Wisdom tooth extraction: Ouch! Anyone else had it done?

[Pinetreebbs]

Ouch! They can be painful if you get a dry socket. Call me lucky, for some reason I never developed wisdom teeth.

[kbuzbee]

Call me lucky, for some reason I never developed wisdom teeth.

From an evolutionary perspective, I think that means your ancestors were among the very first McDonalds customers

Ken

[Pinetreebbs]

From an evolutionary perspective, I think that means your ancestors were among the very first McDonalds customers

Ken

Or they wore clothing made of cloth so they didn't need to chew leather to make it soft. :D

[kbuzbee]

Or they wore clothing made of cloth so they didn't need to chew leather to make it soft. :D

Yeah, I really hate doing that. I should check out this cloth stuff you're talking about

Ken

[StuntZombie]

Or tiny teeth...

Glad yours were good. I'm not sure why so many wisdom teeth are such a problem.

Ken

(Okay - I had to go look it up. Wisdom teeth used to be used to add chewing power to our rough diet. Today's food is smoother and softer so they aren't needed. During this transition our jaws shrank and there's no longer room for them (Chris was right, you primal guy, you! ) Today 85% of wisdom teeth need to be extracted at some point.)

I think I might just have a prehistoric mouth. My dentist has made a couple of comments about my jaw structure being odd. :-p

[SpyderEdgeForever]

The swelling has gone way down and it is almost imperceptible. There is still a little pain, much lessened, more like irritation. I was using some clove oil and oragel which blunts that to an extent. Any other advice?

[Officer Gigglez]

I had one wisdom tooth all together, and it was fine. came in good, no issues. But I went to the dentist to deal with a tooth I broke a few days earlier. After not being there since I was 8. My teeth are golden except for three. The wisdom tooth, the tooth I broke, and one other. The two that were no broken had cavities close to killing the nerve. Okay. fine. I'll get them fixed. The broken tooth was to be removed. Well the Broken tooth was right next to the wisdom tooth; the last two in the back. So, in all of my Dentist's wisdom, she decided that the wisdom did not need to stay, since it sat too low to be useful in chewing, and it had a cavity that could cause further issues. So, I was slated to have both taken in the same day. So I show up for it and have them taken out. Holy **** was that the most unpleasant thing I have ever experienced, and I have not had a pleasant run so far. **** that sucked. Not too mention that the holes would not clot, so I had to go back because it kept bleeding. Anyway, long story short, I had my only one taken, and it was absolutely awful. Left a bad taste mouth (Pun not intended). Not sure If I'll find myself back at the dentist to have the last tooth crowned anytime soon.

[c.joe]

I'll take 2 wisdom teeth extractions over teeth cleaning any day. When I got mine out, they just poked me with shot after shot until I couldn't feel the doc stabbing me with a needle. It is the aftermath that you should brace for. Once the meds wore off, I was clenching my fists as I attempted to sleep.

Funny story though. The doc gave me a couple minutes to prepare myself before he extracted the first tooth. Once I said I was ready, he said, "Oops! Took it out a few minutes ago already.." I had no idea.. I thought he was just stuffing my mouth with cotton.

[chuck_roxas45]

Will you be less wise if your wisdom teeth are extracted?

[SuckSqueezeBangBlow]

It all depends on factors like the position and orientation of the tooth and the jaw.
I had 3 wisdom teeth removed under a general anaesthetic on the advice of the surgeon.
With my vasectomy I chose a general anaesthetic as I didn't want to feel anyone playing with, cutting at or burning anything inside my balls.

[RanCoWeAla]

I had one extracted and there was nothing to it. The Dentist who did it is wonderful. He said a short prayer loaded me up with shots cut the tooth in half and brought it out one leg at a time. One of the smoothest procedures I have ever had

[awa54]

I had all four out at once, all impacted and all had to be broken up to extract them... but that was 25 years ago and I was out for the whole thing, so the only pain was the dull throbbing afterward where the teeth had been, and of course the obligatory dry socket that I inflicted on myself by riding my bicycle to do errands two days after the surgery :P

[bdblue]

I had all 4 out many years ago, no big deal. I had a little pain the first night and the meds helped a lot. No real problems after that.

I've known other people that took a few days to get over the pain.

[kiwisailor]

Just had one out last week here in Fiji. Which is why I'm online annoying everybody...

Extraction went well, but unable to stop bleeding.
Two lovely Fijian ladies came over to assist me kneeling on river bank spitting/drooling blood. Have allergy to lignocaine, so this caused issue. No Marcaine available.
Went back to dentist for more pads. Still bled.
To my embarrassment, (and Lady in stores') I walked/staggered to shop and bought some tampons.
Bad enough trying to ask in Foreign country without having a numb jaw and Obviously bleeding.

Stuck it into mouth and chomped down. Luckily still lucid enough to put string in mouth. It worked, eventually.
Go on, Laugh it up guys..

Have Tampons in boat for emergencies, but not in backpack.
Gave me a fright. Didn't want to do it here, but suspicious it was abscessed (it was ) and due to head away to sea for 14+ days.
K

[SG89]

Got my wisdom teeth removed a few years ago. No complications. Back to work in two days. However, when I awoke after surgery I immediately jumped up out of the dentist chair and ran out of the room and almost completely out of the office before they caught me....anesthesia made me crazy lol. On the car ride home I was screaming into a pillow like a psychopath! Never really had any pain or dry socket or swelling. I was lucky.

[O,just,O]

I had mine extracted back in 1979. 2 at one time & the other two some weeks later.
Bleed!, like a stuck pig. They sent me home with heaps of wadding to soak up the blood.
My GF- future & current wife drove my car & I did the best I could with the bloody blood.
I would roll down the window & spit the blood soaked wad & replace with more until I was on the last wad & still bleeding profusely.
What to do ? A quick search came up with some tampons in the glove compartment So I peeled one of those & whacked in my gob, packing it into place in the gap.
All was fine till it started to swell so much that my jaw was jacked open so far that I got a cramp & had a very difficult time removing the tampon.
That green string they put on them is a wise move & did help somewhat. It did not help at all that the driver laughed to tears, Grrr !
The next tampon I cut into four bits & had no more trouble.
O.

[O,just,O]

Yeah & that is correct that my mates called me #u#t face for a while.
O.

[RexGig0]

When I had a molar removed several years ago, the dentist decided to try punching a bit above his weight, and attempted to remove the adjacent wisdom tooth, which was impacted, but still concealed beneath the gum line. (The molar had a hidden cavity, that was not discovered in time to save the tooth.) Well, to make a long story short, the wisdom tooth did not budge, in spite of some impressive athletics on the part of the dentist, and I was hurting quite badly for a while. It seems my roots are curved, so my teeth are hooked together. The molar required really major effort, and the wisdom tooth was a real stubborn monster, not budging.

Thankfully, my mouth healed OK.

I have not visited any dentist since that time, not even for cleaning.

I still have all of my wisdom teeth. X-rays show all of them to be impacted, but only one has emerged from the gum, which is not the one described above. After my horrible experience, I asked my father about his wisdom teeth, and he said all of his are still in place, having never emerged from the gums.

Now I know genetics are on my side, and nobody is ever going to touch my three wisdom teeth that remain hidden, as they will probably remain that way for the rest of my life. (I am in my mid-fifties.) The one that has emerged is difficult to clean, so will probably require attention, someday; thankfully, if is in my more-accessible lower jaw.

[DAYWALKER]

Aloha SpyderEdgeForever,

Hang in there, you'll be fine. I had two of mine removed in one sitting back in the 90's. Get this though...

I was a heavy MotoGP fan during those years, so I had two bikes, a Honda CBR600 and a Kawasaki Ninja250...250 was for those, "non-aggressive, copy Mick Doohan" rides. Well, usually that's what it was for. Anyway, I went to my dental appointment on my 250. Dentist did his job, and as I was leaving the dentist, it started to rain. Not too bad, but enough to where the street was getting slick with steam coming of off it. I ALWAYS rode with a helmet, so I donned my brain bucket, started my bike and left the parking lot.

On my route home, I caught the light in front of a CROWDED bus stop. I was behind maybe two or three cars. My mouth was numb as heck and I had to spit. SO I raise my visor, pull the front of my helmet down and proceeded to spit out saliva and blood...more blood than anything else. I also recall having cotton in the back of my mouth. When I spat, it barely cleared the front of my helmet, and it started dripping off. Of course, I didn't get all the blood out, so I spat again...trying to get the blood off my helmet and out of my mouth.

I suddenly hear the screeching of a car behind me, I look in my side mirror and a HUGE green car is sliding behind me. I was too close to the car in front of me, could not make it around, was ready to drop my bike and bail out. The car stopped before hitting me. I was pissed...

I turn around yelling things I cannot write here, and I see that the driver of said HUGE green car was a tiny old lady! She started waving at me, barely able to see over her dashboard, looking through her steering wheel! Remember, my mouth was numb so my words were not, "sounding" right...thankfully?

Anyway, I look to my right and see the people at the CROWDED bus stop. There I was, almost got smashed by an old lady in a huge green car, a LONG blood and spit "web" hanging out the front of my helmet...

Cripes.

Take care!

[tvenuto]

Like others I had all 4 removed in HS, and was knocked out for the experience. The two most annoying things were jaw soreness, and the catch 22 you found yourself in when you took out the gauze. You couldn't spit with the gauze in, but if you took them out you were bleeding, so there was really no way to wash the blood out of your mouth. But seriously, the main pain I felt was the jaw, especially on one side. I can't even imagine how jacked open my mouth was. I bet at one point the dentist looked around at his colleagues and was like "you think he can handle one more click?" while they all looked on in anticipation to see if my jaw was going to pop out.