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Mine were impacted and still under the surface of the gum when they were removed, so I got knocked out at like 7:30 AM the Friday before Thanksgiving in 2000, and I basically just slept the rest of the day. Put a movie in, wake up during the ending credits, rewind the tape (HA!) and repeat.

heh, I went bozzing with some friends the night before, and went in on about 2 hours of sleep. Got sedated, and refused to wake up after the procedure for some time. Scared the ever-living bejesus out of the anesthesiologist. I remember waking up in the waiting room getting rather pissed off as I wanted more sleep.

Spent the rest of the day denying my stomach's desire to empty itself.

Moral of the story: Don't go in in low sleep and hungover.

Now when I get a colonoscopy, I ask them for minimal sedation or twilight. If I feel like I am being raped by an NBA star, I ask them to turn it up just a little. I wake up minutes after being done, feeling fine.

I have major issues with dentists. Irrationally. I had a very bad experience when I was little that I've not been able to shake (6 years old...military dentist...yuck). Anyway, I waited until I couldn't take the pain anymore. 2001, 25 years old. I went in for my consultation and the dentist kept saying "we can do this with local anesthesia" and I kept correcting him that it would take general. Finally he said it one time too many and I literally said, "Because of my fears, if you use local, you'll get near my face, and likely my fist will get much closer to yours, unintentionally". He immediately changed his tune to "we'll just do general anesthesia". I don't think he really understood how much xanax I took when I told him of my fears to just sit in that chair for the consultation. It was bad.

The day of the extraction comes up. They knock me out, as expected. I wake up a couple hours later and back home about an hour after that. Only a single issue after that. I had one tooth impacted under my right rear molar and to get it out they cracked it. It took enough force to crack that at the same time it gave me a hairline fracture on my jaw that took 2 months to heal. It made chewing hard for that time, but softer foods at least exist.

I have problems with dentist anxiety also. I was doing OK until they nailed the bone with the local, passed out, woke up, and threw up. Came back from the bathroom with a nice nitrous mask all ready to go. Needless to say, I didn't realize how many dirty jokes I actually knew! Best stuff ever. I felt my anxiety shed off me like water off of a duck's back.

Only one recommendation: Take the painkillers after the surgery!! Being off them for a couple hours made me realize that I should've taken them earlier

I had all four removed at once.

Have a family member record you after you wake up. LOL. (this is important for priceless entertainment value)

Wife told me I kept telling people to put my tongue back in my mouth, repeatedly slapping my chin with my hand.
She says I would be out, wake up wide-eyed and say stuff like, "DID YOU SEE WHAT THAT GUY DID?!" and pass back out.
Wife got lost on the way home cuz I was too out of it to relay instructions properly hehehe

I had a pocket micro cassette recorder running in my pocket and recorded my surgery, purely out of curiousity.
It was kinda strange hearing the guy grunting and stuff while working in my mouth, and the NOISES OMG

I had all four of mine removed when I was 17, they were heavily impacted / coming in completely perpendicular to the rest of my teeth. Procedure wasn't that bad and I still distinctly remember drinking a bottle of fruit punch after out of a glass bottle that was absolutely amazing.

Not being given complete aftercare instructions leading to infection was substantially less fun; took me two weeks to recover all said and done.

Impacted is when they are sideways? I had that. Got all done. I remember trying to hug a dentist to say thank you. Other than that stay the hell away from noodle soup. Thought I missed a noodle and sucked it down. Immediately realized my mistake and that I sucked down a blood clot. This began a full day of trickle bleeding that would not cease. I eventually stuffed a paper towel in my mouth and passed out.

Woke up with towel stuck to mouth and dried blood all over me. Kinda hurt to rip it off but at least the bleeding stopped.

Other than that, even with my massive fear of needles, it went well. Wife had an issue after hers where they had to pack the socket with clove oil gauze but in time it settled down. Oh yeah. Dry socket.

Oh. Eating chips, especially nachos. For about 6 months after I would sometimes crunch down and a sharp edge would dig into my socket. Took years for them to fill up enough that I wasn’t jabbing a corn chip into a raw hole of nerves.

Couple of quick disclaimers and/or provisos: 1.) I didn't read further back than this recent June, 2019 thread revival; 2.) My comment isn't germane to the question posed by Tyler3041, but it's being left in case it might provide some benefit to other readers.

Similar to Chuckaluphagus' experience, one of my impacted teeth (the lower left) presented as a rogue (rotated 90 degrees forward, laying horizontal to and partially embedded within my jaw). The Doc advised this particular removal was problematic and that there might be lingering effects that should fade and eventually dissipate entirely.

I experienced no post-surgical complications, (like dry sockets, infections, etc.) but due to nerve damage my lower left jaw was completely numb for something like 3-4 months. Full feeling had returned to my jaw by some 6 months post-extraction. I had a full beard at the time, and without periodic mirror checks and/or "maintenance wipes" I could collect and display a full days worth of drool, milkshake overflow, food remnants, "KICK ME" post-it-notes, etc. without having so much as a clue. So, to anyone having a similar experience for the 1st time, keep something akin to a cloth napkin handy. (Paper napkins shred and result in unintended fashion statements.)

Scrotos wrote:

Impacted is when they are sideways?

"Impacted" is the state wherein a tooth has not erupted through any gum tissue and isn't visible, save perhaps for a slight surface irregularity. My experience was that my lower left wisdom tooth presented as both fully impacted and as a rogue (rotated 90 degrees forward, laying horizontal to and partially embedded within my jaw); my lower right wisdom tooth was partially impacted, having erupted through the gum at about a 45° angle and with approximately half the tooth remaining beneath gum tissue; my two upper wisdom teeth were fully erupted, properly perpendicular to the jaw line, and in theory could have remained intact and been functional had they any similarly erupted opposing teeth to work against.

Same exact thing happened to me. I got mine removed a year and changed ago. It was also sitting against the jaw, and the doctor actually had to scrape a bit of bone. However, I experienced absolutely no complications from the complicated procedure. However, my dentist is an über-nerd, in the best possible way, so I'm in good hands.

This Strange Plant comic seems appropriate for the current thread:

https://twitter.com/nathanwpyle/status/ ... 2215574528

I just had my 6-month cleaning this morning. I'm so glad I didn't read this thread before that appointment, I might have run away from all society, screaming about sideways teeth.

I feel bad for the Ferengi, but one thing's for sure, a Ferengi dentist will never have to look far for work.

I just had braces put on about 6 weeks ago. My teeth have always been jacked up, but I (and my parents when I was younger) never had the money to throw at it. So now I'm an old dude with braces (I'll get them off a handful of months before 40). Just had my first adjustment yesterday, and while they're still currently quite painful as I type (in addition to being female repellent), I still don't regret it for a second. The more work they do, the more I realize how bad they are/were. Wish I'd been able to take care of it earlier in life.

Anyhow, I needed to have my first set of premolars on the bottom pulled beforehand, due to the severity of the crowding (they were shoved so far out as to be useless anyhow). My out of pocket cost for local anesthetic was only about $130, but if I wanted to go under it was an additional $830, with none of it covered by insurance. I've had extractions both ways in the past (first 3 wisdom I went under, and the final wisdom was local). I made the obvious (less expensive) choice in this case, as premolars are easy single-root teeth, and I can deal with <10 minutes of severe discomfort for close to 1k.

It's not always that clear-cut though, as wisdom teeth are big honkin 4-root jobbers, often have complications (sideways, impacted), and having all 4 done at once can be quite rough (especially for a kid). Depends entirely on the person/money/situation.

Gandhi wrote:

So ........ what to expect? Is it as bad as people make it out to be? Any tips and advice? Share them now, before the teeth get pulled and my wisdom is gone forever

I'm not the person to ask if you want comfort. As I was one who had the nightmare 3 hour surgery that everything went wrong.
Overall it should go quick and easy, pulling all 4 wisdom teeth at once. I had room in my mouth for them but not room to brush them properly.

First advice - if there is any issue and they need to send you home part way, make sure you know what is done and yet to go. I have 2.5 teeth removed and the surgeon aborted.
He booked me in to see a "better" endodontist. Um... why was I not seeing the good one?
Turns out they should have made the call an emergency and not a regular appointment. Took them 3 months to get me in at which point I had a really bad infection.
The endodontist told me that had they passed on the details of the emergency nature I would have been seen next day.
Took him 2 minutes to finish the last 1.5 teeth.

Second advice - take an active interest in your status and know if you need to try for a more urgent appointment.

As to the first guy... it was put in my file to never see him again and a few months later the rumour is my dentist stopped using him.

Gandhi wrote:

The doctor is in his 50s, so he has enough experience, and he specializes in dental surgery - oral and maxillofacial surgeon.

Don't equate age and experience with good. Techniques change and get better. Experienced docs sometimes stay with the old ways.
My second doc was mid 30's and was amazing.

The dentist who did my root canal was late 20's looking and was amazing.

For what it's worth, I've generally (but not always) had more much more luck with the younger doctors of whatever specialty.

The general undercurrent for the older types is "ah well, that's not too bad a [septum deviation / scoliosis / tooth problem], let's not do anything about it for now." The young'uns seem to actually listen to you and actually work on the premise that yes, **** needs to be fixed.

I just got my wisdom teeth removed yesterday. Overall a very pleasant experience. I opted for full deep sedation. Operation took half an hour to 45 minutes. I was loopy going home, but my husband refused to record me. Lame. Luckily I was able to text my friends once I got home, so some of my silliness is recorded. I was numb for about 7 hours after the surgery. There was more bleeding than I expected. Im super worried about dry sockets. I stopped putting gauze in after the numbing went away. I made sure to only drink (without a straw) my calories until dinner, and I ate mashed potatoes. I have one tooth that hurts, but the other three are totally fine. I asked for tramadol as a pain killer, because I can't do opioids. The sites feel a bit tight and weird, but not in pain (except the one and only when I rinse it out). My question is, how easy is it to get a dry socket and is it obvious when you get one? I feel like everything I do with my mouth is a sucking motion (swallowing, taking pills,etc), and im worried about dry socket/infection.

I've got all my wisdom teeth. Had to have a sharp edge taken off one of them after they broke through the gums but other than that they're fine. The dentist was keen on removing them but when asked, couldn't come up with a good reason why so I decided to keep them. Maybe they'll come in handy later.

Wynn42 wrote:

I just got my wisdom teeth removed yesterday. Overall a very pleasant experience. I opted for full deep sedation. Operation took half an hour to 45 minutes. I was loopy going home, but my husband refused to record me. Lame. Luckily I was able to text my friends once I got home, so some of my silliness is recorded. I was numb for about 7 hours after the surgery. There was more bleeding than I expected. Im super worried about dry sockets. I stopped putting gauze in after the numbing went away. I made sure to only drink (without a straw) my calories until dinner, and I ate mashed potatoes. I have one tooth that hurts, but the other three are totally fine. I asked for tramadol as a pain killer, because I can't do opioids. The sites feel a bit tight and weird, but not in pain (except the one and only when I rinse it out). My question is, how easy is it to get a dry socket and is it obvious when you get one? I feel like everything I do with my mouth is a sucking motion (swallowing, taking pills,etc), and im worried about dry socket/infection.

I was given Tramadol recently when I had premolars pulled (late April I believe). It's a strange medication. It works as a mild SSRI and SNRI (which is typical of anti-depressants), but it is still an opioid (albeit a weaker one than most). My overall impression was a resounding "meh".

I think you're overly worried about dry sockets. You're being careful and doing everything right, so you should be fine.

cheesyking wrote:

I've got all my wisdom teeth....The dentist was keen on removing them but when asked, couldn't come up with a good reason why

"I need a yacht" probably wouldn't have sounded very good.

My dad actually has all his wisdom teeth. They came in straight and his gumline was large enough to accommodate, so no issues. My gumline was large enough but unfortunately only three formed, so Yellow Submarines it was. Thankfully everything healed without complications, and my pain tolerance is high enough that I only needed the really special drugs once or twice the same day as the surgery, then switched to Ibuprofen.

ludi wrote:

"I need a yacht" probably wouldn't have sounded very good.

This is a very important point when considering the advice of anyone in the medical profession (and beyond--lawyers are another keen example): Anything they suggest automatically has the reason of "I get paid per medical procedure (or, legal motion, etc...)."

Yes, I mean, they are there to help you. For sure.

But they're also not doing it for free, even if you aren't directly paying, paying at all, or paying with an enormous discount.

Always keep that in mind.