Wanted to reply to this since I just (3 days ago) had my four wisdom teeth removed, local only. Still a bit sore and swollen, but can eat normally now.
I personally am fairly resistant to anesthesia and painkillers in general, but I'm not particularly squeamish and can handle being jabbed a dozen times in the gums to get good and numbed, so getting the anesthesia itself didn't bother me.
In my opinion, you should ask your dentist what he would do. He said my teeth would be very simple to remove, so I opted not to go under (both to save money, and because I don't like being unconscious.) No horror stories from me: a little pain, some rather unpleasant grinding/splintering noises (and lots of blood), but that's it.
However, if he had said there was a possibility that he'd have to cut out / break / take out the teeth in several stages, I'm sure I would have opted to go under instead.
Vrtra Theory on
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I had my wisdom teeth out with a local and some gas to breathe in during the operation. I was given the option of either being awake via this method, or being put under. My mom being the overprotective parent she is/was suggested I do the first option because being put under should be done by a registered anesthesiologist(sp?) and not a regular dentist.
I did it primarily because a good friend had it done 2 months prior while being awake during the whole thing, and said it was just cool to watch it all happen, and not feel a thing.
Truth is, it was kinda cool. Watching blood spurt from my mouth all over the dentist as he cracked a tooth from my jaw was funny at the time. The problem was, I did start to feel some stuff eventually. Needles only go so far, and can only get the novacaine so far into the tissue, so they usually have to do more injections.
My suggestion, stay awake. It increases recovery time so I hear, and really, all you have to say is, if it starts to hurt, I'll moan and give me another shot. The dentist should already say this, they've probably done this operation many times. Plus side, you've got a cool story.
I took the anesthesia and was glad of it. I was lucky though as my teeth just popped right out apparently.
Just make sure you go to a very reputable dentist. Anesthesia is really not that dangerous, and the cases where it goes wrong are most likely the result of people who aren't good at their job.
MuddBudd on
There's no plan, there's no race to be run
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Yeah, my dental surgeon was like, I gave this to my kids.. and I was like okay, cool, hit me up. Via the IV (screw laughing gas) and it was wonderful, and I would have been so sad and painful and etc without it.
Get the gas. For the love of God get the gas.
1. Pain is not fun
2. It's not just the pain that's not fun, a man hammering your head isn't fun either
3. The gas doesn't knock you out, you'll be conscious for the entire thing. It just basically makes you not care
4. The gas is kinda fun
5. When you're under the gas it will make the entire procedure seem like its only taking 2 minutes
haha, thats crazy. I just found out last week I was gonna need my wisdom teeth out and I was going to ask here about this sort of stuff, becuase I didnt know if they just numbed your mouth or if they knocked you out, and I am deathly afraid of any kind of surgery type stuff so I wanted to be knocked out.
Your surgeon should be making that recommendation uiltimately. I did a local with some kind of extra gas that fucked me up for a few hours, but didn't put me out.
I went for local, mostly because I'm terrified of being put to sleep. It was completely painless and kind of funny and fascinating in a gruesome way, with blood flying and weird vibrations going through my skull. You don't get to experience stuff like that very often, so you might as well be conscious through it.
I had an impacted one removed with only local anesthetic. They numbed out that part of my mouth, put on some country western music (no I'm not even kidding and it wasn't good country music either), and got to work. They had to slice open a good amount of my gums, crush the tooth with forceps, and extract the pieces, then sew it back up. It wasn't that bad. It'd have gotten pretty fucking boring if they had to do all four that way, because it's time consuming work, but honestly I didn't mind the process for one tooth.
I had two others that they just jimmied out with a pryin' stick. Took like 2 minutes (if that long) and I was done. I got over those with just advils, but I had T3s for the impacted one.
Pheezer on
IT'S GOT ME REACHING IN MY POCKET IT'S GOT ME FORKING OVER CASH
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
Basically I'm saying if you're not a total pussy and it's only one or maybe two impacted teeth and the others can be pulled straight out, you don't need to go under for it. Sitting there awake for 2 hours while they work would be pretty shitty though.
Pheezer on
IT'S GOT ME REACHING IN MY POCKET IT'S GOT ME FORKING OVER CASH
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
Impacted= get knocked out!
I had one wisdom tooth shatter while I was eating, so when I saw the Dentist, he said "Lets get all of em at once"
2 were like crazy impacted. Took 2 1/2 hours. And parts of my jaw. I came too and was thinking - not too bad.
For the love of god, do not blow off taking the medication. He gave me the strongest stuff he could and said it would be bad and I blew him off.
When the pain came I was ready to kill myself. And I have an EXTREMELY high pain tolerance. (I once ran/hopped 3 miles with my left knee basically held together with bandages and athletic tape)
Better story? A good friend had his done, and when he came out from anesthesia he was in the middle of a pirate dream, and jumped on top of the chair swinging an imaginary sword. Then fell off and busted his ass, couldn't feel it so was singing the "yo-ho yo-ho a pirates life for me!" song. The nurses and dentist were laughing so hard they left him there for about five minutes. I actually saw the cctv.
I've had a hell of a lot of dental work done in the past, so when it was time for me, I opted to be put under. I was so sick of horrible things happening in my mouth that I didn't want to be awake this time. My doctor was about as experienced as they come (oral surgeon, not a dentist), and I was his LAST case before retirement. Great guy though, it wasn't like he had one foot out the door or anything.
Afterwards, I woke up feeling fine. I got home, and the pain started to kick in for me. My dad (a pharmacist), gave me something (I still don't know what it was), and about 20 minutes later, I was feeling great. Then about an hour later, I started vomiting... about every 30 minutes... for about 4 hours... it sucked, and each time, there was a bit of blood in with it from the stitched areas. Not really a lot of pain, but it still sucked. After that, I was basically fine, but I couldn't really open my mouth very wide for about a week, so I had a pretty much liquid diet for a bit there. I don't know if the anesthesia caused the vomiting, or the pain meds, but at least I only had to go through that once. I'm still happy that I went with the general, though, as I've always found the pressure and grinding unnerving, and I've smelled that burning enamel smell (friction from the drilling/grinding), and didn't want to smell it again.
embrik on
"Damn you and your Daily Doubles, you brigand!"
I don't believe it - I'm on my THIRD PS3, and my FIRST XBOX360. What the heck?
Posts
I personally am fairly resistant to anesthesia and painkillers in general, but I'm not particularly squeamish and can handle being jabbed a dozen times in the gums to get good and numbed, so getting the anesthesia itself didn't bother me.
In my opinion, you should ask your dentist what he would do. He said my teeth would be very simple to remove, so I opted not to go under (both to save money, and because I don't like being unconscious.) No horror stories from me: a little pain, some rather unpleasant grinding/splintering noises (and lots of blood), but that's it.
However, if he had said there was a possibility that he'd have to cut out / break / take out the teeth in several stages, I'm sure I would have opted to go under instead.
I did it primarily because a good friend had it done 2 months prior while being awake during the whole thing, and said it was just cool to watch it all happen, and not feel a thing.
Truth is, it was kinda cool. Watching blood spurt from my mouth all over the dentist as he cracked a tooth from my jaw was funny at the time. The problem was, I did start to feel some stuff eventually. Needles only go so far, and can only get the novacaine so far into the tissue, so they usually have to do more injections.
My suggestion, stay awake. It increases recovery time so I hear, and really, all you have to say is, if it starts to hurt, I'll moan and give me another shot. The dentist should already say this, they've probably done this operation many times. Plus side, you've got a cool story.
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Just make sure you go to a very reputable dentist. Anesthesia is really not that dangerous, and the cases where it goes wrong are most likely the result of people who aren't good at their job.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
1. Pain is not fun
2. It's not just the pain that's not fun, a man hammering your head isn't fun either
3. The gas doesn't knock you out, you'll be conscious for the entire thing. It just basically makes you not care
4. The gas is kinda fun
5. When you're under the gas it will make the entire procedure seem like its only taking 2 minutes
Knock-out Gas: Throwing up on yourself, feeling like shit for a few days.
Local: Being stuck with needles, seeing doctors remove parts of your body.
I had two others that they just jimmied out with a pryin' stick. Took like 2 minutes (if that long) and I was done. I got over those with just advils, but I had T3s for the impacted one.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
I had one wisdom tooth shatter while I was eating, so when I saw the Dentist, he said "Lets get all of em at once"
2 were like crazy impacted. Took 2 1/2 hours. And parts of my jaw. I came too and was thinking - not too bad.
For the love of god, do not blow off taking the medication. He gave me the strongest stuff he could and said it would be bad and I blew him off.
When the pain came I was ready to kill myself. And I have an EXTREMELY high pain tolerance. (I once ran/hopped 3 miles with my left knee basically held together with bandages and athletic tape)
Better story? A good friend had his done, and when he came out from anesthesia he was in the middle of a pirate dream, and jumped on top of the chair swinging an imaginary sword. Then fell off and busted his ass, couldn't feel it so was singing the "yo-ho yo-ho a pirates life for me!" song. The nurses and dentist were laughing so hard they left him there for about five minutes. I actually saw the cctv.
Afterwards, I woke up feeling fine. I got home, and the pain started to kick in for me. My dad (a pharmacist), gave me something (I still don't know what it was), and about 20 minutes later, I was feeling great. Then about an hour later, I started vomiting... about every 30 minutes... for about 4 hours... it sucked, and each time, there was a bit of blood in with it from the stitched areas. Not really a lot of pain, but it still sucked. After that, I was basically fine, but I couldn't really open my mouth very wide for about a week, so I had a pretty much liquid diet for a bit there. I don't know if the anesthesia caused the vomiting, or the pain meds, but at least I only had to go through that once. I'm still happy that I went with the general, though, as I've always found the pressure and grinding unnerving, and I've smelled that burning enamel smell (friction from the drilling/grinding), and didn't want to smell it again.
I don't believe it - I'm on my THIRD PS3, and my FIRST XBOX360. What the heck?