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Wisdom Teeth Removal

tktaylor1

tktaylor1

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 16, 2010
787
0
Nashville, TN
So finals week is around the corner, and then Christmas break. Over Christmas break I have to get both top and bottom teeth removed. I was wondering how the process is. How was the surgery itself? How is post-surgery? What kind of meds? How bad was the pain compared to other pains you've had? Im just nervous about it all.
 
It all depends on your surgeon. The lady I went to was AMAZING and I didn't even need pain meds (I had a difficult extraction too as the nerve was wrapped around the tooth and they were impacted very badly). I had no swelling, no pain. I had friends go to her too and same thing, no pain, no swelling, no needing pain meds.

Ask around and see who people you know who got wisdom teeth removed recommend. The general consensus is to go to an oral surgeon not a dentist to get it done.

EDIT: On a funny side note (maybe it is only funny if you were there) but when they put me under, the last thing I saw was 5 women standing over me with various dental tools and the song "girls just want to have fun" was playing in the background 0_0, then I passed out.
 
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I would recommend an oral surgeon and to be put under. I went to sleep and when I woke up, all of my wisdom teeth were removed without feeling anything. I took only one painkiller a few hours later and that was it. The whole process was a lot less painful than I was expecting.
 
I just had my top two removed a few months ago. Are yours impacted (half the tooth still inside the gums)?

My top two were fully grown out so it literally took about 30 seconds a piece to remove each of them. The novocaine injections and waiting for them to settle in took the bulk of the time. The actual injections didn't hurt too much because my dentist brushed the gum area with some sort of topical gel that numbed the area.

The dentist simply cut around the tooth to loosen the gum and they came out in an instant with the pliers. I only used Advil and popped in my first two about 30 minutes before the novocaine started to wear off and took 2 more every 4 hours for the day (6 in total). Oddly enough I don't recall any pain at all.

The most important thing is not to drink from a straw or rinse your mouth during the first 24 hours! The sucking motion causes negative pressure in the mouth which can loosen the blood clot that forms over the open hole. Don't even spit because that produces a similar pressure!
 
I have no terrific advice, except to suggest that you avoid aspirin, Advil, and other NSAID's. They are anti-coagulants and facilitate bleeding. Acetaminophen (Tylenol and others) don't cause bleeding.

Mainly I'm posting to wish you good luck, rapid healing, and minimal discomfort.:D
 
I'm a student dentist (graduate in a few months). I extracted several teeth this past week, including a few 3rd molars (wisdom teeth).

Are your thirds fully erupted? i.e. can you see them when you look into your mouth with a mirror? If so the extraction is much easier and if your dentist is confident he/she can get them out, you're good. If they're impacted (can't see them) then you may just want to get them removed at an oral surgeon's place.

Thirds with a lot of decay are tougher to remove. Do they hurt? Super sensitive to cold, painful when chewing? Can you see a large hole on the tooth?

Upper thirds are much easier than lower thirds.

If your thirds are impacted and you have the cash, general anesthesia (going to sleep) at an oral surgeon's office is your best bet.

If your thirds are erupted and not falling apart, and your dentist is confident in his/her skills as they pertain to your particular case, just save $$ and get them out under local anesthesia.

I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions. I'm happy to help.

p.s: Good job on getting them out ;). IMO, EVERYONE should get them removed in their early 20's. They're hard for people to keep clean so they just serve as a nidus of infection, leading to periodontal disease that begins to spread to your other healthy teeth - especially if your hygiene isn't awesome. And, they suck for dentists to work on ;).

p.p.s: Their eruption does NOT leading to crowding of your other teeth. Common myth.
 
tktaylor1 said:
So finals week is around the corner, and then Christmas break. Over Christmas break I have to get both top and bottom teeth removed. I was wondering how the process is. How was the surgery itself? How is post-surgery? What kind of meds? How bad was the pain compared to other pains you've had? Im just nervous about it all.
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Looking more at your OP:

The surgery, post-surgery, and associated pain all depend on whether they're impacted, the difficulty of the extraction, and the skill of the operator. AND a lot depends on how well you take care of things afterward, such as:
No smoking
No spitting
No drinking through a straw
You want to avoid anything that will create negative pressure in your mouth and pull the blood clot out of the socket, which creates what most people refer to as a "Dry socket." That is potentially some of the worst pain you'll ever experience. You'll get further instructions on how to minimize this - follow them.

Your pain meds will probably be Hydrocodone; Lortab/Vicodin/Norco. They'll do the job.
 
I had one removed. Wasn't bad at all. I was all worked up over nothing. Was out in 15 minutes. The worst part was the first few shots of Novocain and even that was nothing and I HATE shots. The only thing is eating afterwords remember to chew on the other side.
 
I had 4 "complete bony impactions" which is about as bad as it gets.

My lessons learned:

1. Tooth pain sucks.

2. Demerol works like magic.

3. Opt for twilight sedation.
 
FYI - Novocaine hasn't been used much in dentistry for several decades. It's an Ester anesthetic and can produce dangerous allergic reactions.

SORRY! pet peeve ;)

You will most likely receive Lidocaine and/or Articaine for local anesthesia.
 
Why do people get their wisdom teeth taken out? Mine are starting to come out of the gums, bu i have no problems with them being there, actually it would help, as i sometimes find i haven't got enough teeth to chew with and find my self sometimes chewing with the gums where the wisdom teeth are.
 
lozzy1234567890 said:
Why do people get their wisdom teeth taken out?
Click to expand...

Earlier I said:
They're hard for people to keep clean so they just serve as a nidus of infection, leading to periodontal disease that begins to spread to your other healthy teeth - especially if your hygiene isn't awesome. And, they suck for dentists to work on ;)
Click to expand...

In many people they cause pain as there isn't quite enough room for their eruption. Many people tolerate them with no problems - just be sure to brush and FLOSS them!

Tidbit: They're also the most common congenitally missing teeth - My wife's never showed up.
 
lozzy1234567890 said:
Why do people get their wisdom teeth taken out? Mine are starting to come out of the gums, bu i have no problems with them being there, actually it would help, as i sometimes find i haven't got enough teeth to chew with and find my self sometimes chewing with the gums where the wisdom teeth are.
Click to expand...

Depends on the mouth. They normally come in at an odd angle and do not fully errupt. This means they get cavities and causes other problems very easily.
That or the mouth is too small for them. For my mouth they had to come out. My mouth is too small for them and they were pushing on my teeth.

As for pain it depends on a lot of a factors. I was in a fair amount of pain the first 2 days and slept the first night because the pain killers put me out. My brother and sister relatively little pain. All of us had the same surgeon.

My wisdom teeth had to be broken into pieces to come out.
My pain was I would say was on the worse end of normal and really first day was bad. day 2-3 uncomfortable and with in a week I was eating normally again. I lived on soup for the first few days.
 
One wisdom tooth was removed with just novocaine. It wasn't fun. Oh, and no post-op pain meds.

The other two (turns out that I only had three wisdom teeth; the forth one never developed) were removed under general anesthesia. The surgeon was fussing with my mouth and as I was waiting for her to start, she was putting away her instruments because apparently the surgery was already over by then. I was given some sort of anti swelling meds during the surgery and Tylenol with codeine for post surgery pain.
 
You will do fine man. Good luck.

I had all 4 removed at once. I was put to sleep which was fantastic; however, my faced swelled up really bad. I couldn't eat crap for a week. Pain wasn't so bad. I hear
Some swell worst than others.
 
chrono1081 said:
It all depends on your surgeon. The lady I went to was AMAZING and I didn't even need pain meds (I had a difficult extraction too as the nerve was wrapped around the tooth and they were impacted very badly). I had no swelling, no pain. I had friends go to her too and same thing, no pain, no swelling, no needing pain meds.
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Same here!! They didn't even prescribe me any pain meds, which i was kinda disappointed about. I wanted them, not because i was in pain, just because they're so much fun. It didn't hurt, i was totally fine the next day. The only really annoying thing was food kept getting stuck back there for a couple of months until my gums finally grew in and filled the space where the teeth were.
 
Go for the general anesthetic, you won't remember or feel a thing until it is over. As for pain, your gums will be swollen for a few days and eating steak is out of the question for a while. Remember to rinse often to keep the sockets clean. You should get some decent medication to help with the post surgery pain. The worst of it will be the night and day after.
 
lozzy1234567890 said:
Why do people get their wisdom teeth taken out? Mine are starting to come out of the gums, bu i have no problems with them being there, actually it would help, as i sometimes find i haven't got enough teeth to chew with and find my self sometimes chewing with the gums where the wisdom teeth are.
Click to expand...

I had all mine removed because I scuba dive a lot and tend to do a lot of deeper dives. Some wisdom teeth have a small air cavity inside them, which makes equalizing pressure quite painful and they can give you headache after a while. Once I had all 4 removed, my diving experiences became a lot easier.
 
lozzy1234567890 said:
Why do people get their wisdom teeth taken out? Mine are starting to come out of the gums, bu i have no problems with them being there, actually it would help, as i sometimes find i haven't got enough teeth to chew with and find my self sometimes chewing with the gums where the wisdom teeth are.
Click to expand...

Mine never hurt, but as I got older they impacted. Eventually they were completely sideways and some nerve back there was wrapped around the tooth. The oral surgeon told me there was a small but very real chance that if something happened to that nerve that I would have permanent numbness in my face.

That made me wish I'd of gotten them out a LOT sooner! Thankfully she was freaking amazing (and even helped my Mom carry me out to the car afterwards when I was passed out) and when I woke up the first thing I did was feel my face. No numbness!

jsolares said:
I have no wisdom teeth, is the pain really as bad as ppl say?
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For many people it doesn't hurt, and if whoever you go to does a good job they don't even hurt getting taken out. Mine were actually cut out.
 
I took the easy way. I paid them about a hundred bucks for a combination of anesthesia and antibiotics. They put a mask on me and asked me to count back from 10, and then I woke up in another room with four less teeth and a weird feeling in my mouth. There was no significant pain and I was back to eating solid foods within a week.
Considering the stories I heard from my older sisters before, the investment was well worth it.
 
Lurchdubious said:
If your thirds are impacted and you have the cash, general anesthesia (going to sleep) at an oral surgeon's office is your best bet.
Click to expand...

stickybuns said:
The other two (turns out that I only had three wisdom teeth; the forth one never developed) were removed under general anesthesia.
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MacNut said:
Go for the general anesthetic, you won't remember or feel a thing until it is over.
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I don't doubt that oral surgeons can do general anesthesia, but are you all sure the situations you are talking about weren't just sedation and not actual general anesthesia (where you not only lose consciousness but are paralyzed)? In my experience oral surgeons use a combination of sedatives and pain killers (the most common seems to be Versed and fentanyl) to induce unawareness but don't use the paralytics that are used in general anesthesia.
 
swingerofbirch said:
I don't doubt that oral surgeons can do general anesthesia, but are you all sure the situations you are talking about weren't just sedation and not actual general anesthesia (where you not only lose consciousness but are paralyzed)? In my experience oral surgeons use a combination of sedatives and pain killers (the most common seems to be Versed and fentanyl) to induce unawareness but don't use the paralytics that are used in general anesthesia.
Click to expand...

You're right. Thanks for pointing that out. Sedation is used more often than GA. If you aren't intubated with a breathing tube, you aren't under GA.
 
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