Well, I’m getting my wisdom teeth out, which I’m nervous about to begin with. But my question deals with the after effects; i’m going to be on vicodin, or codeine, or some similar painkiller. Now, I’ve never had anything stronger than ibuprofren for pain, so I don’t know what the experience is going to be like.
I know that when people talk about vicodin, they joke around like “I love that stuff!” and “dude, I could get hooked on that stuff.” Why? What’s the vicodin experience like? Am I going to get “fucked up”? I hear about celebrities getting hooked on “painkillers,” so it must feel good.
The main reason I’m nervous is that I can no longer smoke marijuana or even drink a little bit of alcohol - the second I start to feel the effects, I have an anxiety attack. When I feel vicodin kick in, am I going to freak out?
If you take it as prescribed (meaning one or two instead of five or six), you won’t feel much of anything- just a little sleepy and perhaps a little sense of well being. You’ll be in command of your senses, though. It’s not like being high or drunk, just a bit of a dreamy feeling. If you only take one, you may not notice any change of sensation at all. Pain killer addictions are sneaky, you don’t get wasted on them or anything, you just gradually get more dependant on them.
First of all, as I tell everybody who has their wisdom teeth out, ice is your friend. Keep ice on your face for as much as possible for the first 4-6 hours after you get your wisdom teeth out; bags of frozen peas are good for this, as they mold to your face. Go for at least 40 minutes out of every hour (20 minutes on, 10 minutes off.)
I didn’t actually used the vicodin that they gave me when I had my wisdom teeth out, because of the abovementioned icing procedure plus some ibuprofen (don’t use aspirin, because it inhibits clotting, which is not what you want when you’ve got those new surgical wounds in your mouth.) I’ve used them occasionally since for extremely wicked period cramps, and all I’ve gotten is overwhelming, dizzying exhaustion followed by heavy, almost drenching sleep. Basically, they knock me out completely, so I can’t feel any pain. I’ve never understood how people could find that addictive, so I assume other people get a different effect. If you’re like me, though, you shouldn’t have a problem - all it feels like is an intense need to go to sleep right now.
Hmmmm…Why are they giving you such a strong painkiller afterwards? I don’t recall taking anything beyond over the counter meds when I had my wisdom teeth pulled.
If you are that nervous about it, ask for an alternative.
Unfortunately, there is no way to know for sure how you will react until you actually ingest the stuff.
You may want to ask your doctor for a mild sedative, then, if you’re really worried about freaking. Just in case.
You didn’t say if you were going to have local anesthesia, or if they were going to put you under. It could make a lot of difference.
I sort of freaked, myself, after I had mine out. It was relatively unpleasant, to say the least. I was put under, and woke confused and crying. My memory of this is very foggy, but I gander to say that I might have been worse off for being put completely under since that can make you feel pretty bad in of itself.
I didn’t feel “fucked up” from the pain medication-- merely a little woozy and sleepy. (I was given Ultram which is an opiate derivative.) I think I was in too much pain to get “high”. There was a sort of dreamy sensation where I felt slightly disconnected from reality, though, but if it was a “high” I would not call it a pleasant one. It was like waking up too soon from a nap-- that’s the best way I can describe the feeling.
I’ve been given other types of pain medication, but for other reasons. Taken correctly, usually the woozy side effects are relatively negligible, though I wouldn’t drive until you’re certain of how it affects you. Usually, you’re so concentrated on the pain of the condition that you don’t notice any “high.” Taking drugs for recreational purposes is quite different than taking them to mask pain.
You’ll feel good, if you feel anything at all. It’s likely to be mild. Anyway, opiates are anxiolytic - if it wasn’t for that habituation and withdrawal thing, they’d probably be used for that purpose… not to mention that they could make amazingly effective anti-depressants
I had a molar pulled a couple months ago, and the dentist also prescribed vicodin. It’s not a particularly strong narcotic, so you don’t really feel much of anything, IME. It does definitely help the pain though. It’s not anything near as mind-numbing as some of the stronger meds, like percocet, so I wouldn’t worry about becoming addicted or incapacitated.
Vicodin is a wee little bit of narcotic mixed in with a metric buttload of Tylenol. They put me on it after hand surgery, and all I really noticed was that I seemed a bit tired. Some people love the way it makes them feel calm, happy, and relaxed. Other people hate it because it makes them feel spacey. (I’m like that with Percocet–it didn’t do anything for the pain, just made me feel spacey. Just spacey enough to freak me out, I might add, not spacey enough to make me not care that I hurt.)
If you’re having a simple extraction of fully erupted wisdom teeth, you probably won’t need more than a few doses of the stuff, anyway. I had one of mine out a few months ago, and they prescribed Vicodin for afterward. Since I didn’t know how much pain I’d be in, I took one before the novacaine wore off, and another later that evening. The next day I think I took a Tylenol, and that was it.
I don’t like the way Vicodin makes me feel. I don’t get a lot of pain relief from it, and it sort of makes me woozy and nauseous. I’ve heard about other people getting this reaction, but it’s pretty rare. Most people find Vicodin to be a pleasant relief from pain.
I’ve had several teeth removed, including wisdom teeth, and I can generally control the pain with OTC medications. For the most part, I’ve experienced little pain from an extraction, unless the tooth has an active abcess. I HAVE had to be sedated for root canal and gum work, though. In a couple of cases, the dentist gave me a couple of pills to take before the appointment, and I had someone drive me to and from the dentist.
I have no idea of how you will react to various medications. If you have someone who will make a quick trip to the drugstore for you, then my advice would be to take some Tylenol or similar OTC product (ask your dentist what you should take) and see if that won’t make life bearable.
I was prescribed Vicodin on two occasions after having teeth taken out. What it did for me was questionable; while my face still hurt a lot, I just didn’t care. I was functional and coherent, but things like events and emotions were kind of distant, as if they were happening to someone else. Both occasions, I switched over to regular doses of Advil after two days. It killed the pain better and didn’t leave me with that clouded feeling.
Also, on both occasions I puked my guts out before going to bed the night after the surgery, but I blame that on the anesthesia, not the Vicodin…
Vicodin (hydrocodone) makes me depressed. I took it for a few days after having 2 wisdom teeth and 3 other teeth removed, plus a gum graft and a root scaling. 3 or 4 days later, I found myself standing in the shower, crying. Once I realized what was going on, I switched to ibuprofen and it worked just as well without the side effects.
(not a doctor or pharmacist, just someone who’s used a lot of painkillers)
As others have said, it’s impossible to know until you have it. Some people really like it and get that “I don’t give a crap how I’m feeling” feeling. It doesn’t do much for me at all - if I’m lucky it will take the edge off the pain, and it sometimes makes me a little unfocused, but that’s about it. I’m unusual, though - I only know one or tow other people that has such a minimal reaction; everyone else I know gets wiped out on it. I can generally function at a fairly high level on Vicodin; generally the pain lowers my level of function a lot more than the painkillers do. Unless you know me very well, it’s unlikely you’d have any idea I was taking Vicodin.
I actually take Norco now, not Vicodin, because the Tylenol component is significantly less, and there are some days I need to take a significant quantity. The component that limits how much you can take in a day is the Tylenol, not the Hydrocodone.
If you feel the need to take it, I’d suggest starting with 1/2 pill to see how you react.
I’ve got an unused prescription of vicodin sitting at home that’s left over from my wisom teeth extraction. It ended up that I never needed anything more than Ibuprofen to keep the pain and swelling manageable. Just a guess, but in talking to others who have had their wisdom teeth out I would say 90% of the people don’t need anything more than ibuprofen. I think the oral surgeons prophylatically prescribe vicodin after an extraction, since they have no idea who has a lower pain tolerance and would rather give out the prescription up front rather than deal with a call 8 hours later from a patient who is still in pain.
I’d say give the Ibuprofen a chance (and you may want to talk to your doctor about increasing the dosage beyond the 2 pills every 6 hours). If it doesn’t work, switch to the vicodin. Oh- and -talk with your doctor to confirm- but I believe you’ll want to stay away from Tylenol/Acetominophen, since it only acts on the pain and doesn’t do anything to control swelling.
Wow! So many varied experiences with Vicodin. Iwas prescribed the drug when I had a gout attack, very painful. One pill took the edge off the pain but left me in complete control of my senses and very calm. Two pills wiped out the pain and gave me a deep, restful sleep. I can see how people get addicted to this stuff!
If such a small percentage of people didn’t require a strong painkiller, I’m not so sure that oral surgeons would be so free with narcotics prescriptions. For me personally, I was overwhelmingly grateful for something stronger after having all four of my wisdom teeth out at once. There was a brief period of time between the anesthetic wearing off and my prescription kicking in when the pain was so bad I wanted to put my head through the wall.
That said… I had Tylenol III with codeine, which promptly put me fast asleep for pretty much all of the first day. No wonky effects, just blessed absence of pain and sleepiness for the most part. An underlying throbbing in my jaw was better addressed, though not completely, by ibuprofen. (Apparently my lower teeth had presented something of a challenge, and the resulting swelling was impacting the nerves in my jaw.) I found that ibuprofen was enough after the first day, so I never had to take more than three doses of the Tylenol.
I’m guessing that since you’ve never had narcotics before that you might have a fairly strong reaction to Vicodin. I have to take two to get any results, but that’s because I’m conditioned to fairly high levels of narcotic pain relievers (because of kidney stone problems). For kidney stone pain, at home I use Oxycodone, often two at a time. In the hospital, I get morphine. So you can see how I could have some tolerance built up.
As far as the people who get hooked on things like Vicodin, they do not use it as prescribed. Most of the time, at that level, it’s crushed and snorted, or crushed, mixed with water, and injected into a vein. If you use it as directed, I don’t think you have to worry about all of that.
I’ve never had any major oral surgery, so I can’t help you there, but I have taken Vicodin. I most likely only had one, since it was for pain, and was (I think) my first time taking it.
It took care of the pain, and I felt completely relaxed, like I had just undergone a one-hour full body massage. I don’t have a good reaction to marijuana, but the Vicodin feeling is what I imagine a good pot high feels like, physically speaking only. Vicodin didn’t make my head woozy or anything, and I still had full control of myself (though I wouldn’t drive or anything). Pot pretty much renders me a potato, unable to move or talk or anything else useful. Not so for Vicodin.
In short, I’ve only taken Vicodin that once (AFAI can remember), and I don’t want to again unless necessary, beacuse, as you’ve heard from others, I can easily see how it could be addictive.
