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Getting my wisdom teeth removed on Wednesday... (SCARED & AFRAID)

This is the first forum I've read that everyone wasn't exclusively talking about horror stories, I appreciate it.

I have to have 4 out (2 impacted) on the 30th. I'm doing the whole IV thing as well, which I totally prefer compared to the alternative... I'm frightened about the pain afterwards, scared that the pain killers won't do what they should... Counter to most I've read, I guess where I'm from they are more likely to give stronger meds. For example I've gotten prescripts for Lorecet 10(hydrocodone, 10 mg), Oxy, Demerol, hydromorphone, and on and on and on just for infections... so I'm afraid that my tolerance has gone up and they won't be as effective for the "major" pain... reguardless, I have kept a mixed stash just to be on the safe side... hehe... I feel like Karen from Will and Grace with all the bottles around my house... :D
but seriously, i have been taking acetametaphine in some form like everyday for a year for my wisdom teeth... does anyone know if you can easlily build tolerance to APAP or what the max is to take at once or during a given period?
 
The pain really isn't all that bad. If you follow my earlier advice about the ice packs (they actually have them pre-made professionally now) you can really keep the swelling and the bruising down.

I was never prescribed Vicodin or whatever it is, I just good old Codeine which seemed to do the job. All I did was follow the Doc's instructions to the letter and I was right as rain and eating everything in sight again within a couple of weeks. I also seemed to enjoy pulling the stitches out with my tongue...

it was the best thing I've had done by far, the constant pressure in my mouth was gone along with the jaw pain that had been giving me troubles for so long. I also now have some nice big gaps at the back of my jaw where I can stick my tongue through and wiggle around creating a look that shocks children and senior citizens alike as my cheek looks ready to erupt.

Get the general anaesthetic, it takes away the experience of having them pulled out of your skull and gives the anaesthetist (anaesthesiologist to you Americans) something to do.
 
I had 2 out, didn't have to take any of the painkillers. Local, not general. 2 weeks or so with salt gargles etc., healed up fine.

I just made an appointment to have a 3rd one out in 2 weeks 'coz it's digging into my cheek and I can't be bothered to put up with it any longer.
 
Well, as others have said your mileage may vary.

For me, the procedure was simple and painless. I had all four of mine taken out at once. They made me sleep, next thing I knew I was awake, sans wisdom teeth. I didn't really feeling any pain so much as discomfort (lots of gauze...bleeding). I didn't even have to use the painkillers they prescribed to me. I got it done early one morning and went out with my mom to the shopping mall later that day once the bleeding stopped. It really wasn't a big deal for me. I wouldn't worry about it too much.
 
ok...

thanks again guys for all your responses. I definitely feel a lot more confident and less afraid... nervous though!

I have my operation early morning tomorrow (7:30 AM). I'll keep you guys posted when I get back and let you all know (especially those that are getting it done soon) how it went.

BTW: went to Blockbusters today and rented some DVDs... is "Flightplan" good? I was kinda desperate!
 
I managed to switch shifts with someone else on my project at work, so I only miss 2 hours of work instead of 4.
Chundles said:
I was never prescribed Vicodin or whatever it is, I just good old Codeine which seemed to do the job.
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Pff, I wasn't even prescribed anything. They just handed me a pair of little envelopes. One with gauze, the other with huge 800mg tablets of ibuprofen.
 
diehldun said:
thanks again guys for all your responses. I definitely feel a lot more confident and less afraid... nervous though!

I have my operation early morning tomorrow (7:30 AM). I'll keep you guys posted when I get back and let you all know (especially those that are getting it done soon) how it went.

BTW: went to Blockbusters today and rented some DVDs... is "Flightplan" good? I was kinda desperate!
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Flightplan? Is that the Jodie Foster one? If it is it's pretty s*ithouse.
 
diehldun said:
Oh dear. My mom scheduled an appointment to have my wisdom teeth removed this Wednesday. She figues I better get them out before I head off to college.

What is the IV/anestesia needle like? As I've always been terrified of needles since I was a child, even getting a flu shot is big deal to me. Do you "go out" knowing that you're going to sleep (take a long, gradual time), or is it instantaneous.
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Personally I really like general anastethics, and I've had a few. Although my wisdom teeth were done under a local.

Best and only advice I can give is to make certain never, ever to get your wisdom teeth out by a dentist, no matter how uncomplicated they tell you it is, always go to a dental surgeon.

If you are definitely going to get a general then do a bit of basic research on the surgeon. Ask other surgeons or specalists about him.
 
Counterfit said:
I managed to switch shifts with someone else on my project at work, so I only miss 2 hours of work instead of 4.

Pff, I wasn't even prescribed anything. They just handed me a pair of little envelopes. One with gauze, the other with huge 800mg tablets of ibuprofen.
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Pff, mine were removed by a large, smelly, blind guy using only a rock and a pair of rusty pliers! Afterwards, he gave me only a kick out the window and I landed on my neck. :D
 
Boggle said:
Pff, mine were removed by a large, smelly, blind guy using only a rock and a pair of rusty pliers! Afterwards, he gave me only a kick out the window and I landed on my neck. :D
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Hah! You were lucky!
 
well... I'M BACK HOME! (operation success)

I left this morning with my parents quite nervous... didn't know what to expect. However, everything went well, and was a lot better than I thought (I even got to keep my extracted wisdom teeth!). For those who are getting them removed soon, I desribe the process below:

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The day before the operation, they won't let you eat/drink anything after midnight if you're getting IV/anestesia. So make sure you eat/drink everything you need before, because you'll get thirsty in the morning.

After getting to the office, they sat me down in a special operating room. They hooked up some heart monitoring machines, and finally put a mask (could someone explain this?) and at first said it was "oxygen", but I heard one of the nurses ask the doctor "nitrate..." or something like that. He inserted the IV needle, which is SIGNIFICANTLY less painful than a flu shot. He said to "breathe in-and-out" a lot into the mask, and before you knew it, I was out completely. I don't even remember falling asleep or when! So far, no pain or discomfort at all!!!

The next thing I knew, I awoke in a different chair. The total operation was less than an hour. There were cotton swabs in my mouth, and was groggy at first; I knew that I was in the office, but was kind of disoriented and couldn't balance myself at all (others must have thought I was like a drunk alcoholic while trying to walk!). So they got a wheelchair and wheeled me down to the car. It was during this part that I felt most disoriented, and I actually don't remember much, if any of the "journey" from the office to the car, and from the car to the house.

When I came home, I think the effects of the anestesia began to wore off. I became a little bit more alert; I've been at home for 2 hours.

So far, all I have is a slightly-swollen right cheek, and Angelina-Jolie like puffy lips, which is rather uncomfortable. Overall, my whole bottom lip feels numb and feels strange. I am bleeding, but it's not like a fountain and am always biting down on the cotton swabs, which I replace about every 45 min-1 hour.

So I guess the healing proces has begun! IT'S NOT AS BAD AS IT SOUNDS, that all I have to say! It's annoying having to replace the swabs every so often and having puffy cheeks/lips, but I'm sure that'll stop soon.

I will say, I was INCREDIBLY grouchy to my mom on the car-ride home and initially at home; once the anestesia wore off, I don't think I was a grouchy! :p (I felt like a grumpy old man!)

Well, thanks again for all the responses/support I got in this thread. If anyone about to get it done has questions, I'll be reading this! :)
 
diehldun said:
Good result from operation story.
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Cool, told you it wasn't all that much of a problem. Just make sure you do what the doc told you to do, none of that "I feel fine I'll just do this once instead of twice" thinking, do what you're told.

The pain will come, don't worry. Mostly tomorrow and the next day when the anaesthesia really wears off, just keep the ice packs up and that swelling and bruising will go do quickly.

I'm serious about the ice packs - they work wonders.

Hope you've got some supportive friends, my best mate came over the next day with a tin of Campbells' Chunky Soup and a straw....mongrel...:p
 
I had all four taken out at once, Knocked out cold so I didn't feel or remember a thing, But I felt it a few hours once everything wore off. Eating was a chore for a few days, Try to avoid food near the back. Pain killers were a godsend and helped me for about a week.

Now all my wisdoms were impacted and growing sideways so they had to cut the gums and chip out the teeth, If you don't have that problem it should not be as bad. I was in the chair for about 2 hours.
 
sorry about the delay...

I felt groggy right after I sent that message! I slept for about 3-4 hours that afternoon, and my whole bottom lip and jaw area felt limp. Now, it's only one small part of my right cheek that's numb.

I think that this morning, the pain has finally begun to come in. The doc gave me Vicodin, but my mom had bad experience after surgery (upset stomach), so I've been using motrin, and that seems to have been working. also, since the bleeding has basically stopped, I've been gargling salt water on both sides about every hour. I'll just do anything not to get an infection (a.k.a. the horror stories...) :p

What a pity... we're invited to a homemade spanish paella lunch this saturday; I don't know if I have enough recovery time to be able to eat that!
 
diehldun said:
I After getting to the office, they sat me down in a special operating room. They hooked up some heart monitoring machines, and finally put a mask (could someone explain this?) and at first said it was "oxygen", but I heard one of the nurses ask the doctor "nitrate..." or something like that. He inserted the IV needle, which is SIGNIFICANTLY less painful than a flu shot. He said to "breathe in-and-out" a lot into the mask, and before you knew it, I was out completely. I don't even remember falling asleep or when! So far, no pain or discomfort at all!!!)
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Well what the mask was being use for was to give you a supply of pure Oxegen and a way to supply nitrate oxide to you. What the nurse was talking about was turning up the amount of gas that was NO. Not toxic it has some really nice sideeffects. It makes most of you body start to feel numb and you can not feel stuff as well. The NO can not put you to sleep but it does help and it just reduce the ammount of pain you are going to feel. I been on the stuff quite a few times at the denisted. It makes the shots hurt a little less plus it puts you in a semi loopy stated. The amount of time to recover from it after you been breathing it maybe 10 or so mins to get it out of your system most of the time. Only time I spent more than that was when I was getting a 3 filling done and some things took a little long. I was breathing it for almost an hour straight. Yeah it took me a good 30 mins before I could even think about driving home.
 
I didn't see it in any earlier posts (I may have missed it), but one you next followup, ask your guy for one of them hook syringe things. You draw water into it, and use it to flush foodies and flush salt water on the sutures from where the teeth were taken out. It was a lifesaver for me.

Anyhow, glad to hear everything went well and you didn't do anything too embarrassing! I wouldn't have been up for paella 3 days later, but I hope you get lucky!
 
One down, one to go. Getting out of work at 1:30-ish. Hopefully I can call the police dept. in regards to this. before I'm unable to speak. Of course, the records office closes at 3:45. Damn desk jockeys. :mad:
 
I get my four taken out in about 4 hours. The nerves are already starting, and I'm trying to get some work done. So what am I doing on MR???

:D
 
nbs2 said:
I didn't see it in any earlier posts (I may have missed it), but one you next followup, ask your guy for one of them hook syringe things. You draw water into it, and use it to flush foodies and flush salt water on the sutures from where the teeth were taken out. It was a lifesaver for me.

Anyhow, glad to hear everything went well and you didn't do anything too embarrassing! I wouldn't have been up for paella 3 days later, but I hope you get lucky!
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Excellent idea. That thing made life soooo much easier that first week while the gums flattened out. Also fun to use :)

Counterfit said:
One down, one to go. Getting out of work at 1:30-ish. Hopefully I can call the police dept. in regards to this. before I'm unable to speak. Of course, the records office closes at 3:45. Damn desk jockeys. :mad:
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Best of luck today, oh, and hopefully when the police find the jacket thief, said person will attempt to flee and trip over an untied shoelace falling into a puddle and embarassing himself as your jacket flies out of his hands and onto a recently cleaned nearby bit of low wall. Oh, and while i'm fantasizing here, he'll have put $200 in cash into on of the pockets just b4 the incident.

Black&Tan said:
I get my four taken out in about 4 hours. The nerves are already starting, and I'm trying to get some work done. So what am I doing on MR???

:D
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Good luck, I hope your extractions go as well as mine, (see previous pages).
 
afraid to use the medicine (Vicodin)...

well, so far I've been relying on motrin, since both my parents had rather poor side affects from using Vicodin post-surgery. The pain isn't severe, just unpleasant.

however, BY FAR, the most pain has been part of the stitches rubbing against my tongue. it hurts so much that it's hard to even swallow/drink/talk. I'm going to visit him later on today to see if there's something he can do.

i hope the salt water is working; they haven't given me the 'water pump' yet and so i eat cautiously since I don't want food to get stuck in the "holes" (only one of the three teeth removed needed stitches)
 
Yeah, this one is a little more annoying. It got pulled at about 3:30, and still hasn't stopped bleeding almost 7 hours later. This one is actually giving me some pain now. Stupid huge roots. Ugh.
Anyways, I guess my advice to everyone is to find a dentist who will do it them-self, rather than ship you off to an oral surgeon (unless it's actually necessary). It might take a few visits, but you'll still be able to eat. Well, eventually anyway. :(
 
Counterfit said:
Yeah, this one is a little more annoying. It got pulled at about 3:30, and still hasn't stopped bleeding almost 7 hours later. This one is actually giving me some pain now. Stupid huge roots. Ugh.
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Have you used moistened gauze and chew on it tightly for about 30 min? That really stopped the bleeding for me.

It turns out that a "bone splinter" was what was rubbing against my tongue. Sure glad he fixed it! Basically, most of the pain is now gone! (I still take motrin before I go to sleep to numb it; would not recommend vicodin...)
 
Dentistry is a business in which I recommend seeking out the most expensive service you can afford. While in many commercial enterprises ppl will charge what they can get and this often has little bearing on the quality of the product / service. I do not think this is the case with dentists. I really think in this industry, you get what you pay for.
 
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