I'm getting mine out tomorrow morning (just the bottom two) and chose not to be sedated for the surgery because I just don't like the sound of getting an IV and drugged up on valium... Figure they'll shoot me up with Novocaine and let them go at it. What's the worst that can happen? At most it should only feel like some pressure, right? Maybe a little spike of pain here and there but it's all temporary.

So just wondering if anyone's had it done without being put under and how it went.

Also, how long does the pain last? I've heard some people say their jaw just felt sore for awhile but the pain wasn't bad, and I've heard others say it hurt so bad they drank a beer and took a percocet and slept for 20 hours straight...

I'll probably take the pain meds tomorrow, but I'm supposed to take delivery of my car on Thursday or Friday at the latest, and obviously can't drive while taking pain meds (DWI = career over).

Anyway, I'm off work until Monday, so win?

I don't know why you wouldn't take it. It's probably safer than some of the other drugs that (street)doctors want you to take. Luckily I lost my two back teeth to cavities so my wisdom came in just fine

If they are just yanking, it'll probably hurt a bit first, but once the blood starts spouting from your mouth, you should start getting numb from the blood loss. You should be fine unless they use any drills.

At one part in my surgery the power went out which cut off my supply of laughing gas.... They had to rip one half of a tooth out without it and it hurt like nothing else. i NEVER want to go through with that again. I also don't have a high tolerance for pain. If you do, I know plenty of people that went into it without being sedated. A few said it was fine, and a few said they wish they were sedated.

I did like last year I think. Got all four out at once. If you're not bothered by weird noises coming out of your mouth, or needles going into it, it's not that bad. Pain lasted about a day and a bit, though I would strongly recommend not trying to eat anything solid that night, it will end in pain. They usually make you bite down on gauze afterwards. If you get the needles, that should be the only thing that hurts until long after the operation. By the next day your wounds (in your mouth) will likely not hurt as much, but if I remember correctly, because of having to keep your mouth open so wide for so long, your jaw muscles will hurt for a while.

Edit: Oh and it varies in terms of how far your teeth are out. If they are poking out, likely less time. With me, they took them out before it got that far, so they had to scraqe away gum. Lovely thinking about that... But it really didn't hurt.

I had my top one taken out without sedation, it was over by the time I realized the Dentist was even taking it out(I'm a wuss when it comes to dentistry work being done, so he just told me he was doing prep work). Didn't hurt at all. Most annoying thing about it is making sure you gargle with salt water every time you eat ANYTHING, and then doing so again before you go to bed. You can't let any food particles get stuck in the hole left behind from the tooth, if it closes up while some food is in there, it'll rot and turn gangrenous.

Yeah, and I think your jaw hurts from having some bone removed and it creates pressure on your jaw from having the tooth out or something, so that's pretty normal. Needles and noises don't bother me, I've had a few cavities filled so it's never been a big deal. I'll have my eyes closed so as not to see any of the tools and such so I'm thinking I'll just keep myself distracted and go along.

How long did it take? I'm thinking 30 minutes or so would be doable (just 2 teeth).

I bought some Slim Fast shakes, yogurt and pudding, and I have some oatmeal so hopefully that will hold me over tomorrow.

Ouch, good advice. I'll have to remember to do that. They gave me a paper of all the stuff to do after the surgery but that was a month ago and I think I lost it.

For me it took like an hour and a bit (I think an hour and a half) but that was for all 4 at once.

For me they covered my eyes with a blanket (so that you don't see anything and don't get any blood or stuff on your face) so you should be fine.

They had to go all out with the drilling for me, breaking the tooth in several pieces apparently. IIRC my wisdom teeth hadn't surfaced at all yet but were at an awkward angle that could cause trouble later..

30 minutes should be fairly accurate. The bulk of the time will be spent with them shooting your jaw up with Novocaine and then waiting for it to fully numb you. Yanking the teeth out takes like...1 minute, maybe 2 if the roots go particular deep and/or your dentist isn't a very strong guy(it does take some strength to exert enough force to yank em out)

I had mine taken out with sedation, but my gums got infected and I was in living hell for a week anyway. But for all I know, that hurt worse than the actual pulling.

All four of my wisdom teeth are impacted. The dentist says to me, 'Umm...do you get a lot of headaches? Are you in a lot of pain?'
Nope I replied. Then he tells me about it then suggested I have them removed. That was a few years ago. Still haven't taken them out.

See my left tooth is in fully but the dentist was like 'well let's take it out just because', and the other one is like 90 % of the way in but they need to pull it because there is a small (very small) chance of an infection if stuff got between the gum and the tooth.

I'm 25 and my civilian dentist never wanted to take them out. I just have to get them out now because they wont let you deploy if there's even the slightest chance of you having a tooth problem in the deployed location because there won't be dentists.

I'm hoping since they're pretty much in all the way it should be an easy extraction.

Trust me you don't want dental issues over seas but you already know. Army yanked all four of mine out. I was told mine were impacted so what they did was break each down the middle apparently into four smaller pieces and pulled them out. I don't know what they gave me, I remember getting the novacain shots in my gums and I was guess given the "laughing gas" because all I remember was some pressure the smell you get when you drill on teeth and waking up with a mouth full of cotton. If yours are all pretty much in and at the surface then it should be easy cause I know mine were and it was still easy.

As for what it felt like after having all four pulled at once? Army gave me 800mg acetaminophen and it was never really that bad nor did I bleed very long after the surgery. Just leave the cotton in there until your sure it's done bleeding. If you smoke, don't, easiest way to get a drysocket. I was back to doing PT and easting solid food the second day after having them out just don't eat chips or pointy food(lol..?) that will stab the woods and make sure you wash the gunk out of them when you eat until they close.

Sounds good.

I assume you have to rinse very carefully? Could rinsing with salt water give you a dry socket?

I agree. If given the choice, I would always choose sedation. Even if it isn't painful, the sounds you hear are enough to make my skin crawl. My wisdom teeth were coming out of my gums when I had them out. My parents decided that while I had to get mine out, my brothers should get there's out as long as we're down there. At the time, there was no need for either of my brothers to have their WT removed.

We were all sedated, so I'll just describe the aftermath. Mine came out like a charm. I had no swelling and healed fairly quickly.

My brothers had huge swelling and took a lot longer for their gums to heal. Not only that, but we were given our wisdom teeth afterwards, and holy cow!

Mine came out perfectly whole and looked like teeth. Each tooth of my brothers were broken up into 4 or so pieces. So think about it, they couldn't come out whole, so the doctor had to break apart the teeth while they were still in the gums. It seriously looked like they were broken up using pliers and then yanked out. Try to imagine the sound of a tooth being crushed apart with pliers or something. I didn't hear it, but I would be so freaked out if I had.

Sounds don't really bother me. I've had quite a bit of dental work in the past. The sound of drills never bothered me, don't think some cracking noises would. It takes a lot to bother me, and I usually go into things with the attitude that in an hour it'll be over and it wont matter anymore so why freak out about it.

No, least it didn't for me and I rinsed with salt water every trip to the DFAC. I also suggest getting a syringe tube to shoot water into them because you will have stubborn bits of junk and the water coming out won't be enough to hurt but it will get it out.

Hmm. I'm thinking I won't eat anything too solid until at least Friday. Oatmeal and Slim Fast shakes will hopefully last until then and not leave too much behind.

Also, the day you get the tooth removed, don't be an idiot and chew gum. An idiot classmate did that and got the gum stuck and he had to go to the hospital.

No sedation and no medication. Was not that bad. The worst parts was all the blood I had to spit out until it healed. The whole process took like only 5 minutes though. I had all 4 pulled at once and they were supposedly easy yanks. Watched the whole thing go down. I remember gurgling the word cool to my dentist when it was over. How far have your wisdom teeth come in?

Eh, blood, one thing I'm not too fond of. At least when it's my own.

Mine are pretty much in all the way. One is in fact in all the way and the dentist said he doesn't have to pull it, but might as well since he's going in.

They're going to put me on quarters for 3 days, but I'm wondering if I should just go to work on Friday. Then again, I hit my head on the jets so many times I'd probably screw some stuff up.

When the bottom ones were being extracted, the dentist used some sort of crowbar to get leverage under the tooth and used way too much force, severely bruising my lower jaw -on both sides. so keep that in mind if you see the mini crowbar being grabbed..

also -like other mentioned, watch out for infections..

especially in the lower cavities where crap will pool. If you're going to use mouthwash, don't use Listerine, it has additives of some kind that's no good. Ask the dentist to recommend a medicinal disinfectant mouth wash.

take it easy, airman

Hmm... I was going to post some youtube footage of wisdom tooth extraction, but it seems to graphic. Not sure about forum policy regarding that.

Yeah would rather not see that. I'm going in with my eyes closed, and I'll be daydreaming about whatever I can think about so I'm even less aware of anything I might feel through the Novocaine.