Alright everyone, lets hear about your removal stories(good or bad hopefully good). Don't sugar coat them, I want to know what i'm in for! Thanks in advance.

Greg

 

I remember my cousin getting his teeth pulled a few years ago. He walked out of the outpatient area laughing his ass off with blood dripping everywhere. The nurses rushed him out the back door so he wouldn't scare all the other patients. Looks like the doc gave him a little too much laughing gas.

 

I had to have oral surgery since my bottom two teeth were growing sideways and pushing my bottom teeth towards the front of my mouth. I did have all 4 removed at the same time however.

anyway some highlights:

the needle they stuck in my arm was more akin to a sharpened pipe. f*cker was huge. but oh well, you only feel it for a couple seconds.

my oral surgeon was great and he and I actually struck up a short conversation as they prepped me. he kinda had fun by administering the IV anesthetic really slowly as I struggled to maintain consciousness and the conversation. eventually, the anesthetic won.

I woke up completely wasted later, and could hardly walk to the car. I really really wanted them to just leave me alone to sleep it off, but they insisted I go home. it sounds minor, but really I was pissed in a very groggy kind of way.

my jaw definitely hurt the next day-- swollen and I could feel the stitches-- but not horrible I guess. I was so weak that I could hardly open the bottle of pain medication, but when I did, wow that stuff really worked! that stuff was Demerol.

I used to get really brutal migrane headaches, so I decided to deal with some of the pain from the surgery and save the Demerol for my next headache. (which should say something about how bad migrane headaches can be... the jaw pain was no fun, but semi-tolerable in comparison) some time later, I did get a migrane, took a Demerol pill and... wow. it was like I was sitting next to my body and my body was feeling the pain, but not me. strange, but that's the way it felt. like I knew the pain was there, but I was dissociated from it.

I even wrote in a journal that I keep off-and-on "If this is what being high is like, helloooo pot!!" thus Demerol was the first drug I ever abused. soon after, I started smoking mary-jane. (I might've eventually started anyway... and I've totally quit everything now...)

so yeah, be careful. getting your wisdom teeth removed can lead to drug abuse. (okay okay, slippery slope yeah yeah )

 

tritium_pie, By the way you describe your experience, it doesn't sound that bad. How long did it take you to heel up?

Greg

 

I got one that is very hard to believe, but it is documented. The oral surgeon who removed my wisdom teeth ( a few years previous to this incident) was sued by a woman because she lost all feeling in her tongue and was unable to taste anything. To prove to the court that she had no feeling in her tongue, she had a needle stuck through her tongue while she was on the stand. Apparently, she wasn't warned of the possible side effects of having ones wisdom teeth removed. She won her case.
I never had any problems with mine though and I remember him telling me of what may happen with the nerves in the mouth. My preparation for the operation was to imagine getting hit on the side of the face with a baseball bat. As it turned out, it wasn't that bad.

 

I really can't remember how long it took me to heal... but not that long from what I remember. (it was over 10 yrs ago) I think I was able to eat solid foods after maybe 5 days? maybe a full week? not sure. you will taste blood for a few days afterwards, which tends to adversely affect the appetite. (I stuck to smoothies and such)

the mouth is one of the fastest healing parts of the body. my biggest concern was keeping the wounds clean. I think I used very watered down Listerine after each meal just to swish it around and keep the food particles out of the wounds. (but run that by your oral surgeon first)

but on the whole, don't sweat it. getting the wisdom teeth removed really wasn't a big deal, and if yours aren't requiring any kind of special surgery-- just pulling them-- then you're all good. make sure they give ya the good stuff tho. none of that Tylenol crap.

 

I thought it was kinda fun.

The needle with novicaine kinda felt good on my gums. And I couldnt stop laughing because I could smell my tooth and by God, it was the most horrific smell. I kept thinking, "I wonder what the hell the doctor thinks of this smell?"

Then after my face looked like it was stung by 30 bees and I drooled. It was fun.

But after the pain kinda hurt. and took maybe a couple weeks to heal.

 

Mine was pretty simple. The IV didn't really hurt, I started counting down from 100 and recall getting to about 93. I awoke looking at a very pretty dental assistant. They gave me a prescription for Tylenol with codeine, saying that I should take one in an hour and the rest as needed for pain. I took the first one, then threw the rest away because it didn't hurt much at all. A week later I had the stitches removed and that was that.

That was about 29 years ago.

 

It was about 5 years ago on a Thursday....my appointment was at 11:30 am in Boston on Milk Street. I was going in to get all four wisdom teeth taken out. Needless to say that they gave me 4 shots of navicaine on each tooth. By the time I realize or ask when are they going to start, they have already taken two out. Amazing what that stuff could do to you. Afterwards I went home and took a nap til my night job around 6:30pm. I was sooo heavy under the medication, one of my co-worker had to tell me to zipper up. But I wasn't really able to work due to mainly my line of work involves in speech. So I hung around and went home by 9 pm. It was able 3 to 4 weeks before every healed I think. I had the biodegradable stitches so as they degraded I know I was good to go.

It wasn't all that bad...but the drugs really help subside the pain every now and then.

 

Ah..well, my story isn't as pleasant as those above.

First, I had 1 removed...1-3 shots of novicane... and what appears to be a flat-headed screw driver..and pop, 15 minutes..top one was out.

1 year later, the bottom one appeared... I figured I'd go to the same doc.. oh god..this is where the horror starts:

FIRST, apparently, I'm one of the "rare" few that have >2< nerves that go through the bottom of your mouth, instead of one. The 2nd is apparently deep, and they weren't able to deaden it... Thus, 15, yes >15< shots, later, my mouth FULL of novicate, ladicane, whatever.. I still had FULL FEELING.

Well, it was imbedded, and thus he had to 'peel' apart the skin into 4 parts and open me up... of course, I complained cuz I could feel it.. but what can one do?? I snuffed down the FULL BOTTLE of laughing gas (nitrous), so that ran out... 45 min into it, and gums splayed open, they tried giving me more shots.

that did nothing, I was in full feeling.. (at this point, I realized I should have been knocked out..too late, I was splayed open like a sushi fish served for a party of 4). Well, 2-3 shots more..nothing happening, blood everywhere, I said, "Look, fvck it, just pull the damn thing out, I can feel everything and this is pissing me off".

So, he proceeded to cut it into 4 pieces, yes.. I felt everything... and after brusing the fvck outta my face, gums, etc... got all 4 pieces out. This process took about 15-20min. I was in pain, but I really didn't give a shvt at this point.

Okay, so, teeth out, stiched up.. its all over, right? NO!

So, he prescribes an antibiotic... only, he fvcks up and prescribes..ready for this??? 15x the normal dosage / day.

On my first day, I ended up laying in the grass outside a place where some of my friends meet..puking my guys out... a few calls later to other doctors, we determined he screwed the pooch, and I adjusted the amount. Over yet? NOPE!

Those 15-18 shots?? Well, they pumped me with so much crap I had to manually 'push' it out of my gums over about 6 weeks... it was stored inside somewhere (lord knows where) my gums. Do you know how DISGUSTING medicine thats been sitting and rotting in your gums with old ass blood tastes?? I DO!

All, in all.. it was HORRRRRRIBLE. And, yes..just 1 tooth. The upper one was sooo not a problem. The lower, OH MY GOD. If I had to do it again, I would be knocked out.

No, I didn't sue him for the medication screw up, though I prolly should have cosidered it. I had asked other doctors and they said what I took wasn't damamging, but (as it did) would make me ill as hell.

Well..thats my story.