Undercover_Man

Hello all. Well my dentist and whoever works on my teeth at the time keep on bugging me about them wanting to get my wisdom teeth taken out. I DONT WANT THEM TO LEAVE MY MOUTH. Obviously I've never had the experience of having my wisdom teeth taken out so this is kinda scary.

Now my sister had hers taken out when she was a teen and it hurt her like hell. She couldn't eat or drink or nothin. It was torture for her. And There's other stories that I've heard from other ppl who've had theres done too and have had problems. I've also heard good things too tho. I don't want it to hurt and they're prolly not gonna give me nothin to make the pain go away AFTER they are taken out. Maybe a painkiller but that won't be enuff. I gotta eat and drink ya know. That's gonna hurt. AHHHH!!!!

Is there anything that I can do to help the pain AFTER the teeth are pulled? I gotta drive 30+ min to and from school so my painkillers and whatever else you guys suggest can't make me too drowsy or else I'm gonna end up with more than 4 missing teeth.

I've heard that Tannic acid could help clot the blood. Yeah. My teeth will prolly punish me by making me hemorage at night when I'm sleeping and I'll drown in my own blood. And I also heard that an increase in Vitamin C would help in the healing process. Something like 500mg twice daily for just a few days after operation. Also I heard that after the extraction I should take three 200-400mg of bromelain for a few days to reduce swelling.

Will these things really help? What WILL help the whole healing process? I don't want to be given stuff JUST for the pain. I need stuff for the healing too. Any ideas? And what can I do to make the pain go away in my teeth?

I am advised (not by the dentist) to only do one tooth at a time. I get one taken out and then get it healed and then get the other and let it heal and do that two more times for all four wisdom teeth. Would that be good advise? I don't see how I could possibly eat or drink if all 4 corners of my mouth are out of order.

Any advise before I allow the dentist to murder four of my teeth? My mouth is gonna kick my ass for this betrayal. My teeth will mark me as a traitor.

- Undercover_Man

Rodney

Why does he want to take your wisdom teeth? Is there not enough room?

I still have my wisdom teeth, almost 50 years on, though more than one dentist really wanted to pull them. There are a couple of bad reasons why dentists want to pull wisdom teeth:

*They're old-fashioned. I had orthodontistry in my teens to correct a bad overbite; my teeth were perfect. Then the wisdom teeth came in and pushed one of my incisors on the lower jaw partway in front of another. The dentist said, your wisdom teeth have to go! I went back to the orthodontist, who looked them over and said that my teeth might not look quite as good but were perfectly functional in alignment and so forth. He advised that I keep them in, and I did. There've bee no consequences.

*They want money. I went to a dentist who told me he'd have to pull my wisdom teeth because "I wasn't keeping them clean enough." Not that there was any problem, but there was too much plaque back there, and that could cause problems, so they'd have to go. I changed dentists. Told the new dentist what the old dentist had said, and he said, "Sometimes, some dentists: you know, it's the holidays, and a few hundred dollars would be nice..." Then he gave one of the most expressive shrugs I've ever seen.

So my advice is.... get a second opinion. Do they really need to go? Do they _all_ need to go? Is there enough space?

Many people need to get their wisdom teeth pulled, but not everybody does. If you can't always trust auto mechanics, why should you always trust dentists? If you really don't want to do this, verify whether it's really necessary or not.

shred_head

I got mine taken out a couple years ago and I didn't have any problems at all with it. I can't remember if I got 4 or just 2 taken out. I don't think that I was given any major drugs for the pain or anything but I don't think I needed them anyways. I'm thinking that I probably couldn't eat much for only like a day or so, if that long, in which case I just ate soup. I don't know anyone that's had a really bad reaction from getting their's out but I'm sure there's some out there.

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Rodney

It really depends on what the roots of the teeth are liked. A friend of mine had a really long recovery from wisdom teeth extraction because the roots of the teeth curled up like fishhooks; the dentist had to do a _lot_ of cutting to get the teeth out of there. On the other hand, this should show up on X-rays in advance, and a dentist who's being straight with you should be able to warn you. My friend's dentist put him on Percodan for a few days after the procedure, which is pretty extreme but which did a lot to ease his pain.

taylorspl

I had my right upper pulled recently, because I have bad genetics they came through and either weren't developed all the way yet or they just sucked. Basically they got a cavity and are hollow in the middle, I got an infection and wow that was crappy. Luckily the root was straight enough and I was in and out of the dentists office within 40 minutes. I'm going back in 2 weeks for a thorough exam and then the rest will likely be pulled. I did need mine pulled the messed up my lower teeth a bit but not too badly, the pressure from the top ones caused one of the back molars to split in half also.

I was only uncomfortable for the rest of the day, after that the are was tender when I'd eat for like 3-4 days. Dentist gave me 2 weeks worth of 750mg hydrocodone. I was taking my womans 100mg demerol when it hurt so I got kind of nauseated(sp?), I'm not sure if it was from the blood or the pills. Good luck it won't be too bad, just do what they tell you for the aftercare procedure and all will be fine.

Arroe

I just had mine taken out a few weeks ago.

It didn't hurt at all. I actually felt very good the first 2 days when i was on the meds. I ate lots of pudding, chili, and mac and cheese. It was really swollen, I looked like a chipmunk, and I had some bad bruising for about 2 weeks on my face. It wasn't aweful though, not really painful, just uncomfortable.

hambone

I had mine taken out a while back(by Dr. Skiba, father of Matt Skiba, singer of Alkaline Trio )

It didn't hurt at all, but they put me out for it. I didn't swell one bit either. Plus ever since then I get so many less migraines.

Guess I was pretty lucky.

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Pip

I've had one pulled, and I had heard the horror stories. Plus, I have a rather narrow mouth, so when the dentist was "working" on the tooth it felt like my upper lip would be pulled apart and I got a bad ass bruise on the corner of my mouth. But it went pretty smooth considering, I was actually giddy for hours afterwards from relief. I know I want and need my other wisdom teeth pulled soon, they grow into my other teeth, but like Rodney said, find out why you need them pulled first. If they are healthy and not interfearing you should keep them.

NoSoup

I got mine pulled at the end of December... All four of them.

I was awake during the surgery - it wasn't too bad for three of the teeth, just a lot of crunch, cracking, snapping and breaking sounds - but all I could feel is pressure.

The last one, though, was so close to the jaw bone that they could only numb the portion of the gum that was on top of the tooth. I could feel everything, which was pretty damn terrible.

They gave me vicodin for the pain, and I ended up getting dry sockets - avoid that at all costs.

From a bit of research that I did, if you go on a Vitamin C regiment (2500mg a day) for at least a week before the surgery it reduces the chances of getting dry socket substantially.

Anyway, my recovery was very slow - I had little swelling and very little bruising, but I was unable to eat anything solid for probably 8-10 days. Soup, pudding, and mashed potatos after the first couple of days is all I could eat.

Just figured I'd share... good luck

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ShaniFaye

my mouth is to small for all my teeth....I have my top jaw deliberartely broken twice when I was younger trying to fix the problem (my upper set of teeth sat completely inside my bottom set of teeth) When my first set of wisdom teeth came in (yes I said 1st set) they all grew in at an angle because my mouth was too small, so out they came, one at a time because they didnt come in all at once)

Im now on the 3rd set, so that means that so far I've had 9 wisdom teeth taken out (my mother had 4 complete sets). The only time I had a problem was with the very first one, I didnt understand the necessity for all the rules and I ended up with a dry socket..I think that hurt worse than child birth. With the other 8 I followed the rules to the letter and didnt have that problem again...thank god.

Ibuprofen was all I ever had to take, I was uncomfortable for a few days after them but never in MAJOR pain. Of course all mine were pulled, they werent impacted so I didnt have to have "surgery" which Im sure makes a big difference.

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uncle_el

wisdom teeth are unnecessary... they do not help with chewing your food, and are, in a sense, just there... hence the name "wisdom teeth".

in some people they are impacted, as shanifaye already mentioned... in others, they will come in wrong - if you actually look at the xray/pannorex of an adult's mouth, you will see that the wisdom teeth tend to be situated wrong, i.e. they are 90 degrees out of orientation, so that when they come in, they are not in the right position. and in those people that the wisdom teeth are not impacted, and will not come in wrong, again, wisdom teeth are not used for chewing food.

with all of that said, in a sense, wisdom teeth can be seen as a disaster waiting to happen... hard to brush, harder to floss... generally just hard to clean. you can have your wisdom teeth taken out prior to all of this... or you can wait to develop a cavity, and then have the teeth taken out... i'll let you guess which option will cost more (the latter in case you didn't want to guess ).

i had all of my wisdom teeth taken out when i was 16... the surgery was fine, given enough pain killers (tylenol #3- tylenol with codeine is good enough for most people)... was playing football 3 days later in 100 degree heat.

in the hands of an experienced and capable oral surgeon, you'll be just fine. make sure you irrigate the areas of surgery well after every meal (if it's not supplied to you, get an irrigating syringe) using warm water, a teaspoon of salt, and a little bit of mouthwash. that mixture is an antibiotic (majority of bacteria cannot stand a high salt content) and pain reliever (warmth of the water stimulates blood flow to the area, which means reduced time of swelling, helps bring white blood cells to the area to fight any bacteria...). keep using the mixture with the irrigating syringe until the areas are completely healed, which should be about 3-4 weeks.

just one med student's opinion (who happens to have 3 dentists and 1 oral surgeon as good friends ).

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Ilow

I got mine out when I was around 18 because I didn't have enough room for them and already had TMJD. I had all 4 done at once, three were totally impacted and one poked through a bit. I was pretty meticulous to avoid dry sockets, but i do remember a bit of discomfort (but the percocet pretty much killed the pain and put me to sleep). They had to hammer and chisel at least one out so that was a little slower to feel better. I did have fun scaring a little kid in the parking lot on the way home when I smiled a bloody messy smile at him.

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Slavakion

Awesome. Mine are coming out in 2 weeks, because they're just shy of impacting. or slightly impacted. I dunno, but apparently I need them out now before things go to hell in my mouth. There goes February vacation...

LiLi-CMA

I had my wisdom teeth out (2) at once. I was completely out and it was done right in the office. I went home immediately after the procedure was done. I had very little to no pain throughout the entire ordeal, seriously. I was very scared too because everyone told me it would be so painful... but it was fine. The only thing that was hard for me was cleaning the holes left behind when the teeth were gone. I was given a syringe and told to put warm salt water in it and clean the areas after every meal. I didn't dig that part. It was more gross than pain, though. Hardly any pain.

Best of luck, bud. It probably won't be as bad as you're imagining.

Squishor

The amount of pain afterwards seems to vary quite a bit. I had the two bottom ones pulled (at different times), and one I remember in particular was spectacularly painful afterwards. But Vicodin took care of that. Eating problems while recovering are easily solved by using a straw for some liquid food. I survived on Ensure for 10 days after oral surgery last year - you'll be just fine.

Rlyss

Underover Man, definitely get another opinion. I got three opinions for my wisdom teeth in about six or nine months ago and eventually came to the decision that I'd get them all out, all four of them. I went to a private hospital at 5am, got kocked out, woke up a few hours later and it was all done. I could talk just fine (sounded a bit dumb but still), it didn't bleed , I felt groggy for an hour or so but then proceeded to do my homework. I'd ask your dentist if you'll be allowed to drive after the operation. Perhaps it was different for me because I got totally kocked out, not just a numbed mouth, but I wasn't even allowed to leave the hospital unless someone was there at the reception to pick me up. Just make sure you'll be allowed to leave on your own if you have to go to school but I suppose you shouldn't have any problems if it's just a numb mouth.

Anyway, they felt sore that day and felt swollen, but it didn't look like it. Some foods were hard to eat but by the second day there was no pain and after four or five days everything was back to normal.

Just wanted to say that not ever wisdom teeth extraction turns out to be a horror story Some aren't painful, they're just plain boring, like mine

exizldelfuego

Recovery times do vary greatly. My mom was telling me how she and my father were when they had theirs out; my mom was out for a week, my father was out at a gig playing guitar the night of. I took after my mother, but it wasn't all that bad. The pain killers do their job, you just need to be sure to be fastidious about your hygiene, as others have pointed out. I suggest you plan on being out of commission for a week, but don't be surprised if it takes less than that.
Have a bunch of movies rented - you might have a lot of time on your hands.
Have someone pick you up - even if you're just numbed, driving back won't be so appealing.
Have all 4 done at once - If you're going to suffer through the procedure, why not do it all at once?

thingstodo

I had two not impacted removed by a dentist and two impacted removed by an oral surgeon. Man, that surgeon knew his stuff on those impacted teeth. Hardly any swelling and I didn't even remember to take the pain meds the next morning. Felt good enough to stop by the office that afternoon for a few minutes.

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Hurricane1

I had a cavity in one of mine, so instead of having them fill a wisdom tooth, I said take them out. He only wanted to take out 2 at a time, but I told him if he takes out only 2, I will not come back to have the other 2 out.... so all 4 came out. Now, mine were not impacted at all, just straight pulls.

I think I just took the pain medication for fun, instead of pain. :::good times::: I had them out on a Friday morning and at 8pm, I was at a restaurant eating crab cakes. I think I milked the "I've got pain" just to get the next monday off, but all was good really.

Slavakion

I had all four out today. I'll reate my story for all the closet voyeurs out there.

I get to the oral surgeon, and sit down in the Chair (capital letter necessary). A hygienist/assistant hooks me up to an EKG and puts an auto-blood pressure cuff on me. Everything looks fine, so the doctor comes in. (If you're a nervous person, this guy might not reassure you. One of the nicest people I've ever met, but he looks like he fell out of an 80s medical drama. 6+ feet tall, huge chin cleft, huge glasses and jerry curls.) So Dr. Tim puts an O2 line on my nose which is supposed to relax me. Meh. I'm kinda used to high concentrations of O2 from being in the hospital for my asthma. Then comes the anesthetic IV. Two jabs in the arm and no dice on nailing down a vein. So they go to the back of my hand. Maybe the oxygen did loosen me up, because I wasn't really stressed about being violated by a needle...

"Okay, Slavakion, you'll start to gradually get sleepy". The hygienist cleans my arm where I was probably bleeding, and... I'm awake and confused. Then somehow I'm in a detox room in a comfy chair. Besides not being able to walk at first, I had absolutely no side effects from the anesthesia. The worst thing was actually the novocaine. Five hours of tasting blood before I could drink water without dropping it all over myself. No swelling, and I got to eat jello, pudding and mashed potatoes.

Now to wait until I can eat some "real" food. Jello's gonna get old after a while.

Oh, by the way, I just got a call from Dr. Tim asking how I was. How many doctors would do that?

la petite moi

Dude, I had my two bottom teeth out, and I was only woozy for a couple hours afterwards. They healed relatively quickly. I mean, I think a couple days after I was having sex.

Edit: nwlinkvxd says that it was the SAME DAY that we were having sex.

insidious_machinae

I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth cut out. It was a horrible experience, and they gave me vicodin to ease the pain. Turns out I'm allergic to vicodin and ended up taking a suppository to stop myself from explosively vomiting anything that i swallowed.

I wrote a blog about it the week after the surgery, but I'll spare you.

la petite moi

For that reason, you should probably just get one or two out at a time.

insidious_machinae

Slavakion, the swelling won't start for a day or two. Hate to burst your bubble.

squirrelyburt

It's not bad, 2 of mine were impacted. long time ago and I don't recall much of it, but add a few beers with the pain killers, enjoy the ride!

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thatoneguy

I had to have my wisdom teeth out a few years ago, they weren't impacted or causing me pain or anything of that nature, the dentist was just looking at the x-rays and said that they were coming in at a bad angle and would eventually cause me problems. So, obviously I decided to have them out.

Went to the surgeon's place when it was time, he put me under, never woke up during it, then it was over with. Interestingly enough, I apparently had 5 of them in there haha. All in all, I really didn't have any problems with the recovery from it, I felt fine (aside from the obvious dull pain), and actually drove 1/2 hour to attend my friend's birthday gathering the next evening, everyone was a little surprised to see me, and couldn't figure out why I wasn't all swollen up and whatnot.

So, I really didn't have any issues with it, it worked out pretty well for me.

clavus

Buy some tea - the shitty American kind that comes in little bags. After the surgery, if you keep bleeding like a stuck pig, jam the teabags into the new holes in your head. The acid in the tea will help cauterize the wounds.

Mine kept bleeding. I lost so much blood...I was spitting it out by the mouthful in a supermarket parking lot...got really woozy...passed out...got my bike stolen while I was unconscious.

But hey, that's just me. You'll probably be fine.

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amonkie

Just make sure you do a count of just exactly how many teeth they remove. I was told I was only going to have the bottom two removed. When I came to, I was so groggy and sore I didn't seem to notice that they'd also pulled the top ones as well until I went to suck on a smoothie up there thinking I'd be able to do it painfree, only to encounter pain and stitches. Cursing with your mouth full of gauze is intelligible, just so you know.

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