Wisdom teeth surgery

rlw

Jalapeno said:

Got mine removed by surgery in hospital, the hamster analogy is true - it does hurt.  Mine were severely impacted - had to dislocate my jaw.  I was on soup & scrambled eggs for a week. First time I yawned I tore the stiches, with blood everywhere.

Definitely wouldn't want thet done in the chair !

<anecdote> people feeling sore ribs after a surgeons tried to get leverage </anecdote>

When I was young - around 11 or 12 I think - I had four teeth removed in the Eastman Dental Hospital near Kings Cross.  I shared a small room with a much older chap who, following having every tooth in his head removed the evening before, chose to have a full English breakfast, including toast and fried bread, on the morning our our release.  He polished off the lot.

Maybe it was the anaesthetic they were using as the tip of my nose and the end of my chin were both numb for a full week afterwards.

rlw

Also, I am reminded of an ex good mate, sadly no longer so, who went into hospital to have his wisdom teeth removed and was so affected by the anaesthetic that he, first, started shouting at the surgeon and, second, proceeded to batter the surgeon.  The police were called and he was handcuffed to his trolley for his own safety.

He didn't remember any of it when he finally came round and it was only when the surgeon pointed out the bruises that he became aware of what had happened.

Grangousier

I had all four out, in two sessions, a few years ago - they'd been a source of persistent and painful infections, and my dentist thought they were also encouraging more general gum disease. When I went to A&E once for antibiotics and painkillers in Edinburgh during the festival, the presiding doctor (one of those soothingly calm Edinburgh types of middle-aged bloke that you'd quite want to be your bank manager) said "if I were a betting man, I'd say those would be coming out at some point", and he'd have won his bet. No complications, they just came out (bit of residual pain, and I was wiped out for a day after each session). I'd highly recommend it - no infections since, I can actually clean what are now my back teeth and my gums have recovered a lot. 

One plus is that I'd sometimes bite the inside of my cheek, and that's stopped, too. 

Thinking about them now, they seem to be more like an invasive species rather than a part of my own body. 

boogieman

All four of mine are impacted but have never caused me any problems so I’m all for leaving well alone. I detest going to the dentists anyway, I’ve got a mouthful of metal and porcelain thanks to various bits of (largely unnecessary as it turned out) bodgery carried out by the bastards over the years. I haven’t actually been to a dentist for 11 years now. 

Stratavarious

Yep.. but only because I had avoided it and it was an true emergency.. in a foreign country on a biz trip and with the longest night and a painful train ride to an international airport on a Sunday for an appointment my company health insurance was able to arrange.

Cutting and yanking it out (he had to brace hard on my shoulder as it had deep roots) was probably the single most relieving event in my life.  The infection pain before had been excruciating.

There is far worse.. the pain of a full on wisdom tooth infection.. usually on a Friday night! 

Just let the dentist know your concerns about anaesthesia.  A general means you can’t get the entertainment of the process.

SPECTRUM001

I had two removed in the chair - took five minutes to pop them out, with a couple of stitches after.

The other two were done under a general at the local hospital.

I was lucky to have an excellent NHS dentist at the time who had known me since I was eight. I had 100% trust in him - otherwise I would have asked for the hospital option for all of them.

I think I got away with it - as with stories above, it can be a more demanding experience.

axisus

I want a general anaesthetic for ANY tooth that has to come out in future. Mine usually take over an hour. I remember one the dentist ended up having to drill it into 3 pieces to get it out, and the last one was an hour of pure torture - after 40 mins of jabbing and yanking in all directions he said "It's not coming out. I need to use a scalpel, slice your gum and then drill your jaw bone". The smell of burning jaw bone ain't nice. After 1h and 10 mins he said "well, that's most of it out ...... it doesn't usually cause a problem ... the other bits should come out in time". Then I got my gum stitched up. Was in pain for 2 weeks. 

gubble

I had my lower left one removed under local a couple of years back at the hospital as it was impacted.

Had the injection which also contained adrenalin and made my heart race loads. The very nice nurse decided the best course of action would be to undo the belt and fly on my jeans - I don't really understand why to this day.....

Anyway calmed down for a couple of minutes and had the tooth out I got to take it home as a souvenir !

I remember the loud crack as he extracted it.

Gandalph

Had a couple of impacted one’s removed about 10 years ago under general anaesthetic.
Put you’re seat belt on it’s going to be rough for a few days and as already mentioned expect some comedy swelling of the old chops. 

A good supply of codeine should get you through it ok though. 

tony99

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Iamnobody said:

more happy to have my bollocks interfered with than my mouth...

Okay, so we've got line 1 of Steve's next lonely hearts advert. Anyone got any more???

"the drugs I give you will still be working while I'm pulling it out of your mouth"

Rob1742

Can’t believe you lot. Here I am, a nice calm post to make the OP feel okay, make him feel assured. Then you all come on and scare the poor fucker to death. 

boogieman

Rob1742 said:

Can’t believe you lot. Here I am, a nice calm post to make the OP feel okay, make him feel assured. Then you all come on and scare the poor fucker to death. 

We are being calm. No one’s even mentioned the agony of the fifteen rectal injections needed before the procedure starts.

poopot

Had two out under general years back... I react to a genera anaesthetic in weird ways tho’ that time I was doing lunges in the recovery room preparing for the start of the marathon... nurses came over to tell me to Jack it in before my blood pressure drops... my blood pressure dropped and so did I

The wisdom teeth out was ok, bit sore for a few days...

on the flip side I had to have an emergency extraction just before the first lockdown... the tooth was infected and shouldn’t have been removed... that was done with a normal injection... I’ve never get pain like that before once the injection wore off... I ended up in a&e begging them to sort it out... pain lasted for a good few weeks and the tooth (space where it was) took at least 6 months to heal properly... still hurts every now and then a year on tbh...

if I was you emp id go for the general!!!!

chillidoggy

This could be a long job.

We've got the Chilcott inquiry yet to report it's findings on which car to buy, and there might well be other major decisions ahead of the wisdom teeth, such as what colour underdungers to wear today.

Neill

Emp_Fab said:

The surgeon warned me that I will need to take a few days off work after, be on painkillers for about a week, my face will swell up like a football and that I'll hate her afterwards.  That's verbatim.

No, no, no, @Emp_Fab ;I fell in love with the wonderful extractionist who removed my wisdom tooth a few years ago..  

It was a nasty affair as the wisdom was growing up against another tooth and they both had to come out at the same time.   I had it done under local, yes it was very uncomfortable, took about an hour, but the surgeon was clearly so skilled and reassuring throughout, I felt I was in such capable hands and it completely removed all my anxiety.  And she rang me later that evening to make sure I was ok.

It's the second time I've had dental work done in hospital and honestly, the people that do this are total professionals and it wouldn't bother me at all if I had to go through it again.  The only issue I had was a side effect from all the anaesthesia which left my left eye partially closed (not uncommon, according to the surgeon) but it was fine once the anaesthetic wore off.  

I didn't need to bother with painkillers either, but I haven't taken any analgesic for years now so I suspect I've got a certain amount of natural resistance to pain.  

Sadly I have had quite a few teeth removed over the years, and what I have noticed is it does take much longer to recover than you would think, on each occasion it took about 2 weeks for my energy levels to get back to normal.  

DefaultM

I had 2 out and it was fine, so much so in fact that he filmed it for training students.
Then I got home and blew a bit of dust off one of my guitars. The clot popped out and I was in blinding pain constantly for 3 weeks.

DefaultM

My tooth was sideways as well, so he had to split it using the drill. I remember him telling me I was going to hear a really loud cracking sound, but I couldn't feel anything. Then he just lifted the pieces out. It was really ok though and id been panicking for months.

chillidoggy

Ooooh, I forgot to say that for ages after the op, bits of broken teeth would make their way through the gums to the surface, and I'd be spitting the bits out. Lovely!

Iamnobody

chillidoggy said:

Ooooh, I forgot to say that for ages after the op, bits of broken teeth would make their way through the gums to the surface, and I'd be spitting the bits out. Lovely!

Yes I remember that!