Wisdom Teeth coming out, any advice?

[cdbd3rd]

The only person I know who had their wisdom teeth removed and man is he stupid is my older sister. ...

Your older sister is a man?!?


(Okay, yeah, I know it happens, but still...)

[rnor6084]

Mine were impacted. Doctor had to chip away jaw bone to get the teeth out. Recovery was a nightmare. Even required stitches in my mouth. Spent my time drooling blood. Couldnt eat anything. Lost 10 pounds in a week.

After about 2 weeks i got dry socket. Ohhh yeah. That was fun.

[Tummada]

[QUOTE=cdbd3rd;2062625]Your older sister is a man?!?


ROFL.

i would like you to meet my older sister Bill....


http://www.memphisflyer.com/binary/3...ss-dresser.jpg

[deathtouch]

Ahem.. let me tell you about my horror story...

Several years ago I started developing mind crushing headaches, the doctor just put it down to migrains and perscribed meds for them, didnt touch the pain. One Morning I woke up and my face had swolled out big style, and I could not open my mouth/jaw so I went down to my doctors, who said that it was a rather bad sore throat (this is honestly what happened) but he could not rule out that I might have broken my jaw, so he sent me of to the hospital for a Xray.

The hospital took one look at me and transferred me to another hospital (gotta love the NHS), this is where the fun begins, Im in mind numbing pain, they stick me on dexamorphine and its all good, however cant open my mouth, cant swallow. They do xrays and discover a massive abcess under a wisdom tooth. Dont worry they say, we will operate remove the tooth and bobs your uncle.

So im waiting in hospital for a day or so, for the swelling to go down so they can remove the tooth, they explain that its going to be hard on me so we will give you a general to knock you out and everything should be ok when you awake.

I get wheeled down to the operating theater, and I wake up 4 days later in I/C with tubes coming in and out of what it seems every hole in me, and again on the morphine (hooray for the morphine), they explained things went well thats when I notice a 8" gash in my throat/neck/jaw they explain that they could not go in through the mouth so they went in under my neck to relief the pressure (Im not sure how or why) and they removed 8 teeth as the infection had spread so badly (again this is the NHS).

Oh a funny note my brother knew i was in hospital and neglected to tell my parents, they only knew when the hospital called them and advised them to come down to the hospital as they needed to give me my last rights.

I was in I/C for another 6-7(ish) days, and my total hospital stay was almost 28 days.

I was of work for a further 3 months and my employer fired me for having time off.

Moral of the story get all your teeth out and get falsies in Good luck with the removel though

[Dracolich]

Holy Mackerel that is a horror story!! I am glad you are still with us, gotta love the incompitence there. Your description of pain makes my discomfort that of a gnat buzzing in my ear.

[Lithic]

The only thing I vividly remember from my own teeth extraction was some advice the dentist gave me after. He said if before the numbness wore off I found myself chewing without eating, that i should stop as I was probably chewing the inside of my cheeks like they were a very rare steak.

[Aeneas]

I had one out about 6 months ago, just a little general anesthesia and he wiggles it side to side in a rolling motion with some pliers looking tool. You hear a couple cracks and pops and then it comes sliding on out. No big deal.

[Capn]

My experience:

I had 4 wisdom teeth pulled, 3 were starting to come in, one was impacted and coming in side-ways. The dentist numbed me up with novacaine and had me on laughing gas. Top two teeth came out in like 30 seconds each. The bottom ones took a little longer, especially the impacted one. He had to take that one out in pieces. I was completely awake the whole time and, although it wasn't really fun, it wasn't terrible either. I went to work the next day without any real problems.

[greystone306]

The only person I know who had their wisdom teeth removed and man is he stupid is my older sister.


tum

geez that'd make most people choose to not have their wisdom teeth pulled.. go in as a man and come out a woman and vice versa LOL.. not the surgery that was signed up for...

[sjwalker1973]

Had mine removed at 33 and I was wide awake. They stabbed me in the back of the mouth to numb it and pulled em out. Felt weird but only pain was the needle.

[Gypsy_Mouse]

Boy, I thought my experience was bad until I read Deathtouch's.

Here's the thing, generally getting your wisdom teeth out is always best when you're younger (late teens - mid 20's). The body's ability to heal is better and recovery time is faster. Being male generally means fewer complications. Can't remember exactly why other than possible issues because of birth control.

All that can be thrown out the window if you have "complicated" teeth. Sounds like yours are.

What they'll probably do is knock you out (I had the twilight sleep, conscious sedation like Tarrant said) and cut through your gums to get to the teeth. Using a hammer and chisel, they'll break the tooth into pieces that'll be easier to extract. At least this is what our dentist told my husband when he asked about his wisdom teeth. His are horizontal, too, but not pushing on his other molars thankfully.

I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth pulled out at the same time 4 years ago when I was 30-something. All 4 were impacted and 2 were dangerously close to becoming infected which is so scary I try not to think about it.

My biggest problem was my lower left tooth. It was almost resting on the nerve and because of that my oral surgeon said there was a chance I'd have some nerve damage. Sure enough, I have chronic paresthesia ("permanent" numbness) with my lower lip and chin area on the left side. It has gotten better (I talk normally and I don't drool much anymore when I'm eating soup or brushing my teeth ), but I may have some residual numbness for years or permanently.

My recovery took about 10 days before I could go back to work, about another week for the swelling to go down and about another week for all my bruising to go away. It was 3 weeks before I could eat real food.

Some of the things I did wrong with recovery:

- Undermedicated myself, I was in pain almost the entire time. The surgeon prescribed Vicodin, which apparently makes me nauseous like many people, so I couldn't take it full strength without throwing up, which you don't want to do because you can blow out your blood clots which causes the dry socket. If you get sick from your pain meds, tell the surgeon, they might be able to switch you over to something else.

- Didn't ice enough. Frozen peas and corn work best, but I was in so much pain I had a hard time keeping ice or frozen veggies on my face. This contributed to my swelling and stiffness which kept me from eating solid food for so long.

- Didn't stretch my jaw muscles. This would have occurred naturally with eating, but since I screwed up the top two items, I couldn't move my mouth very well. I guess by about a week after the surgery, I should have had most mobility back because most people are starting back on regular foods. Since I wasn't eating anything more than mush for so long, I didn't have to really open my mouth, so it took a couple of weeks before I could open my mouth more than a finger's width.

Don't do any of those things. And whatever you do, don't cause any pressure in your mouth while you're healing. No drinking out of straws, sneeze with your mouth open (it's really gross, but better than dry socket), even blowing your nose too hard can be bad.

Whichever surgeon you end up with, just follow their advice. If you're unsure about any part of the procedure or recovery instructions, ask them. You'll most likely have a consult appointment with the surgeon to go over everything. Mine was really great, I was just stupid to call while I was quietly suffering from insufficient drugs.

[ShaeNightbird]

Sure, I've got some advice for ya:

Don't take health advice from an mmo gaming forum.

4 out of 5 doctors recommend this.

[sjwalker1973]

One word for ya:

Percocets

They aren't just little pain pills. I got a perscription for those after the extraction and it was great. Didn't feel any pain.

[frugal_gourmet]

Question: do you have any monk levels? If so, you may find your armor class adversely affected.

[WeaselKing]

I think my wisdom teeth are going to be forcfully removed from my skull soon. I go in for Xrays monday. My dang jaw has been sore near the hing in my jaw. Who woulda thought I would need them taken out at 34yrs old. I guess it took me longer to wisen up thne the average person.

Any rate, what kind of pain am I going to expect from this procedure? Besides having no insurance the financial pains are the only ones I know for sure. I heard some people say they knock you out, some say they just dope you up good. I am a wuss bag and am allergic to pain so any idea of what to expect would be nice.

Thanks

They can do it under sedation or not, since you don't have insurance you might be better off not going under if given the option, its a bunch cheaper. With the valium they give you, you could care less what they are doing to your mouth and they will use a local anyway. Other than that just plan on laying around for a couple days with gauze packed in your mouth, being pathetic. You should get some vicodine to pass the time in a haze though. Have fun!!

[Dracolich]

Well I got two opinions from separate doctors. The problem is both agree they need to come out. The surgeon wants to IV drip sedate me and the other just want to local it. Now the one is like 2,500 for both and the other is only 660. I think I will have to grunt out the pain and save some dough. No insurance and all will do that.

The doctor told me they have to take a chissel and split my tooth since half of it is under my jaw bone hinge. Yikes!