I had one wisdom tooth out because it suddenly went painful. No, make that agonizing. Couldn’t even bear to touch it with my tongue. My dentist shot me up thoroughly with Novocain and patiently pressed and rocked it loose and hauled it out. Never hurt, just felt weird, and I healed up quickly, with little discomfort.
My second root canal, however… I was actually relaxed, because the first one I’d been through hadn’t been bad at all. So I was totally unprepared when the dentist drilled past the Novocain pain-block into live nerve. One moment I’m lying there in the chair, focussing on the ceiling; the next I’ve flung myself halfway out of the chair. Oh, what a scene! The dentist is startled and upset; I’m shaking with reaction and sudden terror; we’re halfway through the procedure and can’t stop now; and I’m forced to submit to another shot of Novocain – into the live nerve inside the tooth. :eek:
I’ll never have a root canal again. Rather have it extracted than take a chance of suffering that again.
ETF, that was my experience almost exactly. I only had one wisdom tooth, it was pulled when it got impacted. No big deal, I think I even went back to work the same day. I only had Novocaine for the extraction.
But my root canal was pure hell. I felt like crying the whole time, it was horrible. Every one I had asked said root canals were no big deal. I hope I never, ever have to have another one.
When I had my wisdom teeth out over the summer, it took them five or so attempts to finally hit a vein with the IV, and I had huge heroin-addict bruises on both my arms for a couple weeks. But at least I didn’t have to be awake for the surgery.
Aside from that, though, it really wasn’t that bad… they gave me nice painkillers, but I didn’t use them at all; I just made do with Advil. All in all, more annoying than anything.
3 years ago on Valentines Day I had two wisdom teeth taken, one was impacted. I was in pain for 3 weeks beforehand, hadn’t really eaten much in that time. Just had novocaine shot and the two teeth came out easily. I was in the office for about 45 minutes. The healing process was the worst of it because I couldnt take the Percoset since I coudlnt eat. I took ONE and it made me vomit. So I had to just bear through the pain with nothing for about 5 days until I could actually swallow something. And by then it was kinda pointless to take the Percoset.
worst pain in the world. I’m recovering from a month-long bout with pneumonia and I’d reather have THAT all over again than another tooth extraction.
I got MY wisdom teeth taken out and the doctor fucking gave me a NON-NARCOTIC painkiller. Then, my entire face swelled up for nearly two weeks. Did I mention that I was unable to eat solid food for the first week because I was physically unable to chew?
Worst… Surgery… Ever!
(Side note: Did anyone else’s uhh… groin itch furiously after the anesthesia was given? I just sat there, too embarassed to scratch it for the 10 minutes before I passed out)
Man. Unless there’s a really damned good reason for them to take out my WT, they can stay right where they are. I haven’t had any dental work (other than braces) done in abouuuuut . . . . well, crap. I’ve never had any cavities in my adult teeth. My WT seem to be doing just fine.
The Cody, however, needs to go to the dentist something fierce. He has a few cavities, and two molars that are literally falling apart. Like, he handed me a piece once. Ug. One of them has apparently become sharp in the past few weeks. Good thing he has excellent dental insurance.
FWIW, I had two WD taken out in a 6 month period. Both times I was given the standard 2 shots of Novacain. The only problem I had was the standard “pop” in my sinus cavity when it was pulled. Never felt a thing. Given Vicodan, but never used it, just didn’t have the pain.
Now, here’s why they were pulled. They were rotting. I have two more, a molar and incisor that have holes even my teeth can feel. The cavities were found 2 years ago (early stage) in an x-ray at the dentist. Why do I wait for extraction? The damn drill.
I told my dentist that I would prefer an extraction to drilling, due to the anxiety/fear of the drill. Give me a small (2 day) script for Valium. I can relax for the work with that. Hell, it got me through a tumor removal in same-day surgery. Guess the outcome of that request.
I’m scheduled for two more extractions in a few weeks.
So I’m in the chair. I opted for the laughing gas. And I am gassed out of my mind–everything is hilarious, even if I don’t want it to be. I mean, he’s telling the lamest jokes in the world, and though I resist with the every fiber of my being, I must laugh.
Anyways, the surgery has come to a conclusion, so he removes the pulse monitor that is clamped on my finger. Sensing no pulse, the monitor makes that uninterrupted tone that would alert the anesthesiologist to my imminent death.
Now, I know I’m not dead. But all of a sudden (for whatever reason) the hilarity of the situation strikes me.
“I’M FLATLINING!” I exclaim. Then I burst into uncontrollable laughter, roll out of the chair in my hysterical fit, and knock over a tray of dental tools.
I had a similar experience last year when my wisdom teeth were taken out. I was also only given laughing gas, and although I felt no pain during the procedure, it was very strange, and slightly disturbing, when I could actually feel the force he was exerting on my mouth to pry my teeth out, and then hear the sucking sound when the teeth left the gums. The worst part of the whole wisdom teeth experience for me was the 12 hours of numbness for my mouth and chin and the drooling and spilling of blood that resulted after the operation.
Wisdom tooth surgery does suck. I got 30 Percodan, back in the day. They were all impacted. I think the surgeon felt sorry for me. The first thing I did when I came out of semi-consciousness was puke blood. Don’t get a dry socket if you can avoid it. I’m not going to say it didn’t hurt, cuz it did, a lot.
The bright side of the story, I’m not a junkie. Some of us don’t turn into a Rush Limbaugh.
MDs/dentists/oral surgeons: the stuff you do still hurts. It’s not force of will over pain. To be fair, the actual tooth pain is sometimes much worse than the worst of the oral surgery – until it’s over – and the numbing stuff wears off. Post-op still hurts.
OTOH, not every instance of pain or surgery is the same. Some teeth or procedures can be managed with OTC stuff. To be honest, I’ve had a couple root canals that didn’t hurt much after the surgery – and two that hurt a lot even days to a week later. Another example, I had knee surgery for a torn meniscus. The pain from walking before the surgery far exceeded anything I had afterwards. Yet, somewhere, there’s a guy trying to milk three doctors for pain pills after the same surgery I had – I’d guess.
But, check this out, I had three root canals on one tooth. I’m into extreme sports. :eek: It’s a bizarro-root-structure thing. One of my teeth rooted like a weed, apparently.
Uhm, hello folks, welcome back. I’m now living off of ibuprofin… had my checkup with the doc, and I even played nice, although I tore up the pamphlet he gave me that I’m pretty sure I was supposed to reccomend him with to someone… hahaha - my ass!
Ok, carry on.
I’m looking forward to the nitrous and the Vicodin from the next time I have dental surgery. I’ve done a fair amount of nitrous oxide on my own and with friends, and it’ll be interesting to see how different the experience is in a dental surgery setting. Never really done Vicodin, but I’ve heard good things about it from friends who experimented with it.
I think Lorcet is just a different mix of hydrocodone and acetaminophen. Yes, Vicodin is also hydrocodone + acetaminophen. But Lorcet is a different drug, I’m pretty sure. It may just be a different brand, but whatever.
Damn. I’m glad I got my wisdom teeth taken out in the mid-'90s, before people started freaking out about oxycodone. I got Percocet and it was just barely enough to cover the pain. Anything less would have been a nightmare. I didn’t turn into a Limbaugh, either.
You need to find a dentist that will write you a scrip for wisdom teeth. Word.
I make one hydrocodone prescription last through about three dentist visits. So far, so good. It’s a real dilemma for the dentist, I can tell. Like I want to become a junkie. Shit, I was born yesterday but not yesterday evening. Only those “with talent on loan from God” think they are immune from addiction. I have the nicotine-release products in my medicine cabinet to shoot that theory right out of the water.
Do you think all doctors remember their college days, washing down pain pills with beer? I wish I was not basing that on real-life examples of doctors I knew when they were in college.
It was better before? I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth pulled out at one time 18 years ago (damn, was it that long ago?). Good thing, because I would not have gone back to get the others done.
I woke up twice during the extraction. The doc said I better not wake up again because he was not going to give me any more drugs. He gave me Tylenol 3. Tylenol with codeine. Didn’t even take the edge off the pain. It doesn’t help that I seem to be painkiller resistant.
Don’t worry Lynne_kilii. It’ll pass. And in 18 years you’ll have a horrible, horrible story to tell.
