I’m 25 and have never had a cavity, root canal, filling, cap, braces, or any kind of dental work done at all. For that matter, the only surgery I’ve ever had was to remove an ingrown toenail. I’ve never broken a bone or had stitches or gotten sick enough to end up in the hospital. A week or 2 ago, I was hit with my first toothache ever, resulting in a trip to the dentist, several x-rays, and the conclusion that my wisdom teeth need to be yanked.
Quite frankly, I’m scared to death.
I realize this “surgery” ranks really low on the totum pole of painful or invasive surgeries, but what can I say, I have no experience in these matters. To compound my fear, the only stories one hears about wisdom teeth are “That was the worst day of my life!” type stories. My dad had his removed when he was close to 40 and spent a few days laying on the couch spitting blood into a bucket. That’s my memory of what wisdom teeth removal is like.
What can a normal, healthy 25 year old expect from the operation? Anyone out there have uneventful stories to make me feel better?
IMNAD but having your wisdom teeth removed isn’t a big deal unless they are impacted (grown into the surrounding tissue and bone, and usually infected). My wisdom teeth were pulled over a span of 10 years, two at a time. My dentist is awesome, he believes in the liberal application of morphine shots and after a few minutes of wiggling, tugging and pulling, out they came. A little blood, take some ibuprofen, be careful brushing the tender gums for a couple days. That’s it for me.
But then again, I had a root canal and didn’t think it was such a big deal, either. YMMV.
Good luck and don’t be scared. Being scared makes the experience 10x’s worse. It will be over before you know it. The best part is feeling the sensation come back to your mouth when the morphine wears off.
I don’t remember exactly how old I was when I had mine out (I was in college, but under 21–that’s all I remember). Mine was incredibly boring.
I only had 3 wisdom teeth, and none were impacted or crooked. They just needed to come out. This was back in the late '80’s so things may have changed, but in my procedure I was knocked out. They shot me full of a local before I woke up. I had some dim memories of being helped into the recovery room, but I’m not sure if they’re real or not.
I had a bit of swelling, but nothing too bad. I didn’t look like a chipmunk or anything. I just looked like my cheeks were a bit fatter than usual. Nothing anyone who didn’t know me would realize. I had a prescription for pain killers, but I think I only used them the first day–and then only because I thought I should. I started before the local wore off and took the next on schedule. The next day, I realized I was overdue on taking the pain killers but hadn’t noticed. So I went without.
The only issue was keeping the holes in my mouth clean. I rinsed with salt water a lot to get rid of any crud that got in there. Actually, whenver the holes started hurting a bit, salt water soothed it right away.
I was hungry after the operation, but the local was still in effect so I couldn’t really eat. I did get a big milkshake though. That was nice! I kept talking to a bare minimum because the local did make me sound like Rocky.
All 4 of mine are very impacted. The bottom 2 are facing directly forward, towards my face. The top ones are crooked and just starting to poke out of my gums. I can feel them with my tongue. Does impaction = painful?
I was in your exact situation. 25 heathly and never been under the knife, no teeth pulled, no braces and uncertain.
I had all 4 pulled at once. I walked in, sat down they gave me an IV with the good stuff and I was out like a light.
I awoke, mouth packed with cotton and a prescription for pain killers. My wife drove me home and made me mashed potatoes with bacon gravey for dinner. (A must have for those with tender gums). The cotton packing came out with diner and never went back in.
I found I didn’t need the pain pills. I took one and it made me “loopy” so I flushed the rest. Advil worked great. Follow as suggested and rinse with salt water or even cold water and you’ll do great.
I had it done on a Friday, took the day as a sick day, and had a three day weekend to recover. By Monday I didn’t even need the Advil and was eating everything but nuts and other really crunchy things. My total recovery time was something like 10 days. Buy then I had all but forgoten it happend.
I had mine out in my late 20s, all four at once. They used a local and a bit of nitrous oxide and I just went away from there for a little while. I wasn’t completely out and I could tell they were doing something to my mouth–I just didn’t care.
They gave me some prescription pain medication, but I only took the first dose because it upset my stomach. Advil and rinsing with salt water was enough for the rest of the time. Everything healed up just fine.
I had six wisdom teeth. The upper two had developed into two each so I had 6 teeth on a rotating schedule of breaking through to the surface. Not the best of times. The ottom ones were the first to go and went much like everyone else’s. A nice soft unconsciousness followed by being handed a small white envelope with the teeth and a 'script for good stuff.
The other four were handled much the same only I had to go to a dental surgeon since a bit of digging was involved. Same wake up procedure, same white packet, same script but I did have two tiny stitches which fell out in about 5 days. Actually, I think I swallowed one of them…
So I think you probably have nothihng to worry about. The procedure has been upgraded since your father’s time and it’s routine now. Good luck Wasson!
I had mine out about five years ago, once I was working and had the health coverage. I think two were impacted, but I know for sure one of them was.
I don’t remember much of the surgery itself. I was awake and given laughing gas for it. They didn’t put me out for it. They covered my face with a sheet so I couldn’t see what was going on. I remember some tugging, but not much about the actual procedure. Which is good for you because for me it was a non-event, as I hope it will be for you as well. I do remember they had a little thing on one finger to monitor my pulse. So as I lied there I tried to control my breathing to make by pulse sound different, as it was hooked up to a beeper thing. It didn’t seem to alarm the assistant, if I actually managed to mess up my pulse.
They gave me Tylonal three for a pain medication. That stuff did the job for me. The week I had off is basically a haze. I would take a pill and just stare out the window. I recall one day I was playing my Playstation and hadn’t taken my pill. The pain wasn’t too bad though, it was just the typical toothache pain.
I wasn’t allowed to smoke for that week, and as a smoker I thought that would be a problem, but it wasn’t. The pain medication seemed to take away the cravings. I do remember having to rinse my mouth with salt water, and there may have been a needle like thing with a curved tip for rinsing the spot where the teeth were. But it’s all hazy. I would imagine that I would have stuck to soft or liquid foods, because I’d be squmish with anything else.
All in all though, it wasn’t that bad of an experience. I was in the same situation as you are now, no hospital stay, no broken bones, or stitches; perfectly healthy all my life. As I said, I don’t have an strong or unpleasant memories of the period, so I take that as a positive thing for you. Just relax going in. You’ll be well taken care of so that there will be no pain, or if there is any it’ll only be mild.
Good luck and let us know how you manage, but don’t worry about it, it’s not that bad.
I haven’t read all of the other posts yet so sorry if I’m repeating what’s been said.
I had mine done in high school, and I would highly recommend just having local anesthesia. General anesthesia scares me to death where the actual removal of teeth didn’t. I had all 4 removed in the morning and went back to school in the afternoon. Yeah, it was a bit uncomfortable at times to hear them drilling my teeth and to have my mouth open for that long. But I wasn’t sick afterwards as some of my friends were who had the general anesthesia, and I didn’t have to deal with my fear of it. I think I took whatever pain medicine they gave me a total of one time. No infections, no other problems. It really wasn’t bad at all.
I got two taken out when I was about 21. Both were severely impacted. They gave a few shots around the teeth, and precriptions for vicodin and ibroprofen. The whole procedure was pretty much non-eventful. Once I had to ask for another shot, but that was it. I never needed to take the viocodin, and was eating regular food a few hours after the procedure.
I had mine out during the summer between high school and college. The worst parts of it were:
Having to read the consent form, and being scared to death of the standard “you could die” stuff about general anesthesia.
When they give you medicines that say “take with food”, they mean it. And taking it 30 minutes or so after you’ve eaten doesn’t cut it, even if you still feel full.
I got sick of eating soft foods. No matter how much you like macaroni & cheese, mashed potatoes, etc, they get boring after a while.
I had to go in to get the stitches out at 8 in the morning. During summer vacation. I’m not a morning person. Just to put this in context, the next semester in college I managed to get it so I had no classes before 11am, and I liked that.
I got mine out when I was about 15, so I was younger than most of you. They were not grown in yet, or impacted. Rather, 3 out of the four had cysts around them. IIRC, the dentist said they could burst and shatter my jaw! :eek: (sorry, that’s nor boring, but I figured since that’s not your problem it would be ok).
Anyway, surgery went ok - apparently it took about an hour, but I didn’t feel it at all. They put me to sleep, then after I was out pumped me full of novacaine. I was out of it for awhile. The general anesthesia made me pretty nauseous, but that doesn’t happen to everyone. They gave me percocet for pain, which made me sleepy and out of it, but not sick at all.
Listen to your surgeon re: aftercare! My mom got dry socket b/c she didn’t clean hers enough, and it wasn’t fun for her. The pain goes away a lot sooner as well, if you follow instructions. Make sure there are plenty of cold things in the house to eat. My face swelled up pretty badly, but they had to go in pretty deep to get the teeth out. I didn’t have to go in to get my stitches out, as they used disolvable ones on me.
Good luck! It’s not so bad, really, and I hate the dentist. You’ll likely be asleep through the scary part, and afterwards you get to lay around, eat ice cream, and watch movies. Also, I lost a few pounds because I could only eat liquidy things for a few weeks - this may or may not be a good thing for you, but if it is, relish it! Because the pounds will come right back on as soon as you are able to eat normally again
I also had mine out when I was 15, all four at once. Only two had broken the surface.
The surgery went fine. I got gas, I got an IV, the doc put in the sleepy-juice, and out I went. One strange thing did happen: I woke up during the procedure. I didn’t feel a thing, though. I just opened my eyes, saw people dressed in white over me, thought, “wait a minute, I’m not supposed to be awake,” and shut my eyes. When I opened them again, I was in recovery.
I honestly don’t remember any pain at all, even during the healing process. I stopped bleeding within a half hour or so, and could talk by 1:00 or so (surgery was at 10:30). I was eating food by that evening. I took my doctor-prescribed codeine, cleaned my gums, and healed up just fine.
My brother’s experience wasn’t so pleasant, just because he reacted poorly to the anesthetic and wound up with nausea and vomiting for a couple of days. Still, that’s about the worst that I’ve heard of from wisdom tooth surgery, and I’ll wager you can survive that.
I had to get the bottom ones taken out when they were still just buds in my jaw when I was twelve – they were blocking my next regular set of molars, so they just went in and took 'em out. They also removed four of my other teeth that I needed out to get braces, so it was sort of an everything-at-one-go surgery. I was put out for it, needless to say. I don’t remember being especially traumatized.
My upper ones grew in and didn’t do anything for a few years, then one day when I was eighteen or nineteen a big 'ol chunk of one broke off, and the tooth itself didn’t hurt but the edge was scraping the hell out of the inside of my cheek. So I went in on an emergency appointment and he took it out, with just novocaine. It took about ten seconds, I think, to get it out. I guess it wasn’t deeply rooted. Next week, the other one came out, because the dentist sort of insisted, and really, it’d probably have to eventually. It took about five minutes.
I find being stuck with local to be traumatic, but the actual extractions were pieces of cake.
My wisdom teeth removal was a breeze. I only had three, and they were fine until I was 23 and one of them tried to poke through my face the week of my first wedding anniversary. It was time for them to come out. I just had novacaine for my procedure and didn’t feel a thing. The novacaine didn’t wear off until a couple of hours later, and by then I was on the pain pills. I ended up taking only two of the pain pills because, as some others have already said, they upset my stomach too much. I didn’t really need them that much, anyway. I had some bleeding the first day and this also upset my stomach, but otherwise I generally felt okay afterward. Call me strange, but I was fascinated by the experience and actually kind of enjoyed it. Especially hearing and knowing what was going on my mouth and not feeling it. But like I said, I’m strange!
My husband’s situation is probably closer to yours. He had his taken out about a year after I did. All four of his were impacted. He was going to have anesthesia, but at the last minute he changed his mind because he wanted to save money and knew from past experience that his body doesn’t react well to anesthesia. Unfortunately, he ended up getting dry socket, so there was some extra pain for him, but overall he did just fine.
Some tips:
Your oral surgeon will tell you this, but don’t suck anything through a straw! Sucking through a straw increases the chance of dry socket. So if you’ve got to have that chocolate shake, eat it with a spoon.
Have lots of soft foods on hand—particularly ones that you can swallow without chewing if necessary. We found that applesauce, mashed potatoes thinned with broth, pudding, and macaroni and cheese (when you can begin to chew - not the first day) were great.
Had mine out in January.Had a filling in a wisdom tooth which came undone and left a jaggedy edge.Pretty much like whiterabbit’s,it started spiking the gum which then got infected.All this meant I couldn’t brush up there much which made matters worse.At last it came out under sedation.Couple of days on saltwater,hole closed up,no problem.They’d been due out for almost a year as NHS dentists are non-existent here.Had them re-filled three times,including one done when I was in Birmingham as it was quicker.But they said one more filling and it would collapse
Weirdest bit was being sedated and waking up in a hotel with no idea of how I’d got there or what I’d been doing.Good job Mother was there to fill me in on the interesting details…how I tried to climb onto the roofrack of the car…
I had mine out a year and a half ago (I was 17). The worst part was that they had real trouble hitting a vein to knock me out, so I was stabbed with the needle five or six times before they did it right, creating lovely heroin-addict bruises all over both my arms.
I didn’t use the painkillers I was prescribed because I hate feeling drugged and the pain wasn’t that bad. I had an icepack perpetually on my face and took a lot of Advil. I got really sick of not being able to eat solid food and having my face be all puffy, but there wasn’t that much actual pain (discomfort by the truckload, though).
Mine were removed when I was fifteen. None had erupted, but if they had they would have messed up my other teeth. The doctor had a great sense of humor, and in my drugged haze I told him he was “scary.” He said no one had ever told him that before. Then the IV went in and I woke up on a fat leather chair.
Then for two weeks I was unconscious owing to the Vicodin.
My mother’s boyfriend chose that time to move in–man, that was confusing.
My dentist reccomended that I get mine out about two years ago. He said that they would cause me a lot of pain, and might not come in correctly. I took a chance that they would, and was glad. They hurt coming in, as any tooth does, but they have not caused any pain since. Not having them pulled saved me a lot of pain in my opinion, and some money to boot!
I didn’t have general or any major type anesthetic, so I’m not sure if my extractions were a surgery or just a regular ol’ tooth-pulling. The lowers were impacted, if that makes any difference.
Relax! I had a great experience, like many others, it’s usually just the horror stories that get re-told.
Went in, got nitrous, q-tipped with the gum-numby stuff, barely even felt the needle. Doc did his thing, including some grunting and getting excited when the lower ones apparently crumbled and he had to fish around for all the pieces but I never felt a thing. Got a script for tylenol, laid around for a day all drugged up, was a bit chipmunk cheek looking for a coupla days but the tylenol worked so I never felt any discomfort.
Okay, gargling with saltwater was slightly ooky, but the important part here is that it wasn’t painful or traumatic, see?
