Spyderco Forums

I had some wisdom teeth and two came in impacted. I had one removed many moons ago, and just had the last one removed. Ouch =(

It is a strange feeling, you can feel them go in and pull out the tooth, after breaking the crown, and all that, but, their medicines take the pain away and yet afterwards you can feel the stitches and the area where they had to cut into the gum.

I wish nanomedicine would be developed to Star Trek levels...to where they can blood-lessly and painlessly perform surgery at the molecular level.

Has anyone else here had any major dental surgery and wisdom teeth removed before?

I had all 4 done at once, and I was conscious for the whole thing. The top two came out easy, but the bottom two both had hook shaped roots, and they had to break parts of my jaw around where the roots go in so they could pull them out...and they still didn't come out without a fight. Definitely not a pleasant experience.

Had all four pulled out in boot camp. I will never forget that giant needle shoved into the roof of my mouth, the dentist looked at me and said, this part hurts the most. Recovery was sitting there holding ice packs wrapped in a towel on your cheeks staring at the other poor bastards who just went through the same thing. Then you got lectured on the importance of rinsing your mouth with saltwater or you will get lockjaw and die. What a treat!

Had mine surgically removed almost 15 years ago. They put me out and woke me up two hours later with no more wisdom...teeth. My jaw ached for a few days, but it could have been a lot worse (especially based on the stories I'm seeing here).

Yep. I had all four of my wisdom teeth yanked last year. NOT a pleasurable experience. I actually posted a thread on this very topic on 3/14/13: http://www.spyderco.com/forums/showthre ... sdom+teeth.
Here’s a brief excerpt that I posted:

Thanks for the words of encouragement, Bladekeeper, Tony, and Pockets. I'm feeling a heck of a lot better today with less swelling and pain.
Tony, I now know exactly what you mean about “not acting my usual self!” Per the dentist, I was to take one pill (Triazolam) just before bed on Thursday and the two remaining pills about an hour before the operation. Much to my embarrassment, my wife informed me yesterday (Saturday) that a few things happened on Friday (day of the extractions) that I have no recollection of. For instance, my wife said that I texted my boss something like five times just before I went in to the operating room. Say what?! I also apparently told the dentist and his assistants that the “Spyderco Techno is the finest knife ever made” and proceeded to pull it out of my pocket to show it to him. (I don’t remember that either). I also don’t remember too much of stopping by my in-law’s house on the way home. I found out later that my father-in-law shot a coyote sometime last week and wanted to show it to us. I barely remember seeing the coyote lying on his garage floor. I suppose I said something stupid, like, “Hey there, pretty dog. Who’s a good dog?” All I recall is that I was dripping blood on the foyer and my mother-in-law was laughing and telling me “not to worry about it.” Oh, and I also apparently gave my in-laws a ten minute overview of the movie, “Here Comes the Boom.” What a moron. Remind me never to take Triazolam again!

I had all 4 taken out about 4 or 5 years ago. I was put under when they did it. The recovery was mostly pleasant, except for near the end when I had a tiny piece of food that got healed over, and I broke it open while chewing some gum... That was gross, but I'm glad to be rid of those teeth. My teeth are huge, and have no space as it is, without being crowded even more with wisdom teeth.

I had all four of mine removed while I was in the Navy, back in '77. It was an interesting experience. The assistant/male nurse walked in with a handfull of hypos, looked around for a tray, then said "Hold out your hand." I did, and he put the hypos in my left hand. Then he took one, injected the contents into my gum, looks around again and said "Hold out your other hand." So there I sat, full hypos in one hand and empties in the other until he finished. Luckily, the surgeon had a tray. The first tooth (bottom left) took forty-five minutes and came out in five pieces. I thought I was going to be there forever. The other three took about five minutes total. The other lower hadn't broken the gum yet, so they had to cut the gum, but it came out in one piece. The uppers were already all the way in, so crick-crack and they were out. Had the surgery on Friday and was back at work on Monday morning.

ASmitty wrote:Had mine surgically removed almost 15 years ago. They put me out and woke me up two hours later with no more wisdom...teeth. My jaw ached for a few days, but it could have been a lot worse (especially based on the stories I'm seeing here).

That's about how mine went.

The doctor asked me to count backward from ten, and I remember saying ten. The next thing I remember is being wheeled out to the car in a wheelchair.

Yes, like so many folks, my wisdom teeth didn't have enough room to coexist with the rest of my choppers, so first one came out , then another, then the last two, over a period of three or four years. All uncomfortable and displeasing, to say the least.

However...

The WORST dental experience I have had was when an upper left molar abcessed, and I waited too long to go to the dentist. Far too long. The infection got into the bone, and the usual "Let's give you some antibiotic for a few days until the swelling goes down, and then we'll work on it" option was off the table. The dentist wanted the tooth out right away, and I found out one reason why they don't like to do it that way. It seems that when there is a lot of swelling and pus, the local anesthetic doesn't work so well. Like, pretty much not at all. He tried, the nice man gave me about 10 locals, but I have to say, that tooth wasn't very numb when he pulled it!

Dentistry in the Dark Ages!!!!

I had all four removed when I was 16. I was completely knocked out and have zero recollection of it. I was black and blue and sore, but that's it.

Jeremy_A_Neel wrote:I had all 4 taken out about 4 or 5 years ago. I was put under when they did it.

Same here. Had mine done back in college. Dentist described the process of using a hammer and chisel to flake them out... He wanted to use a local. I was like 'no, you're putting me out...' He asked why? I told him 'because if I'm awake I'm going to bite through your chisel!' He looked at this 300# college kid in his chair and said 'yeah, okay'

Then I headed back off to school. A week or so later I noticed this small white bump near two of them. Looked like a bit of tooth or bone or something was left in, just under the skin. It was really hard and tender. If I'd been home, I mighta just gone back in to have him check it but I wasn't, so I got my Buck Duke and a pare of sharp tweezers and tried to get them out. Seemed to help, but they came back a few days later. 2-3 times through this I finally figured out they'd left a couple stitches in there and they were getting slightly irritated/infected. Now that I could see them I grabbed them with the tweezers and pulled them out. All good after that.

Ken

I was lucky enough to get 5 wisdom teeth. The 5th one was a small baby sized tooth that came in through the gums over top of one of the others. I pulled that one myself since it didn't have roots in my jaw. All of mine came in during a year that I was diagnosed with TB, so no dentist would touch me even though I wasn't contagious. By the time I was cleared, they had all gone bad and were giving me loads of pain. The bottom right one came in growing horizontally and had to be cut out but the rest were pulled out pretty easily.

I had them done one side at a time. I recall having to hold my hand under my jaw so the dentist could break the bone over the teeth. Too much fun. His dental assistant was cute though. Blonde.

Always carry extra painkillers with you. I was doing some shopping and the pill started wearing off early. That was nasty.

I had all 4 out when I was in college, nothing to it. They gave me pain medication and I took some the first night but none after that.

Thank you all for your replies.

Well the swelling has gone down somewhat, my cheek looks less like a puffed up chipmunk, but it is still there. They had to dig in deep because it came in horizontally and was deeply rooted in there.

I have been eating only soft foods (mashed potatoes, lentil soups, cottage cheese, pudding, etc) at room and cool temperatures. I miss solid foods =( The pain has somewhat subsided, I was given Ibuprofin and also an antiobiotic, to head off any possible infections.

Should this all go away in a few days?

Yeah it may seem like a pain that will never end but in a week or so you'll be fine. Your gums will be tender for a couple weeks, depends a lot on the person. Use this time as an excuse to eat all the ice cream and chocolate pudding you want :D

I guess I got left out in the wisdom department, I'm 54 and have never had to have my wisdom teeth extracted :) .

My adult daughters both had to have their extracted though. My youngest had a lot of problems, I guess there were bits and pieces of the tooth that remained deeply embedded and slowly worked their way up, she was in pain for over a month and kept having to re-visit the dental surgeon. I'm fortunate I haven't (yet) had to have mine out. I did have a molar pulled, which I think allowed room for my wisdom tooth to move down whereas the dentist had been nagging at me to get it pulled.

My mother's came in like normal teeth and she had hers all the way up until they all went out and she got dentures. 3 out of my 5 came in like normal teeth but all 4 quickly decayed for no apparent reason. The 5th one I tied dental floss to and yanked out lol.

Man, it seems I'm one of the lucky few. Mine came in in my 20's, starting out horizontal and eventually settling in with my other teeth. I guess I just have a big mouth.

StuntZombie wrote: I guess I just have a big mouth.

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.)