That depends. Swelling and pain depends on what your jaw and teeth are like as much as the doctor. The older you the greater the chance for swelling and pain. Dental procedures are often crap, and are the source of all kinds of effects and problems, some not showing up for many years. There is nothing worse than dental work - other than not doing the dental work. To minimize the chance for problems: Make sure that you have to have the teeth removed. That would be a good first step. Right? You probably do, so: Get a good surgeon who does this procedure a lot and has a good reputation. You don't want a hack hacking you. If you know you can tolerate being knocked out, go that route for least horrifying experience. As you saw on video, it often takes a lot of work to get those suckers out. Demand that the surgeon let you stay in recovery for several hours. Do not get up, do not move around, do not rinse out a lot, etc. You want the clot to fully form and set before you get up and get in the car. A good clot minimizes the chances you develop anaerobic bacteria pockets, dry socket (hurts real bad!) and infections. Don't smoke. Stop right now, if you do. Don't take asprin, fish oil or other blood thinning products leading up to the procedure. Take your damn antibiotics as per instructions. Make sure you don't consume stuff that will cancel the antibiotics out. Read the instructions. And after taking the antibiotics take probiotics to replenish your friendly intenstinal bacteria. At home, don't drink with a straw, don't spit, don't rinse very much and do it gently, don't smoke, eat only soft foods, brush very carefully, don't touch the wound area. If you want to minimize the chance for swelling and pain, stay in bed, propped up with pillows (do not lie down), ice your jaw. Good luck.
My bottom two wisdom teeth were almost completely horizontal and partial eruptions...They had to cut my gums up and do a lot of tugging to get them out(I was awake, nitrous oxide). Pretty intense pain for 4 or 5 days. Make sure you get at least percocet if you have this done. My top two were pretty vertical and were pretty pain free compared to the bottom. I'm sure a lot of that was just the intensity of the bottom two redirecting the pain. Good luck keeping your tounge out of the new holes in your mouth btw!
Don't worry too much about it. Be prepared for pain, don't be anxious about it. Wash 5 PKs down with some straight vodka... That should do the trick. Good luck!
I had all 4 displaced while conscious with just a local. It didn't hurt at all but the pressure used to push my teeth out made my jaw hurt for 2 weeks. The holes in my mouth bled for several hours. I thought I was gonna need a blood transfusion after about 8 hours of spitting blood. The best part was driving down the street after I got it done with a mouth full of gauze and drooling blood and spit all over the front of my shirt because I couldn't feel my face. I was talking like a walrus for a while but it was all good the next day. The biggest worry is that the holes get infected. And no, that's not a perverted joke.
Two tips: 1) Milkshakes. 2) While I'm not a big fan of being knocked out (I've never been under total anesthesia before), this was one time may have opted to. When I got mine out - just 2 of 4 - they instead decided to shoot me up with no less than 10 Novocaine shots. I am not making this up. They then took out what can only be described as..well..pliers and proceed to open my mouth and wrench that sucker back and forth. Now, the tension on one's jaw, neck, etc. is bad enough, but to hear the tooth/jaw whatever the hell actually cracking and then see it come out. Not really my favorite memory. And the taste of metal pliers in the mouth just added to the fun. If you have a choice, get all 4 out otherwise they will harass you until the end of time to remove the remaining ones. And I survived afterwards on just Tylenol 3 with very little pain. I think mostly because they cracked all the nerves in my jaw.
After reading all these horror stories, I'm a little embarrassed at how easy mine were to pull. I had all four done (two at a time with a month between) and it wasn't much different from getting other teeth pulled. Just a bit of novacaine, some gauze and a really numb mouth. The one thing I do remember vividly, however, was the sound. That snap, crackle and pop was a bit freaky.
I had all 4 of mine done. I wish they knocked me out, but they gave me some gas and gave me injections in my gum to numb everything so all i heard were my teeth breaking (not a pleasant sound). They gave me vicodin at home and for the first day it was hell and i took it at every possible time (you have to wait certain hours for the tylenol). By the 2nd day I was pretty good with a little soreness. No real problem.
Haven't had my wisdom teeth yet, but in high school I had a dental surgery because the permanent teeth right alongside my 2 front teeth weren't coming out and were growing horizontally over my front teeth. They gave me the nitrous and never knocked me out, so I was awake during the whole thing. Definitely one of the top 5 worst experiences of my life because they started digging where the Novocaine wasn't working.
Is it possible to not have your wisdom teeth pulled? I am 24 and no real signs of needed them pulled, how can you tell when they do need to be pulled?
Some people dont even have the wisdom teeth that need to be pulled. If you have had xrays within the last 5-10 years on your mouth and they didnt mention extracting the teeth there is a good chance you are in the clear
I had all 4 done, 2 at a time a month apart. They put me to sleep and when I woke up they were gone. It was only a couple of days before I was eating like normal. I wouldn't be too worried about it, you'll be fine.
LOL I totally remember not feeling my mouth and blood gushing out. Fun times. And yeah, it bled like noones business, every couple of minutes i'd get up and go to the sink.
I had all four pulled. One was preemtive as I had a cavity in the tooth, and since it would have to be removed at some point, they yanked it out. Sore for a couple days, then ok. Second one was impacted, and it was about the same amount of pain. Both done with novacaine. I didn't really have the money when the last two came do, so I kept putting it off. By the time I went to the dentist, he was appalled that I had waited so long. When your jaw gets puffed up like a chipmunk on both sides like that, he said that the abscess can burst while you're sleeping. He said if you swallow all that crap, it can be fatal. The third one was a bitch. The roots were welded to the jaw bone. They had to 'section' the tooth to remove it. Section means they use a small hammer and a chisel to break the tooth up into pieces. As you might guess, that procedure sucked ass. It was damned sore for about a week. He said that he might have to section the last one, so I told him I wanted it done under a general (sodium pentathal). I went to sleep, and when he woke me up, it was done. Pain for about 3 days. If you're in good health I would recommend having all four done at once, under general anesthetic. You'll be pretty miserable for a couple days to a week, but then it's over and you don't have to deal with it again.
