Wisdom Teeth

I recently had my first wisdom tooth removed because it was taking up too much space which made my other teeth feel sore. I was 20 at the time. It was not a painful procedure because the dentist had numbed it up pretty good. I was on painkillers for 3 days then everything was fine 😃

I had all 4 of mine removed at once. They were all in but a few had cavities so the dentist said I should probably just get them removed. I went to a great oral surgeon and the procedure wasn't even that bad. I got gas and the needles for numbing and sedation.

I had all of mine removed at once, too, while in high school. Worst two hours of my life. I wasnt given enough novocaine so i was awake for all of it. I saw specks of blood and teeth fly out of my mouth. The dentist had to wipe off his goggles. By the time i got home my mouth was completely full of blood. Awful!

Had my wisdom teeth removed when I was 19. Only had 2 in my lower jaw, top ones didn't exist.

I remember sitting in the chair, counting back 10, 9... and then out. But the 2seconds of being put under was the most amazing experience ever. I jokingly say that it was the best high I have ever had! lol

I'm twenty seven and I still have mine

All my wisdom teeth are still in place. However I did have four of my (normal) teeth removed when I was something like 12. There just wasn't enough space for them.

It was done with local anesthesia. No gas and no sedation. It was pretty horrible for a teenager and after couple of decades I still remember how bad I felt that time.

I am shocked you had such an ordeal with dental implants. The technique is almost the same now as it was more than 25 years ago, and no one I know has had anything but local anesthesia for their placement then or now. Still today, there are times where the two surgery procedure is better than the single surgery technique.

Re: Wisdom teeth; I was lucky. All 4 of mine had nice straight roots and came out without any problems. 1964 and I was 20. One side on a Saturday and the other side the next Saturday. Just had Novocaine and the big thing I remember is the squeaking and crunching as they came out. I still have them in a small plastic box in my desk. Great conversation pieces, especially when I want to freak out the grand kids.

One more thing: Skybear's right, Johnny Walker Black is a great pain reliever.

An observation: I haven't looked at the profiles of all who posted on this thread to see where they're from or even if it makes a difference but some had problems while others did not with similar procedures. Some had a lot of pain, bleeding, infection or other complications. I realize everybody's mouth is different but I can't help but wonder if the quality of services isn't a contributing factor. I've only been to 2 different dentists and 2 different periodontists in my life. The first dentist I saw from the time I was able to get there by myself, probably around age 8, and the second dentist was the one who took over the first one's practice when he retired. My wife and I both see him on a regular basis. We both also see the same periodontist who practises in the same office. We think both of these guys walk on water, especially the periodontist who has worked wonders on my wife, saving teeth we thought were good as gone. I don't think it's a coincidence that these guys have their offices in a high rise professional building on the North Shore of the Chicago suburbs. It's a very affluent area with a highly demanding clientele. They wouldn't survive there if they couldn't keep those people coming back. They're not cheap but we are willing to drive the 45 minutes it takes to get there and pay a little more.

I am shocked you had such an ordeal with dental implants. The technique is almost the same now as it was more than 25 years ago, and no one I know has had anything but local anesthesia for their placement then or now.

Seriously? I had the Brånemark inplants in 1991-1992. At that time it had to be done by an oral surgeon, he had a nurse anesthetist handle the IV...I thought it would just be a standard oral surgery (they had done the previous procedures on me, but were in dental-looking rooms with a couple straps on the chair. I remember waking up during one procedure and deciding they were not done, and I should go back to sleep.), but we went to a different part of the building where they had a small tiled OR, everyone in scrubs except me, and I had to put on a cap and shoe covers (still don't know why I had shoe covers with street clothes; made no sense to me then or now...the only guess is that when I am horizontal my feet get close to the "clean zone").

As far as I know, it was standard procedure to do these under sedation at the time. It was suggested I use the restroom first; I asked and the "tech" (not a nurse, don't know what she was) said they had had a recent problem. We went in, got me capped and bootied in the chair. This was a totally different experience than I had previously. Much more medical, a bit scary to tell the truth.

When I woke up, I felt fine. I took one pain pill and never needed the rest. The only issue I had were my eyes itching. I mentioned it the next time when we did the following part and the nurse told me it was the lacrilube and confirmed that they had intubated me (by this point I was working on premed and was employed in medicine).

Apparently the placement on me was really tricky, as it was replacing a tooth that never had a proper root and was after orthodontics; it was very tight. The implant failed because it was too close to the roots and not enough bone; it broke loose and twisted when the dentist tried to tighten against it with a torque wrench. A new adventure in pain I would not wish on anyone.

Anyway, they had to replace it with a smaller one that was not FDA approved at the time, except in cases like this. The rep had to fly one in from Denmark and I met him at the fourth (#1 implant, #2 set up for dentist, #3 remove and pack with bone, #4 implant again) surgery, which they apparently paid for.

So, there was some difference, at least in my area.

I had my wisdom teeth out hmm 5 years ago or so. i only had 2 on the top and to get it done i went with geting knocked out so both could be done at once rather then novacane and doing them on diffrent days. now i hate needles but if i dont see them its not so bad. any way first they put a seatbelt (more or less) around my chest so i wouldnt slide after i was knocked out. then they braced my arm (they used the only solid needles vs the flexible iv the hospitals use) and inserted the iv. i was stareing at the far conner of the celling at this point. they then pushed the drugs and with in 30 sec i was out. not sure how long it took but when i woke up i wasnt groggy at all. and i got a discount on the work cause aparently they came out very easly. i never had any pain from that work.

I still have all of mine. The dentist keeps bugging me to take them out, but they've grown in for years already and they don't bother me at all so I don't see any reason to.

Still have all of mine but scaried if it will become nececessery to remove them in the future.

Had mine out in 1967 (27yo) in the hosp under gen. I knew nothing and the pain meds after were good enough that I didn't feel much.

do it while you are still young. Should you wait till you are in your 40's or 50's there will be a lot more discomfort and pain.

I was working pipeline and had a bad tooth ache went to a dentist in the town i was working and he took xrays. come to find out my wisdom tooth was pushing my other teeth out so he had an oral surgeon in his office also to look at it and decided they all needed to come out we set it up for the next morning my supervisor took me lets just say i hate the dentist so the gave me a little pill to help me relax lets say it didn't help so next came laughing gas then the iv out like a light next thing i remember i was back at the motel. all i can say from experience is don't try to run an excavator the next day the shaking hurts

Three wisdom teeth removed in Okinawa during Vietnam war. A few days prior my aircraft flying at 25,000 suddenly depressurized. Just as quickly my jaw ached then the pain really set in. Upon landing I went to the base dentist who said that a tooth has to come out as something had ruptured around one. That night on pain meds I flew as a passenger to Okinawa for what I thought would be a simple single tooth yank.

Next morning a young nurse put me in the chair and waited for the doc. I hit on her but she said she was married,so I asked what hours her hubby worked but the doc came in.

He said three teeth needed to be removed... I protested but big tits patted my arm and said don't be scared... Hell big bad pilot is not scared... knock my ass out.. NOPE only a few injections.

Three wisdom teeth came out with a lot of tugging, twisting and at one point his leg was on my chest for leverage. Orders were to stay on base for three days and rinse every hour for that day, return in the AM.

I went from his office to the officers club and ordered scotch. For the next two days with pain meds and drinks I really did not feel bad at all. The hangover was something else all together. For the next week bone slivers would work out of the gum but tweeters took care of that. I was definitely not going back to a military dentist unless ordered.

This is one of those things that different people have very different experiences with. I think largely it's a matter of luck -- just depends on your anatomy, sensitivity to pain, and the skills of your dentist. Everybody was telling me how awful it is going to be (one of the teeth was deep under the skin and almost horizontal), so I was prepared for the worst. I even remember the pitying look on the dental assistant's face. I had it done under local anesthesia, without being given powerful painkillers afterwards (because it wasn't done in the US) and the whole thing wasn't a big deal. Afterwards I remember sitting at home, waiting for the pain to kick in when the anesthetic wears off, but it never did. It was just a dull ache.

Fortunatelly I still have all my wisdom. I definatelly dont want them to be removed ,,,,

Three ones are gone - with local anesthesia (horrible to remember...). The fourth one's still living in my mouth without any problems. And I please it to forget any protest and stay there^^.

Im having my removed this winter they both hurt allot.

Oh WOW, i have a horror story about having my teeth done by a sadistic oral surgeon in the military... but i don't want to scare you. this guy just knew what he could get away with and was nutty, but a normal doctor should be fine. don't you love those crazy metal dental gags? shit they're uncomfortable, but INTENSE...

I was in my late twenties back in the mid-70's and working in the California Central Valley area in a small farming community that also served as housing support for a local military base. My lower left wisdom tooth had some cavities that eventually got too big for the tooth, so the local dentist, who also traveled from another office in Fresno, decided to remove it AND fill a cavity in another tooth during the same visit.

I arrived for the appointment, was seated in the chair, and the novocain injections were started around the wisdom tooth. The doctor then decided to do the other tooth's filling while waiting for the pain killer to numb my wisdom tooth area completely. Once the filling was done, he says, "hold-on and we'll have this wisdom tooth out in no time". He got a pair of "pullers" (pliers to you and me) and got a firm grip on the tooth and started pulling with little results other than my pucker factor going up....This goes on for about five minutes, and then the doctor announced, "guess we'll have to take it out in pieces". Now the doctor gets, for lack of a better description, a little dental hammer and chisel set and proceeds to pulverize my wisdom tooth into what turns out to be eleven separate pieces before the complete tooth is removed. During this "event" he wound up giving me all the pain-killer shots he was allowed to and we went through two separate nurses for whatever reason. The two positives to come out of this are 1) wisdom tooth was gone and 2) no infections afterwards.

By the way; his x-ray never showed him the root was hooked around my jaw-bone.

End of story; I still have my other three and intend to keep them.

I hate to think about having my wisdom teeth pulled but so far they dont bother me if I dont bother them

Get knocked out...its easier for everyone

I had my wisdom teeth out in my early 20's (late 1970's). They were taken out in two visits to Dental Hospital -two on left first and then two on right three weeks later. Had to wear a gown and a red rubber apron both times.A very pretty blonde nurse called Jane looked after me both times,and a lady anaesthetist gave me lots and lots of gas through the big black rubber mask with the twin rubber hoses.It seemed to take ages to go under the first time.I was watching the black rubber bag go in and out for what seemed hours as I breathed the nitrous/halothane and oxygen mixture.I loved the smell of all the rubber in the room -everyone was wearing rubber aprons.The lady dental surgeon who took out both lots of wisdom teeth said it was all fairly straightforward and there were no compications and not too much pain afterwards. As I have a dental gas fetish I enjoyed both visits immensely and the second gassing seemed to take very little time at all.

I had mine out a few years ago. I needed them out before I got my braces cause the teeth were impacted and taking up room. The procedure was done in the same office as my dentist and ortho which also happened to be the oral surgeon. They took me into one of their rooms and sat me in the dental chair with a monitor wrapped around my finger on my left hand. While later they placed the nasal mask on me and started the iv in my right wrist. They inserted the gag and put me to sleep. Next thing I remember is slowly waking up in the same room. The procedure was being finished up and a few minutes later they helped me to walk to the recovery room where I laid down on a bed and they covered me up till I could walk by myself to my mom's car which was by the side door a few feet away. They gave me some Codeine to take and it helped with the pain. I slept alot the next few days which also helped with the pain. My more painful treatments were when they had to cut a hole for another impacted tooth so that it could be pulled down.

My Dentist did the extractions in his office (two at a time). All he used was Novocaine - they weren't impacted. Discomfort during the procedure and afterword was no big deal - as I said, easy extraction. Biggest "pain" was the oozing throughout that first day. This was in the 80's. I guess now (at least for my kids) it's a bigger deal - oral surgeons, anesthesia, the whole nine yards. (with appropriate bills at every step of the way!). Amazing, isn't it? and we wonder why health care is so expensive.

I had two out at 17 and one out in my 40s. The other is still in there. At 17, I got laughing gas as well as Novocaine. My memory is fuzzy about the details of that one. I also got a small prescription for Percocet. I understand that drug has lost favor for dental pain. I do remember in recovery that my socket pain was great. My later one left me in more jaw pain. I also remember the visual and physical sensations of the dentist working hard to get the leverage to pull it out. No prescription meds for that one.

I had 3 of mine taken out when I was in my mid 30's by my regular Dentist. The 2 uppers were no big deal at all so about 1 month later I had my lower right one removed. Big difference!! I had only Novacain for all of them and the lower one I'm pretty sure was impacted. He had a difficult time getting it out and gave me Percodan for the pain. It would take away the pain alright but I could not function and take the drug, and I had to get back to work so just had to deal with it. About 3 days later I developed a dry socket and had to go back and have him repack the wound, which was another not so fun experience. After about 3 to 4 weeks I was finally pain free, but never went back to get the other lower one taken out, since it does'nt bother me. For anybody having to have this done I would recommend an Oral Surgeon that is better equipped to handle the unexpected and does this everyday at his or her practice. You will still have a sore jaw, but maybe not the pain of a dry socket or the results of someone wrenching the impacted tooth out without cutting it out like I think shoud have been done.

Anyone have electrodes on their chest for a monitor during the extraction?