So, I'm getting my wisdom teeth taken out Monday morning. Yay!
I was a bit worried about it until a couple days ago, when I decided to try to stop worrying whenever I got anxious about it. I keep thinking of weird problems that could happen during the procedure and it scared me for a while.
I'm getting general anesthesia so I can sleep through it. I searched TL for some wisdom teeth topics, and I probably read too much about dentists using giant saws and screwdrivers and there being a lot of blood. I guess my greatest fear is the doc will use some big saw and slip, and then I'll have a big scar on my face like the Joker. That wouldn't be fun.
Unfortunately, I'm now 25 and don't have dental insurance, so it's going to cost me upwards of $1700. Boo! Should have gotten it done in high school like everybody else when I had kids' insurance.
All four of my teeth were coming in almost directly under other teeth. So I waited and waited, and about 1-2 years ago, I had some pain for about a week two or three times 6-12 months apart. I finally decided to get them taken out recently. Because I waited so long to get them x-rayed again, my bottom two wisdom teeth have now moved into reasonable positions and shouldn't have any problems coming out. My top teeth, the right one is half in, and the other is still completely under the gum.
So I'll have quite different operations done on each tooth. Funny, huh?
Maybe I'll tell them to use slightly less anaesthetic than they thought they should use. I'm a sleep-deprived gamer, after all. It would be funny if I woke up and the doc had one tooth left to pull, and all I could see was this giant scary face with some huge metal tool yanking the crap out of my face, and somebody else holding gauze to the blood spewing out of my mouth.
If you got it done professionally at a dentist, 1700$ sounds like a good price for the USA. I got it done for less but that's because I was at a dental college in Canada.
I heard people complain about the pain/inconvenience after the operation, but when I had it done it was a joke. It was a mild ache in my mouth for a while and I just ate soft food for a while. No need for painkillers or anything. The only time I was ever remotely freaked out was a bit before the procedure when I was told that there was a 1.x% chance of some serious problem like permanent nerve damage or something(maybe it was more serious then that, I can't remember)
Mine were recommended to be removed because 3/4 were impacted/partially impacted and had a small cavity (which maybe isn't entirely a reason). I had no issues with them whatsoever, but I could understand that it could cause problems in the future. The last tooth was apparently removed "for the sake of it" despite that it was very deep below the gum line and entirely unerupted (saves me money this way I guess compared to if it caused trouble in the future).
The one bonus to getting your wisdom teeth taken out is that you will probably lose weight. Cause it's harder to eat, so you (at least me) won't eat as much. I'm one of those people who has barely any body fat, so it wasn't that great for me. But if you are already trying to, or thinking about slimming down, then losing your wisdom teeth might help with that!
On April 06 2014 16:05 Just_a_Moth wrote: The one bonus to getting your wisdom teeth taken out is that you will probably lose weight. Cause it's harder to eat, so you (at least me) won't eat as much. I'm one of those people who has barely any body fat, so it wasn't that great for me. But if you are already trying to, or thinking about slimming down, then losing your wisdom teeth might help with that!
IDK, you can more or less drink all you want, and that's one of the main things that makes people fat. I guess it's still true to an extent, but reduced calorie intake for a week or two isn't going to have any significant impact over the course of a year.
Makes no sense to do it in general anesthesia. There risks involved far exceed the risks of the operation itself. It only takes like 15-20 min to get one of those bad boys out with local anesthesia. I had it done like that and it was fine. Didn't feel any pain or anything. The swelling went away in a couple of days.
On April 06 2014 17:24 SnipedSoul wrote: Get local anesthetic only so you can feel the dentist literally tearing the tooth out of your jaw.
Or cutting open your gum. I also had 1 tooth underneath the gum still and with local anesthetic you can actually 'feel' how they are casually cutting you open. It doesn't hurt at all obviously, but you do know it's happening. I thought it was funny.
Didn't hurt in the slightest, all those horror stories of having blue cheeks for a week after the operation were greatle exaggerated too, no need to worry about it.
On April 06 2014 17:24 SnipedSoul wrote: Get local anesthetic only so you can feel the dentist literally tearing the tooth out of your jaw.
Or cutting open your gum. I also had 1 tooth underneath the gum still and with local anesthetic you can actually 'feel' how they are casually cutting you open. It doesn't hurt at all obviously, but you do know it's happening. I thought it was funny.
Didn't hurt in the slightest, all those horror stories of having blue cheeks for a week after the operation were greatle exaggerated too, no need to worry about it.
Totally depends on how deep they are. My bottom wisdom teeth were sloping downwards under my next tooth, pretty close to some nerves. So they had to cut away a lot of gum, and then drill the bottom wisdom teeth in 2 halves, so they could pick out the pieces. This left a pretty gaping hole at those places. With one of them they inserted a blood cloth thingy which was removed a week later. Pulling that bandage out without anesthetics hurt. After that I had to clean the hole out with a little squirt gun using some salted water to counter infections. Took a couple of weeks until it was healed up. The procedure itself wasn't fun for me. I was locally anesthetized. I didn't really feel pain but I felt immense pressure in my jaw when they were drilling my tooth in two which wasn't fun.
The top two were straight (with some gum on top) so they just cut away the gum and they could just pull it out. That didn't hurt at all. In my case, in the Netherlands at a tooth surgeon, they did it in two goes. First time the right pair, second time the left pair. This makes sure you can at least chew a little bit with one side. But yeah, I had pretty big fucking cheeks for a whole week, especially the second time where they had to go really deep.
If they're sitting straight though, it's just pull and it's out, and it's very easy. I guess my situation was kind of rare though. Dentist also wouldn't touch it so they sent me to a tooth surgeon because they wouldn't go near anything that might cause nerve damage.
If they are going to be drilling into your jaw to get the teeth from under your gums and under other teeth, general is the way to go for sure.
Like twisted, they left huge holes when they were done and used some cheek skin to cover it up and help the healing. Waiting also caused some twisting of the front teeth. Hope yours goes smooth and your left with a nice smile with no pain.
I'm a little surprised the bill is only going to run $1700, sounds like us-canada don't have a huge price difference for dental
Just have a local, it's not painful, just a bit of discomfort/wrenching. Sounds ridiculously expensive. Mine was $250/300 in Korea and the dentist was top notch. The pain meds were a must for the first few hours after the local wore off though.
this procedure sucks. I had to eat like a duck for like a week, I couldnt chew, I had to swallow small bits of soft food lolll. Your breath will also smell like shit. Put a towel over your pillows for a few days if you dont want to ruin them.
1700 feels like a awful lot :S as the others said, you shouldnt go totally under for that, your body really hates that. What I did back in the day was bring my discman (lol), crank up the volume and close my eyes.
Good luck! You'll basically have to eat yoghurt, ice cream and puree (if you have a blender, use it on everything) for the following 2 weeks.
I had it done using local anesthesia. It sucked, but I survived. The first few days are the worst as your breath will feel like shit. Be sure to use mouthwash after and before bed, and after eating, as you'll probably be unable to brush your teeth until the initial swelling recedes.
General anesthesia is completely unnecessary. I've had two wisdom teeth pulled with local in my 20's and it's fine. It's uncomfortable when they put their weight on the drill to split the tooth but you feel pressure, not pain.
I probably read too much about dentists using giant saws and screwdrivers and there being a lot of blood. I guess my greatest fear is the doc will use some big saw and slip
Yeah you're either being misinformed or people are just trying to scare you.
Your cheeks might be puffy for like a week or so (and you probably won't be able to do much physical activity or eat a ton during that time), but besides looking like a chipmunk for a little and getting to eat lots of ice cream, there's nothing really different. I had mine taken out a few summers ago and the only annoying thing is that I couldn't play tennis for two weeks (god forbid a tennis ball smack me in the face or something).
I used general anesthesia when I got mine taken out, but looking back I should have just used a local anesthetic. Still, general anesthesia didn't really affect me all that much other than making me really high and a bit unbalanced once I woke up. My wisdom teeth came in sideways though (and they had to be cut in half to get them out) so perhaps our situations are a bit different.
Just be sure to clean the back of your mouth well, and if they leave a hole back there, flush it regularly. Otherwise food will collect back there and get nasty, and periodically this disgusting liquid will leak out. There's probably not a more disgusting taste than half digested cream of chicken that's been festering in your mouth for days leaking out when you lie down.
I had this done last year - my normal dentist wanted to not only take out the problematic tooth, but also the healthy tooth above it. This would have cost something like £300, maybe £350 - I can't recall. That sounded like a lot, but more importantly I wasn't keen on losing a healthy tooth so I sought a second opinion, which meant waiting for an NHS appointment. The NHS dentist said there was no reason at all to take out the top tooth, and by waiting a couple of months (which some would not have been able to do, obviously) I was able to have the tooth taken out for free.
It was unpleasant, but there was no pain using local anaesthetic. There was a lot of wrenching and it took longer than I hoped - the dentist actually said to his student/assistant "that was a really difficult one" (!). Unless yours is a particularly complex case or if you're really terrified of the procedure, I'm surprised that you're going under. Perhaps that's quite standard in the US, but it certainly isn't here.
In any case you'll feel quite miserable when you get home, but just put a favourite film on, take some painkillers and take the precautions you can read here and eventually all should be well. As Chocolate said, there can be what seems like a very large hole but eventually (as in, after several months) it will seal.
Jeez....seems so long ago now but I had mine taken out when I was 16, been almost 10 years now. I still remember it being pretty expensive, luckily I was on my parents insurance at the time. All of them were impacted and had to be taken out at once. It was pretty terrible. I had sedation like what it sounds like you are going to have done. I remember just being knocked out not long after the surgeon came in. When I woke up I didn't even know anything happened I was so out of it. Went home and passed out for like 14 hours.
Kinda sucked thought since Vicodin back then, for whatever reason, gave me really bad vertigo so I didn't really have painkillers for it. Worst part was having to swish my mouth out with warm salt water, was disgusting..
Makes me glad I got them so early though, I hear it's worse when you get them taken out when you're older. Hope everything goes well op.
When they "woke me up" from the anesthesia, I don't remember anything until I was already in the passenger seat of my dad's car. Apparently up until then I was saying all sorts of crazy shit, confessing all my secrets like how I smoke hookah sometimes and whatnot, which my parents didn't know, and telling the dentist how handsome he is and all this stuff lol. I don't even remember it.
Oh god I told them a bunch of sexual stuff too like how my girlfriend has a maid costume and how I thought I was gaining upper body strength from holding myself up while I have sex and all this shit. Haha, our favorite sex positions and everything. Hahaha good times, good times. So yeah be careful of that. It could happen to you.
I've gotten 12 teeth pulled in my life so far, 8 were adult teeth. I've never gotten knocked out for it and it makes for an interesting experience. I can't comment on the cost because i have insurance but getting them out helped out so much. I have a small mouth and life was made easier with eating and brushing my teeth without those damn things. Don't worry about the pain or anything like that, even when awake it wasn't bad. The tricky thing with me is that my wisdom teeth had more roots than usual. Most bottom molars have 2 roots and upper ones have 3, for some reason my bottom has 4 roots and top have 5. It made pulling them out really hard, but after struggling on the first one my dentist had a plan. While i was awake he would saw my teeth into quarters and start to break them apart little by little. The smell and taste of burning combined while hearing the teeth get cracked into quarters was rough at first but after a hour it was finally over.
If your dentist doesn't tell you about dry socket please ask him, i was told about it and when it happened it sucked. Avoid straws or any type of suction. Also when you brush your teeth be very careful with the sockets but you still need to brush them. I had food stuck in the bottom of the socket and it caused immense pain, he needed to numb it again to clean it just to get dry socket....
follow the post-op instructions to the letter. the last ting u want is an infection.
On April 07 2014 00:44 Thrill wrote: General anesthesia is completely unnecessary. I've had two wisdom teeth pulled with local in my 20's and it's fine. It's uncomfortable when they put their weight on the drill to split the tooth but you feel pressure, not pain.
listen to specialists who've seen ur x-rays and given u a personal examination rather than TL.Net forum maxillofacial surgeons in training ...no matter how many posts they've made on this forum.
there are a myriad of factors which can make a general necessary. without the ability to read the guy's x-rays u do not have enough information to make this generalization... and even an X-Ray does not tell the whole story... you'd need an MRI to say for certain. and rather than pay for an MRI the dental surgeon would rather just get in there... figure out what is going on with his own 2 eyes and do what is necessary. this is why a general can be useful, especially with lower wisdom teeth with corkscrew roots... you cant tell they cork screw from an X-ray, u only find out once you are diggin in the guys mouth or via an MRI.
my general dentist is expensive as hell, but i prefer to pay a little more and get the best. the corollary of this is that he always sends me to expensive, but good, specialists when needed.
2 of my wisdom teeth were in brutal positions. it sounds like u r going to a dental surgeon who does nothing but extract teeth. that is definitely the way to go. it cost me about $2,000, but it was money well spent. eventually insurance covered 80% of it... but if my claim was denied i couldnt care less. i went to a "surgical group" of 4 maxiofacial surgeons who do nothing but pull teeth all day.
I had a pretty pleasant wisdom tooth extraction, and felt no pain even though 1 tooth took a while to pull, and healed right up in the next day or two. People's experiences vary wildly though.
It probably depends if you get it removed preventively (i.e. as they grow in crooked) as opposed to if they are already causing problems, and I'm sure how they grow in (eg the 90 degree people--which wikipedia says is only 3%--must have a much harder time/probably just get knocked under)
I got lucky I guess, just had local anesthetic (novacaine/procaine I believe) and no pain, neither after the procedure nor during. Had all 4 removed--my dentist said something about at least 1 of my teeth that he wanted to "show off" to another dentist. It was about the roots on the tooth, but I dunno if it was an unusual number (eg 3 or 5 compared to the typical 2 or 4) or something else about the roots. I know it wasn't particularly long--wikipedia has a picture of a long 2 root wisdom tooth--but meh, can't remember.
So some people get to have normal conversations with their dentist even as they pull away at a tooth for .5 hour
i guess i was one of the lucky ones because i was eating normally by the 2nd day after the procedure. The strange this was that the tooth that hurt the most during the procedure (still felt pain despite 2nd shot of anesthetic) healed the quickest.
I had all of my 4 wisdom teeth extrated throughout the last year at 4 separate sessions. All of them in local anesthetic.
The upper two where completely grown(probably thanks to gravity) while one of the bottom ones was partially under gum and the other was 90 degrees rotated facing the 7th tooth, however partially visible.
Except from the 90 degree one the 3 other teeth were pulled easily ~ <10minutes no pain during or after the process. After the second one was pulled out I've been bold enough to eat quite normally and have a beer the same evening as the day of extraction.
The problematic tooth was however bad... the process took more than an hour during which more anesthetics needed to be injected and I almost fainted because of the stress during the process. The dentist even suggested that I may indeed need to go to a surgeon to extract it however luckily she managed to get it out in the end. It was also necessary to destroy a small portion of my bone during the process so it hurt a lot afterwards and also it got inflamed so I needed to take some antibiotcs and stay away from work for a few days.
Total cost: about 20Ex4 + anesthetics
My brother on the other had had global anesthetics and all teeth pulled out at one session by a dental surgeon. He had a swollen face for over a week afterwards and couldn't eat very well, his face looked like a beaver or something lol. A lot of painkillers he did take... I didn't envy him.
So after this experience I suggest: 1. Let the easy ones be pulled on separate session + local anesthetics. Reason: Healing one by one, there won't be almost any side-effects since you can eat almost normally and you don't need any medicaments. After a week you won't probably even notice you tooth is gone. + the price is much better(1800$ lol outrageos) 2. Let the complicated one be pull by an expert - dentist surgeon. 3. Make a tool = syrenge + small hose of some sort(I've used scissors to cut that thing which is used in hospitals for infusion.. don't know the name). Flush your extraction holes with salted water after eating. Reason: The holes that remain after extraction, especially the lower ones are prone for food to get in. That causes additional problems - including inflamation and delayed healing.
I'm lucky, mine never hurt at all. In fact, the most painful thing about the whole procedure was the needle to numb the roof of my mouth. I got back home with that bloody mess and even the next day I never needed painkillers. I had fancy codeine and stuff.
EPT
I searched TL for some wisdom teeth topics, and I probably read too much about dentists using giant saws and screwdrivers and there being a lot of blood. I guess my greatest fear is the doc will use some big saw and slip, and then I'll have a big scar on my face like the Joker. That wouldn't be fun.
