wisdom teeth ??
Posted by Anonymous on Dec 08, 2008 · Member since Dec 1969 · 11789 posts
I just got back from the dentist and they told me that I should have my wisdom teeth taken out :-\ I really don't want to do this if I don't absoultley have to.
I'm 23 and only one of my wisdom teeth have grown in (so far anyway). It doesn't seem to be causing any problems. I'm not sure if the other three are going to grow in or not. What did you guys do? Have you had your wisdom teeth taken out or not? Any advice?
I've got all 4 of mine. They all grew in. I had a minor cavity in one recently that I needed filled, but my bottom jaw doesn't numb well for some reason and I was in a lot of pain during the filling and the dentist (who I just started seeing) was like "You should just have them pulled since they don't numb." I didn't think that was a good reason, and it sounded excruciating and I just told him to fill the damn tooth.
When I first had my braces off they told me to wear them until I got married.
This is very odd...and not..right. What if you don't want to get married? What if you are a lesbian (who doesn't want to get married)? Bah. Just..strange.
I got mine pulled when I was 20. The bottom one was growing sideways so it would have eventually pushed my bottom teeth (I never needed braces and I wanted to keep it that way). The top ones were fine but they pulled them too. Like Storm, I only had 3 wisdom teeth, and like Meggs, I pulled out my own stitches. Actually it was just one stitch, in the bottom one, and it came loose so I just yanked it. I also recovered really fast, like by the end of the day. Other people I've known took about a week to recover.
My best friend woke up while she was getting her wisdom teeth pulled. Not all the way...she was conscious but couldn't move or say anything. She got to hear them sawing part of her jaw.
My mom still has all 4 wisdom teeth and she's 56.
I am one in 1000 people who does not have her wisdom teeth. I was born without them. It's a mutation. Sorry.
L2A
(highly evolved) ::) :D
I was given a extra wisdom tooth.
Back when I was about 23 I had 5 pulled with just a little Novocaine. I refuse to be knocked out. Was not given any stitches and had to keep a lot of gauze in my mouth till the bleeding slowed down.
Reason I had mine taken out was because like a few posts ago I had one growing sideways. It was starting to hurt.
Had no real problems took about 45 minutes and I was able to go back to work afterward.
thats so weird you just posted this, mine JUST started coming in a couple days ago. it doesnt hurt at all, and i've been told for YEARS that they should be taken out, I kept saying no no hoping that they would just stop moving or something, but ohwell. Luckily they dont hurt. You just never know if they will cause problems or not.
I've heard so many horror stories about people's wisdom teeth. I only had 3 wisdom teeth and they all came out easily. I don't know why I didn't have a fourth....mutant I guess, but clearly not as big a mutant as BabyBumblB! ;)
Yeah I've been called a shark a few times... and no one was willing to let me put all 8 under my pillow for the tooth fairy! I tried! :)
With my experience, do NOT get them out if you don't have to! I got mine taken out right before I graduated college last spring because I wasn't quite sure what my benefit package was going to be for my job and as a student I was still under my parents' insurance, so it was more of an insurance in case my company didn't offer dental insurance. ANYWAYS, I got all four taken out at the same time. The dentist looked at the x-rays then my mouth and said they were rather routine extractions and wouldn't take long. It took over an hour and the didn't even knock me out! All they used was novocaine and it kept wearing off during the procedure! Afterwords the dentist apologized and assured me if he knew to begin with they would be so difficult to remove he would have used something other than novocaine.
I'm sure my case is an outlier and doesn't happen often, but it was a really really terrible experience. So if you don't have to get them out I don't recommend it...
Man, that sounds painful...no wonder you advise against it! I had a baby tooth pulled at the dentist w/novocaine and remember the root ripping sound/feeling from that- I can't imagine how bad 4 wisdom teeth must have been!
I got mine out about 5 years ago...I was knocked out so it was fine. There was some throbbing pain when the meds first started wearing off, but nothing too bad. Do it chickpea!
With my experience, do NOT get them out if you don't have to! I got mine taken out right before I graduated college last spring because I wasn't quite sure what my benefit package was going to be for my job and as a student I was still under my parents' insurance, so it was more of an insurance in case my company didn't offer dental insurance. ANYWAYS, I got all four taken out at the same time. The dentist looked at the x-rays then my mouth and said they were rather routine extractions and wouldn't take long. It took over an hour and the didn't even knock me out! All they used was novocaine and it kept wearing off during the procedure! Afterwords the dentist apologized and assured me if he knew to begin with they would be so difficult to remove he would have used something other than novocaine.
I'm sure my case is an outlier and doesn't happen often, but it was a really really terrible experience. So if you don't have to get them out I don't recommend it...
I got my wisdom teeth out with just the lidocaine, no "knocking out". It wasn't that bad, was kind of boring... I didn't feel any pain, but I did feel pressure. And man, my dentist had a tough time getting them out! I only had two wisdom teeth, and he took them out on separate occasions so I could still eat with one side :) Hearing other people's stories makes me glad of this. But a problem was that for the second procedure, I had a (tad?) bit of tolerance to the lidocaine - it took a lot more than it had before to get me numb.
I had all four of mine out the week after I graduated from high school. The bottom two were impacted. Anyway, I was under anesthesia during the whole thing and on heavy painkillers afterward. I will say, you would probably know if they were impacted. Mine hurt pretty bad. I guess the worst hurt though, was I had mine out the day after I got back from "senior week" at Myrtle Beach and from what my dad "hasn't told me," I told him some pretty interesting details about my beach trip. ha.
I've heard so many horror stories about people's wisdom teeth. I only had 3 wisdom teeth and they all came out easily. I don't know why I didn't have a fourth....mutant I guess, but clearly not as big a mutant as BabyBumblB! ;)
I only had 3 too! They didn't show on x-rays at all until I was 19 or 20, either.
I paid for them to be out with one summer's earnings, since my insurance was only going to cover (part of) the one that was obviously coming in crooked (impacted, I think it's called), even though there was clearly no room in my mouth for the top two either. So, I went to a good surgeon instead of the one who told me a story about failing organic chemistry in college, and it took 20 minutes (literally). I had awesome dreams while under, although I forgot them--I just remember that I dreamed. It is very good, restful sleep, as someone mentioned--it just also cost $1200 for 20 minutes of it...
Only the bottom one had to be stitched up.
Don't be scared, it doesn't hurt!
It's important to remove your wisdom teeth if they're impacted. I waited too long to get mine taken out, and ended up with an infection in one of the bottom teeth due to food getting trapped in it. The procedure is relatively quick and painless, as they use plenty of anesthetic. You should ask your dentist/oral surgeon if you can get them removed two at a time instead of all at once.
I only had 3 teeth for some reason, a fourth never grew in. I first got the infected one removed and then made a second appointment to get the other two taken out. The healing process was very easy. I didn't have any bruises after the surgery and did not feel a lot of pain after the anesthetic wore off. I didn't use any of the Vicodin they gave me at all.
Anyway, good luck! I promise it's not as terrible a procedure as you may think.
I am 23 also and had mine out this past summer. All 4 of them came out (although only 2 were through the gums - the other 2 were stuck between my jaw bone and back molars, with not enough room to grow out). They didn't seem to be causing much trouble, but since I had them out I've had WAY less headaches. I never realized the cause was the teeth.
The procedure itself was actually great, haha. I was sedated, not gassed, so I wasn't technically unconscious, but I definitely was NOT awake for it - when I woke up after it was done it felt like I was waking up from the best nap of my life, haha. As for food and recovery, my recovery was no problem - after 2 or 3 days I was pretty much eating my regular foods again, and my face hardly swelled (check out this pic - taken 3 days after I had them out!) I don't think this is typical for everyone, but the fact that 2 of mine were impacted and had to be 'dug out' and this was STILL all the swelling I had is pretty fantastic, I think, so it's definitely possible to have a smooth recovery. (yes, the pic was taken at a bar as well...hah. That's how good I was feeling). My mouth was definitely sore the first 2 days or so afterwards, but some extra strength tylenol solved that. I was also given antibiotics, but I reacted to them (just a rash though) and was told to stop taking them. No big deal.
Anyway...I know some people who have been much more swollen, but no one I know has had a terrible experience with having them out. I've also had teeth pulled while awake but mouth-frozen - that was much less fun, but it didn't hurt. Waking up from a sedative is also not as...intense as waking up from general anaesthesia can be.
hope that makes you feel a bit better :) it's also nice to have people fuss over you (ie bring you food and stuff) while you take a day or two to return to normal.
oh right, it's possible to bruise from the procedure too - not in the traditional sense (from impact), but from, you know, blood leakage from the tooth site. I had bruising on one side, and well, it made for a funny encounter. I was at a PETA conference and was talking to some lady I had just met and made a passing reference to my boyfriend - and then she was sort of oddly telling me how, you know, there's probably better people for me, etc (i wasn't complaining about him, i mentioned we went out to some new vegan place), and it took me a while to figure out why she was saying these things. Then I realized, and told her I had had oral surgery the previous day ;D She was a little embarrassed.
Leave them in if you're not having any problems. Maybe the dentist sees something on your xray??
I have all four of my wisdon teeth. They came in perfectly. I have a big mouth. LOL
Once I was told I wasn't doing a good job brushing, and got a cavity in one and since then I've made an effort to get way back there. Other than that, no trouble at all.
I only had two on the right side of my mouth. I had them removed several years ago. I don't even remember when for sure. I asked to be knocked out and was in and out of the office in 20 minutes.
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