Wisdom Teeth Suck! Surgery Happening Soon

**ZenOfAnger** · Posted On: 1/21/2009 5:45am

Thanks for the lol story and the advice, CoffeeFan. Much appreciated.

To Lily:

I'll be sure to update this thread or make a new one after the operation as soon as possible to let you and everybody know how it went.
I will also PM you if you would like for further details. Just let me know.

Thanks again,

ZoA.

**Snake Plissken** · Posted On: 1/21/2009 11:28am

Dude:

DON'T FEAR THE REAPER!

I had my wisdom teeth extracted in my late 20's after my dentist, who told me to leave them until I needed to, told me they were going to get infected.

We to the orthodontist, who made an appointment for the next Friday. Stuck the needle in my arm, said, "Count backwards from 100"

"100, 99, 9..uh...5...9...SNORE"

Woke up with my wife struggling to get me into the car. Woke up with her buying me a vanilla milkshake from McDonalds. Woke up twice more to puke blood and vanilla shake.

It was like the guy levitated them out of my head. I had no pain, no swelling, no drysockets, stitches came out less then a week later.

No problems at all.

Except the time I dreamed I was eating french fries and woke up swallowing some gauze.

**rocketsurgeon** · Posted On: 1/21/2009 11:39am

I got mine out in the army, so of course I had to hand carry my bedrest orders to work after the surgery because the army doesn't have fax machines. I was still brain damaged from the procedure and my wife went in with me because she didn't trust me to walk. Everybody starts laughing and I assume it's cause I looked like I caught an ass whupping, but they're pointing at my gauze which has strings coming out of my mouth and taped to my cheeks so I didn't swallow them while I was out. Oh, and they're soaked with blood.

Bloody gauze rolls with strings = tampons in my mouth. My good friends still occasionally tell me to go eat a tampon.

**1point2** · Posted On: 1/21/2009 12:06pm

Mine started getting infected (err, not really...just.........smelly...) because I couldn't brush underneath the gums that came over them. Hurt like a mother when I chomped down hard, too.

I got all four out at once, laughing gas, no complications, dissolving stitches. Oh man, though, I needed those pain meds. It took me a week to really feel OK--and definitely don't get choked or headlocked for 2 weeks. Nearly dislocated my jaw doing that.

Plenty of movies, smoothies, pudding, and follow the rinse/gauze/paid med instructions carefully. Don't get hooked on painkillers. Have fun!

**Snake Plissken** · Posted On: 1/21/2009 12:58pm

Originally Posted by 1point2

I needed those pain meds

really?

I think I took like 2 of my pain pills is all.

Plenty of movies, smoothies, pudding, and follow the rinse/gauze/paid med instructions carefully. Don't get hooked on painkillers. Have fun!

Oh, yeah. The pudding.........I liked only being able to eat rice pudding.....for about the first two days.

**CoffeeFan** · Posted On: 1/21/2009 1:29pm

The recovery time depends on a lot of factors including the direction the wisdom teeth are pointed, degree of being impacted, if they are touching the jaw (like my right one was). I actually had a good three month time period before I could fully open my mouth. Trauma to the muscles and joints of my mandible due to the surgery. I also have had a constant feeling of numbness on the right underside of my tongue that has never gone away.

Then again I went to a chop shop dentist place (fucking HMO), another time I had two teeth removed I didn't need any of the pain medication. Definitely scope out your surgeons before you let them put a drill to your head. My understanding is that when the teeth are facing sideways like ZoA's are it's a bit more complicated a situation.

Of course I'm not a dentist so I would definitely get the scoop on everything from a professional.

**danniboi07** · Posted On: 1/21/2009 1:37pm

Originally Posted by Snake Plissken

Dude:

We to the orthodontist, who made an appointment for the next Friday. Stuck the needle in my arm, said, "Count backwards from 100"

"100, 99, 9..uh...5...9...SNORE"

Woke up with my wife struggling to get me into the car. Woke up with her buying me a vanilla milkshake from McDonalds. Woke up twice more to puke blood and vanilla shake.

It was like the guy levitated them out of my head. I had no pain, no swelling, no drysockets, stitches came out less then a week later.

No problems at all.

Similar story to me. A good maxillofacial surgeon will produce results similar to this.

Guy, I'm a freak of nature. I had 6 wisdom teeth. I don't know how it happened, but the 4 basic ones were coming in sideways (facing forward) and the two extra ones were just bordering my sinus cavities. The surgeon was worried about hitting the cavities so we postponed the surgery a few months to let them grow in a bit more.

The surgery, like Snake's, was quick and painless. I hope yours goes just as well.

For recovery, stock up on yogurts. They're a life saver.

If you're prescribed Vicodin for the pain killers, take it easy. My prescription said "Take 2 to 3 pills." 2 pills wasn't cutting it. Once I popped the 3rd pill I found myself tripping out. I stuck to 2 pills and sleeping to ignore the pain.

**ZenOfAnger** · Posted On: 1/21/2009 2:11pm

Wow. Thanks again for the funny stories and the words of encouragement everybody. It means a lot to me in a totally heterosexual way to read about people who had theirs removed just fine (except CoffeeFan). It gives me a lot more confidence and control over my fear so when operation day comes, it won't be so bad for me.

Regards,

ZoA.

**anza** · Posted On: 1/21/2009 3:10pm

I'm not sure how this plays into your plan, but apparently some research has been done into re-growing teeth using stem cells found in wisdom teeth. Regrowing complete tooth is thought to be quite far off, but growing root is thought to be more likely.

A couple of short articles here and here.

**ZenOfAnger** · Posted On: 1/21/2009 6:45pm

Thanks for the link to the articles, anza, but like you said it has no real relevance to my situation. The articles were at least quite interesting to read, though. I didn't know we had the tech in 1968 to actually use stem cells to help battle leukemia.