The human body needs a major redesign (stupid wisdom tooth...)

The BBQ Pit
1

On Monday at about 2:00 AM (I had insomnia), I experienced an unpleasant sensation, the back of my third molar (right hand side, upper jaw, about 1/4 of the back right corner of the tooth) fractured away, leaving a very sharp, pointy side facing my cheek, thankfully it didn’t hurt my cheek, but I did cut my index finger pretty well when I poked and prodded at the remains

Say goodbye to any sleep that day, I was panicking, envisioning the worst-case scenario, as for the past few years I have been underemployed/unemployed and without health insurance…

Thankfully, I have health and dental through my current job, as well as a health flex-spending account…

So, later that day, I drove into work, trying to call the dentist to set up an appointment ASAP

I got one later that morning, got an x-ray, and the dentist sent me to an oral surgeon to have the tooth extracted, as it had some weird thing with the roots being fused together and curved towards the skull bones, he didn’t feel comfortable pulling the tooth with the root issues the way they were

So, I went to the oral surgery place, filled in even more paperwork, and after about a half hour of getting numbed up, hiaving the wonderful experience of having the broken tooth yanked out of my upper jaw, it was the strangest sensation, hearing the tooth crumbling, feeling the vibrations and tugging of the surgeon, but a quick five minutes later, poink, out came the tooth, root intact

I then had the fun of having to keep a gauze pack over the extraction site, it took a good 7 hours for the bleeding to taper off to a faint ooze, the next day, I felt slightly feverish and floaty, and was still experiencing minor oozing, so I called in sick that day as well, by that evening, the oozing was essentially over, and I could see the wound was filling in properly, just a slight indentation at the center of the extraction site

pain has largely been nothing more than a dull ache, slowly weakening in strength, I was given perscription meds for the pain, but thanks to my high pain tolerance, I never needed them, well, I did take a half a pill the first night to see if it had any effect, I’m not a fan of narcotic based pain meds, and I figured cutting the dose in half would be safer than going full dose right off the bat, if I needed the other half due to the half dose not working, I could always take it later

after taking the half pill, I basically slept for 7 hours, if there was any pain, I wasn’t consciously aware of it, and after waking 7 hours later, I had to deal with an annoying “floaty” not-all-there type feeling which I hated, I basically ignored it by sleeping the rest of the pill off

Nosir, I don’t like narc pain meds, not at all

Second day, I felt floaty and slightly feverish, and the wound was still faintly oozing, so I took another day off work (2 days total, thank Og for sick time :slight_smile: ), and today, I’m back, and rarin’ to go, I’m not at 100%, but I’m far better than the last two days, and have not touched the prescription meds, as a couple Advil work just fine for pain control (basically a faint dull ache, 1.5 on a scale of 1-10)

From what the surgeon told me, wisdom teeth are remarkably trouble-prone, hard to brush, and have this type of failure quite often, he also wondered why I never had them pulled at 16, I think it was my fear/apprehension of dental surgery that scared me off, looking back, I should have manned-up and had it done

Oh well, it’s done now, and it won’t be troubling me anymore

Stupid poorly-designed human body, first my appendix, now wisdom tooth, I know I should have sprang for the extended warranty…

2

Teeth.
I have three "retained primaries’, i.e. no adult tooth ever came in. Two of the three are still hanging in there after 42 years, but one rotted away about 10 years ago. Unfortunately, the tooth it’s next to had a root canal and now it’s too weak to hold a bridge over where the primary used to be. So I have to have two implants, which are going to cost me about $6000 out of pocket. Plus my mouth is gonna be all fucked up and shit for about two months.

3

One of the best things I ever did was have all four wisdom teeth (what a fucking misnomer) yanked when I was 16. All four were impacted, which means they were not growing vertically, but horizontally and pushing my other teeth forward which negated two years of braces (and the associated junior high akwardness). I actually had to go to the hospital and, under full anesthesia, have them removed in the surgical theater. I spent April vacation that year puking up blood and painkillers. It was not fun, but the horror stories I hear from folks that have issues with them as adults makes me glad that I got them removed when I did. It was more than half a lifetime ago and no memories of the pain remain.

The human body is simultaniously awesome and sucky. It deserves a pitting, but only a mild one. After all: where would we be be without our kick-ass immune systems and the ability to heal ourselves.

4

Impacted third molars and appendicitis are both well documented “diseases of civilization.”

It’s not that natural selection designed us to be unfit, it’s that we are living in an environment that’s markedly different from the one our species evolved in.

5

Whenever I see threads about wisdom teeth, I get worried…I’m 28 (almost 29,) and no signs of wisdom teeth yet…it seems to me that the latter in life they come in, the more likely there will be problems.

Maybe I’ll luck out and I’ll be in the minority of people that never get them?

6

Ouch, that sounds like an ordeal. I’m always torn on my own wisdom teeth. While all four have successfully crowned (erupted? As in, they are fully protruded out of my gums), the dentist always says there is a chance later they may get infected and that he recommends pulling them all. ALL of them, even though they haven’t caused me any problems ever and now that they are out are super-super-less likely to do so. I really wonder if he’s being sincere or if he just has dollar signs in his eyes.

7

Wisdom teeth don’t always cause problems… my dad is in his mid-80’s and never had a problem with his, and still has them. I’m in my late 40’s, still have all of mine, no problems.

On the other hand, I hasten to add that both my father and I have adequate room in our jaws and our wisdom teeth came in fully, straight, in line with our other teeth, didn’t cause crowding, etc. I have a sister with a smaller jaw whose wisdom teeth were impacted and she had them out. My brother-in-law kept his until around my age, then had to have them out and it was a really miserable recovery for him. Much more painful and longer recovery than if he had had them yanked in his 20’s.

So… IF you have the room for them and they come in properly you might consider keeping them. If they come in weirdly twisted or impacted yes, taking them out is a good idea. Just be aware that if you do keep them you are running the risk you might have problems later and the older you are when you have them out the more unpleasant the process and subsequent recovery will be. If you do keep them it is extremely important that you be able to keep them clean. If you can’t manage that take them out early. Ask the person doing your usual cleanings how good a job you’re doing on brushing/flossing those way-in-the-back teeth. If you find he or she is spending 90% of the cleaning time on those four teeth you’re not getting back there with your brush and they will be a problem down the line. If they’re no worse than the rest of your teeth (assuming you’re doing OK with them, too) and ou’re not prone to cavities yes, you might be able to keep them for life.

My current dentist says that, since mine aren’t crowded and I am keeping them clean I probably won’t have trouble. He’s not an advocate of needless surgery. On the other hand, he doesn’t hesitate to recommend extraction in other cases where there are signs of trouble early on.

Ultimately, it’s your choice and your decision.

8

Funny how some people argue that nature shows evidence of intelligent design by an omnipotent perfect god. That’s ignorant on multiple levels.

9

Wisdom teeth should be redesigned so that they somehow function as auxiliary brains.

10

I read that as “I’ve always torn out my own wisdom teeth” :eek:

11

I thought the whole point of the wisdom teeth and the “13-year-molars” was that in the wilds our ancestors were expected to lose a few teeth as they aged, from decay or mammoth-fights or whatever. The teeth coming in in our early and late teens were supposed to sort of shift around your remaining teeth and take the place of the missing ones. Now that we have dental hygiene and a distinct lack of mammoths, there is no room for the replacement teeth and they just cause trouble.

Did anyone else hear that theory?

12

I did too!!

One of the worst pieces of advice I’ve ever ignored came from my dad, before I was supposed to have all four wisdom teeth taken out: “Get half of them pulled. That way you can still chew with the other half.”

I’m so glad I listened to the now-Other Shoe, who was 100% right: I would NEVER have gone back for the other half. So, whoever is reading this and contemplating getting all of 'em pulled at once: go for it.

For me, the worst wasn’t the recovery pain/crap. It was the hunger from not being able to eat anything other than mashed potatoes and yogurt for a couple of days. I dreamed of red meat. Well, second worst was the now-Other Shoe making fun of me for me post-anesthesia antics. :wink:

13

Probably a combination of both but quite possibly the latter. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and I’d seriously consider finding a new dentist.

14

Interesting Cubsfan factoid: I never had wisdom teeth and never will. I had a dentist argue with me one time and insist I was lying when he saw now wisdom teeth but I was telling him I hadn’t gotten any removed. What a baggadouche.

15

If you are 29 and don’t have them yet you ain’t getting them. Especially if they don’t show in xrays. I am 35 and don’t have any. Never will.

16

I had a wisdom tooth that did that; a big chunk broke off and it was cutting up the inside of my mouth. It must have been in bad shape because it took about ten seconds to actually remove it; waiting for the anesthetic to kick in took waaay longer. Very easy recovery, I don’t remember any bad stuff at all aside from my fairly extreme dental anxiety.

I have now had five of the buggers removed. Five was a tiny mutant tooth but it was, nonetheless, there and had to go when the molar next to it also had to go.

17

I was told by my dentist (mind you, it was about 50 years ago) that wisdom teeth actually are gradually dying out in the human population. Not everybody has them now, and people without them are getting more common.

If this is right, evolution is currently working toward the very redesign you are asking for. It takes a while, though.

18

When I had my wisdom teeth out (all four at once, like you) it was amazing how quickly I became fed up with a diet of yogurt and Ensure. For some reason, instead of meat, I had intense cravings for potato chips. Specifically the really hard, crunchy ‘kettle chip’ kind. Which is weird because I very rarely buy or eat potato chips and at the time it had probably been a couple of years since I had had kettle chips. It was like my brain was like “what’s the hardest, pointiest, most inappropriate food I can come up with? Yeah - now you crave that, sucker!”.

I sympathize with the OP - getting my wisdom teeth out was highly unpleasant. I also developed a delightful dry socket a few days after the procedure (*that *took my mind off the chips). But I’m glad I took care of them then and now I don’t have to worry about one going rogue and breaking off or whatever. Especially since I was in school and under my parents dental insurance at the time - that shit wasn’t cheap, IIRC.

19

I’ve heard of it, but I don’t know how true it is.

I want teeth like sharks have. Or whatever it is that sharks have instead of teeth. Sharks are always growing new sets of teeth, and the old ones fall out before they can decay.