about how much work I had to make up when I went back. I don’t think I even needed the pain pills but I took them just in case. It pretty much was a breeze and I always feel sorry for people who get dry socket and have a horrible time with it.
You poor people.
I had mine out a week before xmas 2000, at about 10am. By 3pm, I was eating jello no problem, and at 5 pm I had kielbasa and scrambled eggs.
The next day, I had a large cheese pizza. By the day after xmas, I had my stitches out, and I was all good.
All four of mine were fully impacted. As a result, they needed to be split in half in order to extract them. They over anethisized me, and I couldn’t walk by myself for 4 hours after surgery. I threw up for 2 days afterwards, had to stay at my parents’ for 5 days, and couldn’t eat solid food for three weeks. The pain didn’t stop for a month and a half.
Damn teeth.
I had three wisdom teeth and a bad molar yanked in one session about a month before I drove accross country. The good news is that I had nearly no pain.
I woke up from surgery in a daze, my sister drove me home, stopping for drugs and I slept the rest of the day. I had the next day off from work, but I didn’t need it. I felt tip-top. Even had a nice hardy breakfast, with a cigarete chaser.
But with drugs in hand and a paid day off from work, who was I to complain. I just had myself a Timothy Leary day, and resumed life 24 hours later.
I’ve only had one wisdom tooth develop, and even that never came in. My dentists have told me that I don’t really need to worry about it, since it has never given me any problems.
Ha! I gloat at you all! Gloat gloat gloat.
I had mine yanked while I was living in a small company mining town. A old time dentist would visit for a week once or twice a year.
He used the most barbaric looking tools imaginable but had frozen up my mouth pretty good. The roots of the two bottom ones were fully hooked so he cracked them in half before pulling them out. It was pretty exhausting for both of us as the whole proceedure probably took close to two hours. Just holding my head in one place was a huge effort with the pressure he was exerting. At points he had his knee up on the arm of the chair for leverage and he was sweating profusely by the time it finished. A couple of times he had to tell me to stop biting him.
Once the freezing wore off it felt fine. Go figure.
Yeah, maybe so, but you missed the joys of sodium pentathol, one of the greatest drugs ever invented.
When they knocked me out I was talking. 45 minutes later I finished the sentence.
Great drug.
All four of mine were pulled in one sitting.
They’d come in so far that the crowns had crushed each other, but I had no idea. I’d just turned into a raving moster at work, with the shortest, most vile temper you’ve ever seen, when I went in for a routine check-up. The Doc took one look, and said ‘those gotta go…’. He put some kind of ‘snapring pliers’-looking tool in my mouth, tugged (hard) on each tooth. I thought he was testing them in some way, but he asks me if I wish to see them… Nasty! Crowns all crushed, roots hooked a full 90 degrees, and all covered in blood. This guy was an artist with the dental pliers! No pain medication (I was already hurting so bad I didn’t realize that I was in pain…), no surgery, no stitches, no loose fragments. He had me put teabags in the back of my law, one on each side, and had me bite down, forcing the teabags down into the wound. Tasted horrible, but it stopped the bleeding, and the wounds healed clean.
I was back to work that night, with a great new attitude. Fully healed in 3 days.
Oh yeah, I remember this.
They stuck the needle in the back of my hand and said, “Start counting backward from a hundred.”
“Okay, sure,” I say. “100.”
They fiddle around.
“99.”
They stop fiddling around.
“98.”
They look at me.
“97.”
I feel something cold touch the back of my hand.
“96.”
The cold is moving up my arm.
“95.”
The cold passes my elbow.
“94.”
The cold touches my shoulder.
“93.”
My whole arm and hand is freezing.
“92.”
My head separates from my body.
“91.”
My head is now flying around the room.
“90.”
And now I’m lying on my side on a recovery table, my face in a puddle of drool, my mouth full of gauze.
“89-- huhrbbl?”
Totally, totally weird experience, needless to say.
Sheesh, I post a thread for sympathy because I got my wisdom teeth out 2 days before new years and got a whole 4 replies. 
I AM NOT FEELING THE LOVE.
Anyway i looked like a chipmunk all through new years but was back and work and slightly discomforted but the 2nd of january. I really had a great experience with it. What made it so great you ask? PERCOCETAND LOTS OF IT!
'nuff said
Sheesh, I post a thread for sympathy because I got my wisdom teeth out 2 days before new years and got a whole 4 replies. I AM NOT FEELING THE LOVE.
Anyway i looked like a chipmunk all through new years but was back at work and slightly discomforted but the 2nd of january. I really had a great experience with it. What made it so great you ask? PERCOCETAND LOTS OF IT!
'nuff said
I had a broken wisdom tooth taken out about two months ago. The hole in the middle has almost filled in. While the inside was filling in the skin was pulling in and breaking on the outside.This exposed the top of the jaw bone about three weeks ago. In about two or three weeks I expect the bone to be fully covered. The center will be totally filled too.
Had to get my wisdom teeth removed one at a time the first one was my upper left had no problem a week later it was completely healed. 
a couple weeks later I get my upper right removed no pain the only problem it’s taking a long time to heal.
a few weeks later which was this Tuesday I had my lower right removed it was a pain in the butt it took two in a half hours to get out the pain I endured after the medicine wore off was unbelievable I was to take Motrin but its not doing the job so I decided to take Vicodin its working a lot better. the luck that I have going for me is that I didn’t swell up at all I look totally normal in all three occasions lucky me.
My spouse had all four taken out and he had a fat face for three weeks straight it was not good.
Healing from the actual pull? About two days. I had them pulled on a Monday, and I was eating whatever I wanted and playing sports by Wednesday afternoon.
… of course, by Friday morning, the entire left half of my face was swollen because one of them got infected, and I was on antibiotics, mashed potatoes, and pudding for another couple of weeks. That part sucked.
I can’t believe that people have actually mentioned swelling up like a chipmunk and yet no one has pointed out the OP name/subject perfection!
Dry socket does suck but if your dentist has said you’re healing too fast for the clove oil gauze treatment it sounds like you’ll be back in business sooner than typical.
Vicodin isn’t the only thing they can give you for pain though since it makes you sick they should have offered you something else. Since they haven’t, a combination of OTC pain meds (tylenol/asprin or tylenol/ibuprofen or asprin/ibuprofen) might help.
I ate a Big Mac meal straight out of the surgery, on the way home. I smoked like a chimney, despite the warnings against dry socket. I still have to ask, “What’s that?” I can’t recall much pain or discomfort from it at all (this was five years ago). I remember waking up at the end of the procedure (I took two pills the morning of, and then was done in with shots and nitrous), and asking for more gas, which the surgeon refused. I didn’t feel anything, but I was aware of an 80 year old surgeon standing on my chest with a pair of pliers in my mouth, and I didn’t care to be aware of that. My experience was absolutely nothing like others I was warned about, but I think the fact that I had a guy that had been yanking wisdom teeth for ~50 years had a lot to do with my complication-free experience.
On the initial extraction, all 4 quit significant pain by the 3rd day, and my gums had grown over by 2 weeks.
I had a complication, however. One tooth grew in extremely crooked to the inside, so the socket was malformed and left a sharp edge. This cut through the new gum and did a number on my tongue. I had to go to an oral surgeon to have the jawbone edge that formed the socket removed. His sutures didn’t work properly, so I swallowed a lot of blood for a few hours until I went back and had it resutured. I was sick for about a day. Normal fast healing afterwards.
I had mine out last year–three of them (the fourth never showed up).
It was relatively uncomplicated–they had a hard time getting the needle in for the anesthetic, but it was done under “twilight” anesthetic in the dental surgeon’s office. I was a little loopy afterward and not really hungry until that evening, and my whole face was numbed out which made eating difficult anyway. They told me not do drink anything with a straw (basically no sucking). I was eating soft food like mac and cheese and scrambled eggs by that evening.
I had to wear this chipmunk rig with ice in it and for a few days my cheeks looked like I’d gone a couple of rounds with Mike Tyson (bruised and swollen). I think the pain lasted about a week or so, and the area was sensitive to cold for a long time after that (it’s only recently that it’s not bothered me when I eat ice cream). They gave me oxycodone and ibuprofen for the pain–I mostly took the ibuprofen, with only a few of the oxycodone when it got really annoying.
I’d say in retrospect the whole experience was more annoying and inconvenient than horribly painful.