Wisdom Teeth

I believe the drug in question only causes strange behaviour, only if it's the one used to render patients unconscious during surgery. I myself did not act mentally bizarre, because I was not sedated, only numbed. I was awake and fully aware of what the surgeons were doing.

This happened when I was...I believe 17 years of age, and I had grown 2 or 3 wisdom teeth, all of which needed to be removed. (It was many years ago, and thus I don't recall all of the details with perfect clarity.) I was asked beforehand if I wanted to 'go under', but I declined, as I have a high threshold for potential discomfort - before then I'd had a few surgeries for dental issues, one of which was a graft - so I opted to sit comfortably and close my eyes.

I certainly don't regret my decision at all; in fact, it let me actually learn how wisdom teeth removal works. For those curious I'll share, though I've hidden it in a spoiler tag, as those of you with weak constitutions may find it a bit unsettling, so handle with care.

Spoiler

First, if there's any gum above the tooth itself, i.e. it's not visible enough, that has to be removed. That tends to be scraped off in some form or another. After that, the tooth becomes exposed. To remove it does vary a bit based on the angle of the tooth, whether or not it's growing towards another one, etc., but the procedure is essentially the same - the tooth has to be broken to be removed. In my case, it was a small drill that essentially split the tooth in half, and then the halves, plus any other leftover fragments, were removed with a powerful vacuum. Then the site was thoroughly irrigated.

Repeat the above paragraph for each wisdom tooth as necessary.

The surgery itself, I found, was the easy part. The hard and annoying part was the recovery. I know people get annoyed by the warm saltwater rinse as it causes some minor irritation at each site, but the pain and swelling was so far worse than anything that came from the saltwater. On top of having to take prescription pain-killer medication, in the first few days both of my cheeks were so swollen that I had to strap small ice packs to my face (rotated out every 4 hours or so for another set) just to reduce the size of my 'chipmunk face'.

Of course, after I didn't need the ice packs anymore, I could go out of the house with impunity, provided I brought my medication along. This happened largely because I had wisdom teeth removed on both sides of my mouth, however. The memory of wisdom teeth will pass away quite quickly, however. What you will remember many years is only what you choose to remember, and what you found the most entertaining.

After all, who doesn't think that...

Spoiler

...a tooth-rending drill and a chipmunk face...

...are amusing?

 

Mmmhmm... My bottom wisdom teeth grew two years ago, when I just started high-school. Then they grew. During the period in which they were growing, I suffered terrible pain every time I ate apples, and I eat apples every day. As they grew and grew, my gums started to...

(Not for the squeamish - I should put spoiler tags like Eclipse)

Spoiler

Slowly peel off.

Now, they sit fine and fit perfectly, mostly due to my 2013 tooth operation where I had to remove teeth.

The good thing is that I don't have to remove them in the future. Phew!

 

man I hope you brought a blanket and a comfy chair cause itz story tahm up in here!.

I had all four removed in one surgery, one came in at almost a PERFECT 90 degree angle! I kept them for personal reasons but alass I digress. I got dry socket in all four spots AT THE SAME TIME! and for the fist week I had no pain meds to deal with it. THAT was painfull. So remember people, no suction in thy mouth for 3 days after they are pulled or you WILL get dry socket. And that is my tale for today.

 

I had all mine pulled out. No laughing gas, just a deep sleep. Mouth hurt like hell afterwards. Nothing special really, ate mashed potatoes and canned chili for about a week afterwards

 

... No human should endure that. You have all my sympathy. I mean seriously, that's just... wow.

I had all four of mine removed last summer. Two broke through the gum and couldn't be adequately cleaned (making infection likely), two came in at 90 degree angles (one of which was one that broke the gumline), and one was just fine but we decided to heck with it and pulled that sucker out too.

And I hated it.

I was put under, but not very deep under. I remember waking up in the "recovery room", wobbly AF, and being walked to the car to be driven home (time was nonexistent, but I think I was there for 10 minutes), but not before going to the pharmacy and to the icecream shop for a milkshake (make a note of that). It was weird, I distinctly remember having very strong double-vision for most of those errands (I was only sitting in the car), which must have been about 20 minutes together. I guess my eyeball muscles were affected by the same thing that made my leg muscles wobbly? I don't know.

Anyhow, I later found out, the hard way that the painkillers I was prescribed made me nauseous. Like, really nauseous. If I stood up from a sitting position, my stomach would evacuate its contents via my mouth, which is not what you want happening when you have four open wounds in your mouth (remember that milkshake I mentioned? Yeah, waste of time and money getting that). It quickly occurred to me that I had two options at that time:

1: Keep taking painkillers, keep vomiting, and eventually die of starvation.
2: Don't take any painkillers at all, and be absolutely effing miserable for weeks.

I had to pick option 2, because as bad as it was, it was less bad than dying the slow way. My surgery was on a Friday, and I had to go back to labor-intensive work on Monday morning, and I nearly died there. It was a physically intensive job that also included near-constant talking, and I was rapidly being thrown into a blind pain-induced rage just by being there, which is a big deal for me, since I'm generally not able to be made angry, so much so that I wonder if I have a psychological condition of some sort. If I was a normal person, I probably would have given in to rage and madness and burned that place down or killed someone.

I couldn't chew at all for a week (mashed potatoes and jello anyone?), couldn't chew comfortably for two weeks, and it was a month before I was feeling normal again. I think two or three months before the tooth-holes closed up enough and I could stop cleaning them out four times per day. Recovery took entirely too long, but ultimately, I'm glad I got it done. I was in considerable pain and annoyance (for the sideways and broken-gum teeth respectively) for a long time, and now I don't have to worry about those problems any more.

At least I didn't have chipmunk face after day one. Or if I did, you couldn't see it. I have a short beard, so the shape of my jaw is kind of obscured, but you could kind of see the discoloration of the bruises beneath. So rather than a chubby-cheeked chipmunk, I looked like I took a mean left hook to the mouth, followed by an even meaner right hook.

 

Yeah... that ladies and gentlemen is what H-E-double hockey sticks feels like. I did get the milk shake too but I ate it with a spoon. Dry socket basically occurs when the blood clot that forms lifts off and out of the wounds and leaves the bone exsposed. That is where the pain comes from. And I had the loveliest day where like I said, all four happened at one. To prevent this, no suction. The best way to do this is to not eat or drink much for 3-4 days but that just isn't very realistic here. I got knocked out and at the end of it they asked me questions, wanted a response, then told me not to talk. Really people? Anyway the pain killers effect everyone differently depending on what you get and the dose. I had an opiod so it did 2 things, made me sleepy and constipated. Those are the 2 things to watch out for. It took about a month and a half for my gums to seal up and you will need to brush and rinse out your mouth EVERY time you eat something. The may even put medicated gause in the holes like they did for me and boy is that stuff nasty. I'm not trying to scare anyone with this, I'm just trying to let you know what you may be in for.

 

..my wisdom teeth haven't risen to the surface yet, but reading these stories makes me really, really scared

 

I had my top two grow in completely before I had all of them removed. They weren't crooked or anything but the bottom ones were, so they took them all out.
I was knocked out completely with Anesthetic during my procedure.

 

I have to go get my wisdom teeth removed soon. I have never done something like this before and I can say that i'm not really excited for this...

 

I've had one removed a few years back
and it was painful.

Didn't really say anything weird, I was anxious as all hell though, during it!

Now I have to have another one pulled
out soon, as it rots more and more everyday I leave it unattended.