Wisdom teeth extraction

[fireheart]

I'm apparaently now needing to get my wisdom teeth removed now. And of course I'm a little freaked out.
What should I expect with the procedure?

[Parrothead]

You will be loopy right after. One of the meds (either pain or antibiotic, can't remember) they gave me had hydrocloric acid in it, and that doesn't play nice with dairy. don't mess with the stitches.


The process itself? Count back from ten, then you're in a wheelchair in another room and the Dr is telling your ride what to look out for, and your mouth is a little sore.

[chrislb]

I had 4 of them removed at the same time when I was 18. They knocked me out cold to remove them and gave me some really good painkillers before I awoke after the operation.
I couldn't feel my face the rest of the day. They also gave me some pain pills that would last a few days afterwards. There was some gauze in my mouth to stop the bleeding.
I was told not to smoke or I would get dry socket. I don't know what that is but it sounds painful.
I was also told not to eat solid food for at least two to three days after the operation to give my mouth time to heal. So you should probably make sure you have plenty of soft things to eat. Pudding and protein shakes are what I survived on. It sucked, especially since I was still in high school at the time. At least the pain pills made me feel good.

[fireheart]

Now I understand that zits comic where the nurse/doctor is asking Pierce how he's feeling and his head's a balloon (Wisdom teeth)

I don't smoke and I don't drink much.

Is it just Day Surgery?

[MaggieTheCat]

It sounds like the two above posters were put totally under for their procedure. I was not. I was given a few shots of a local anesthetic in my mouth (in the gums) to numb the areas around the teeth and they pulled them while I was awake. Whether you go completely under, or just get a local anesthetic, will depend 1) on how bad your wisdom teeth are looking and 2) how you can handle the procedure. Some people get so freaked out that even if their teeth aren't in real bad shape, they request to be put under anyway.

My advice (and this is just my opinion) is to NOT get general anesthetic unless you absolutely need it. It is ALWAYS better for the body to get local anesthetic, it doesn't mess with your system as much or for as long. If you get a local anesthetic, then yes, the injection in the mouth do sting, but they aren't too bad and once the anesthetic starts taking effect (usually about 10-20 minutes after the injection) then you won't feel anything except a little pressure in the mouth. No pain, though.

My wisdom teeth came in perfectly straight and healthy. The only reason I had them removed (at age 26) was because they are so far back in the mouth that they are hard to clean and mine were starting to get cavities. So it was either get fillings (and then probably more fillings eventually and possibly having them removed at a later date due to not being able to clean them properly) or get them removed. I opted to have them removed.

One of them was pretty bad, it had rotted down almost to the gum line. The other three were still in good shape. The one that was badly rotted took about 15 minutes to remove. The other 3 took about 1-2 minutes each. In other words, it is not a difficult or long procedure unless you have complications.

Do you know why you are having your wisdom teeth removed? Are they impacted or crooked? If that is the case, the procedure may take longer since they may have to do a little more work to extract them.

As far as recovery goes, dry socket is the biggest concern. After you have the teeth extracted, a blood clot will start to form over the wound. That blood clot needs to stay there for a while (a week, or two? I don't remember exactly) so the wound can heal. If you do anything that makes a "sucking" motion in your mouth, like smoking or drinking out of a straw, the pressure of that motion can dislodge the blood clot that has formed. This is called dry socket, and it is EXTREMELY painful, from what I understand. (I've never had it but my dentist warned me up and down about it and how to avoid it.) Just don't smoke/drink from a straw for 1-2 weeks at least after the procedure, and you should be fine.

Immediately after the extraction, you will have gauze in your mouth covering all of the empty tooth sockets. The bleeding should start to clot almost immediately; within 10 minutes after my procedure, the bleeding had slowed down a lot and almost stopped. They will send you home with extra gauze that you can use. The wounds will still "ooze" blood for about 24 hours after the procedure, but the large amounts of bleeding should stop within 1-2 hours after the procedure. You can also use a wet tea bag to help stop the bleeding if it's still bleeding a lot after an hour or so.

For about the first day or two, you will not want to brush your teeth around the extraction areas or rinse with mouth wash. You want those clots to form so the areas can heal. You will want to rinse with warm salt water, though, just to rinse the blood out of your mouth.

I was eating solid food the same night I came home (granted, it was soft solid food -- macaroni and cheese -- but it was solid.) I've heard of people who can eat steak dinners the day after their extractions. It will all depend on how you're feeling and how bad your wisdom teeth were to begin with. It's not a bad idea to have some liquid food, or at least soft food, available for the first day or so in case you don't feel like chewing much.

You will be given pain medicine. Use it at your discretion; I never had to use mine, but I did take ibuprofen a few times. The stuff they give you will be stronger, prescription pain medicine so use it if you're hurting a lot, or can't sleep at night.

Make sure you have someone to drive you home after the procedure. You shouldn't be driving (or walking), even if you just got a local anesthetic, since you'll be a little disoriented. Our dentist lives about a mile up the road from us so I walked to their office for my procedure, but they wouldn't let me walk home and instead, one of the receptionists drove me since I live so close.

Try not to get too freaked out over it. Dentists and oral surgeons do wisdom teeth extractions all the time, so they have lots of practice, and there's very little that can go wrong. Good luck, I hope the extractions go well.

[MaggieTheCat]

Is it just Day Surgery?

If you are just getting your wisdom teeth removed (no fillings or anything) and there are no complications, you should be out of there in 1-2 hours. If your teeth are impacted or crooked and the procedure takes longer, you could be there for a couple more hours, but I've never heard of anyone getting their wisdom teeth removed who needed to spend the night at the clinic/hospital.

[Geek King]

When I've had teeth out (twice, once for spacing, second for Wisdom teeth that only came in halfway), they actually put me out and stitched the gums shut with thread that deteriorates in saliva over time. By the time it fails, the gums have healed enough to not come apart again. I never got the warnings against straws and the like, so maybe the stitching doesn't have that issue. They put me under both times because my roots tend to wrap more fully around the mounting points, so they're a bit of a pain for the dentist to get out. They have to break the roots off, then remove them seperately. I still only took a couple of pain pills, and had no need for them past that. All-in-all, not too bad other than being told to stay off my feet as much as possible due to the knockout juice working its way out of the system.

[Dreamstalker]

I got a general for my wisdom teeth because two were coming in sideways It only took a few hours, I was back at work in about 3 days and oddly, iced coffee (minus the straw) helped immensely. I had soft stitches that eventually worked their way out; it was strange spitting out bits of string for a few days.

[Raveni]

Be sure to confirm with the dentist any medications or pain relievers BEFORE they start. My wife was so loopy after the procedure, she thought that her pain meds were once every 8 hours instead of once every 3 hours. She was in a lot of pain until I got a look at the bottle.

[trailerparkmedic]

There's another option called conscious sedation. You aren't knocked out entirely but you do take a pill that makes you relaxed and sleepy and you forget about most of what happened. I had conscious sedation for my root canal earlier this year, and aside from needing to take the day off to sleep, it had no other effects. My dentist has suggested conscious sedation for my wisdom teeth removal because he doesn't do general anesthesia.

You'll probably get a prescription pain medication to take at home. For at least the first day, take it as often as you can (probably every 4 hours), even if your pain isn't horrible. It's easier to manage pain by taking medication on a schedule rather than waiting for the pain to come to a point where you're miserable and then taking the medication.

[Blue Ginger]

Perfect excuse to eat Aeroplane Jelly. Just remember to make it the day before you get them out.

I had 3 out a couple of years ago. I was missing my 4th. I had to be totally knocked out but that was because the bottom 2 were growing sideways and they had to remove part of the bone to get at them. They did the stitches that dissolve for me too.

My only problem was recovering from whatever they used to knock me out. But my whole family react oddly to the 'good' drugs. Took me 3 days to recover and then I was fine.

The hospital I went to gave me 'Mersyndol' as the pain killer. Actually they gave me a choice of that and another one that I had never had. I use Mersyndol to treat my migraines so I knew how it worked for me. Only had to use it for the first few days then switched to paracetamol for a couple more.

I will suggest taking multi vitamins or Berrocca to balance out the antibiotics. Only because you probably won't eat very well for a couple of days after and antibiotics can take a lot out of you.

[Seshat]

Mine was a worst-case sort of scenario, and prompted my mother to have my brother's mouth x-rayed asap. My wisdom teeth had come in crooked, without enough room, and the roots were wrapping around everything in sight.

They broke my jaw to get my teeth out.

So I had general anaesthesia, and I spent a week going from a state of extreme pain and bed rest and being this sick mess to being still sick but mobile. Took about a month for me to heal up properly.

I can still feel sensitivity in some of the former sockets, but it's a lot better than the alternative!

[fireheart]

My wisdom teeth came in perfectly straight and healthy. The only reason I had them removed (at age 26) was because they are so far back in the mouth that they are hard to clean and mine were starting to get cavities. So it was either get fillings (and then probably more fillings eventually and possibly having them removed at a later date due to not being able to clean them properly) or get them removed. I opted to have them removed.
Do you know why you are having your wisdom teeth removed? Are they impacted or crooked? If that is the case, the procedure may take longer since they may have to do a little more work to extract them.

I'm having mine done for the same reason you were. They haven't rotted completely, but they're getting close to.
My dentist is located close to a bus station and that bus gets off near my house so I can possibly get away with bussing it home.

Be sure to confirm with the dentist any medications or pain relievers BEFORE they start. My wife was so loopy after the procedure, she thought that her pain meds were once every 8 hours instead of once every 3 hours. She was in a lot of pain until I got a look at the bottle.

Thanks for that. I might also have to be reminded about my own meds

There's another option called conscious sedation. You aren't knocked out entirely but you do take a pill that makes you relaxed and sleepy and you forget about most of what happened. I had conscious sedation for my root canal earlier this year, and aside from needing to take the day off to sleep, it had no other effects. My dentist has suggested conscious sedation for my wisdom teeth removal because he doesn't do general anesthesia.

You'll probably get a prescription pain medication to take at home. For at least the first day, take it as often as you can (probably every 4 hours), even if your pain isn't horrible. It's easier to manage pain by taking medication on a schedule rather than waiting for the pain to come to a point where you're miserable and then taking the medication.

That may be the option I'll go down-I've been under general anesthetic before (when I was 5/6 and broke my arm ) and I really didn't like the feeling. I don't know if it will be done at the clinic I go to or if the oral surgeon does it elsewhere. If it's done at the clinic, they do provide the option of "sleep dentistry" which generally involves sedation either via gas or IV.

Based upon the last time I had to have teeth pulled (for my braces), I freaked out when the needle went in for the local. Also on top of that, although the needle was meant to be for each side, every time I did, the numbness sensation would only come in on one side of my mouth.

Conscious sedation might be the better option, although it may mean having someone (friend/boyfriend etc.) taking me home afterwards.

[AnaKhouri]

Everyone else has given you better advice than I could, except for this:

DO NOT get a milkshake within 24 hours of the surgery. Drinking a milkshake when your mouth is sore is great, until you look down and see that your milkshake is now filled with blood.

[BlaqueKatt]

My dentist is located close to a bus station and that bus gets off near my house so I can possibly get away with bussing it home.

not a real good idea to do alone, on the off chance any complications arise.