Topic: Wisdom Teeth....fuck me

[gpw11]

Got my wisdom teeth taken out earlier today.  The good news is that it was free.  The bad news is that it ended up taking roughly 6 hours to pull four teeth.  The third one they went to pull was fuuuuuucked.  They started just before the start of the Germany game, and it was still going after the game was over.  If there wasn't a tv, I would have lost my shit, especially once the freezing started to wear off.  The dentist also had to clear his afternoon schedule.

Also, do you think this means I have an adamantium jaw?

[Quemaqua]

You were fucking awake?  That must have sucked.  When they pulled mine I was out like a light.

[gpw11]

Yeah, but it really wasn't all that bad until they got to the nightmare tooth and shit started to wear off.  At first I didn't want to say anything 'cause I just wanted to get it over with and not have to wait for the re-freezing, but eventually they caught on....which was good because it was getting very very painful. 

[Ghandi]

Mine never came in, thankfully.

Did you score any awesome drugs out of the ordeal?

[gpw11]

Nothing awesome at all.  Some anti-inflammatory, some high-dosage Ib profun, and good old penicillin.   Nothing that even would give you a slight buzz....although I did get the options of T3's.  It's just....you know, I got shit to do and it's not fun having your pain killers tied to a high all the time.

[Quemaqua]

I've never understood the deal with painkillers.  They generally don't actually help me at all and I've never gotten a buzz off of any of them.  Everyone loves Vicodin but that crap didn't even help the pain when they gave it to me.

[Xessive]

Ooooh GPW, I'm glad you came out of that relatively unscathed. I hate trips to the dentist mainly because I hate having to keep my mouth open for prolonged periods, then of course there are all the other discomforts of being there.. with someone prodding and probing my mouth.

I still have all four of my wisdom teeth and every time I go to any dentist I get the "human evolution" speech; basically humans are evolving and the wisdom teeth are vestigial and redundant etc. Four dentists, so far, have given me the same lecture then followed up with an unattractive price ($500~$800 per tooth).

My experience with painkillers is similar to Que. Localized anesthetic numbs extreme sensations but I'm still very aware of the pain though it's more tolerable. Other anesthetics or knock-out gas don't give me a high or anything, I just pass out within 10 secs of having it administered. I have been told that I do things when I'm 'out' though, like I'll get out of bed or have conversations in Spanish or something. Weird.

[Ghandi]

Everyone loves Vicodin but that crap didn't even help the pain when they gave it to me.

My one and only foray into pharma was Vicodin and it did nothing to me. Everyone has a different tolerance.

I rarely take any pills now - every now and then I will take some ibuprofen but usually I like to let my body to the work.

[gpw11]

I still have all four of my wisdom teeth and every time I go to any dentist I get the "human evolution" speech; basically humans are evolving and the wisdom teeth are vestigial and redundant etc. Four dentists, so far, have given me the same lecture then followed up with an unattractive price ($500~$800 per tooth).

Generally, I think the newer view on it is not to do it unless you have to.  Crowding, any type of impaction (this was my case), or problems with the jaw bone. Some athletes get them pulled because it avoids a potentially costly future problem (and an impacted wisdom tooth that takes the wrong kind of hit can actually crack your jawbone apparently). But to just get them taken out because they're redundant?  That's retarded.  I have good coverage so it was free for me, but it would have been at least $1,500 otherwise.  Beyond that, unless you're very lucky, you're going to be dealing with borderline invasive surgery.  Like, they don't just pull a tooth...they cut into your gum, try to free the tooth from the surrounding tissue as much as possible, crack it with a chisel, and then pull the various pieces that remain.  If you're lucky, they might be able to pop the tooth, but it's still below the gumline so they still have to cut away all the tissue.

Never opt for any kind of surgery unless you need to.  The chances of complications may be slight, but it would suck to get an infection (in your mouth no less) from a procedure that was completely unnecessary.   Also, dry socket is a very real possibility and apparently the worst shit you could possibly ever experience. 

[Pugnate]

My extended family has had issues with wisdom teeth, and I've heard some nightmare stories.

[scottws]

I've never understood the deal with painkillers.  They generally don't actually help me at all and I've never gotten a buzz off of any of them.  Everyone loves Vicodin but that crap didn't even help the pain when they gave it to me.

I know exactly what you mean.  I've been prescribed Vicodin many times but usually I just take Bayer.  I did actually take the Vicodin with my broken hand and I will say that in this case it did help, but it was nothing amazing.

I will tell you though that if you take Vicodin and smoke a certain tobacco-like substance... wow.  You end up worthless for an hour or so but you feel pretty damn good.

As far as wisdom teeth, I still have mine.  It really burns my mom up because of the thousands they spent on braces and the wisdom teeth really fucked that all up.

[beo]

haha, never imagined scott would of ever smoked a "certain tobacco-like substance"!

[gpw11]

so. i woke up today and am barely swollen/not really in pain at all....wtf?  Seriously, should I expect this to get worse?

[Cobra951]

I only had one of mine taken out.  I'm missing a couple of adult teeth (never had them) and I lost one more last year.  (It cracked badly some 15 years ago, got it extensively repaired, and the repairs gave way last year.  I let it go.  Will get an implant or bridge if I can ever afford one.)  The 3 wisdom teeth left are definitely not vestigial in my mouth.

Inside mouth tissue and gums heal very quickly, particularly when you're young.  If there's no infection to fight, a couple of days will make a huge difference.

[scottws]

haha, never imagined scott would of ever smoked a "certain tobacco-like substance"!

Internet Scott, including Overwritten.net Scott, is a mere shadow of the real me.  There is quite a bit I keep close to the vest.

Oh, and I just remembered some oral surgery I had a few years back.  I hadn't been to a dentist in awhile and a piece of food got inside the gum behind one of my wisdom teeth and got infected.  It was real bad.  I tried to stick it out for a few days, but when I couldn't sleep because it hurt so bad, I set up an emergency appointment with a local dentist on a Saturday.  He cleaned it out and noticed that the gum line at my front lower teeth was very recessed and recommended I see a periodontist, which conveniently they had at the same office.

It turned out that my orthodontist did something to fuck up a bone plate in my lower jaw when he was doing his treatment with my braces all those years ago.  This in turn is causing the bone holding my front teeth in to basically go away slowly, and with it the gum.

So the periodontist said to fix that they do grafts.  Basically, on two occasions, they cut connective tissue from the roof of my mouth and fashioned it into additional gum and stitched it to my lower gums.  The first time, the Novocaine made me incredibly dizzy for some reason and I felt sick for awhile and almost passed out.  The second time, they gave me less Novocaine.  Less to the point where I could feel the blade slicing into my mouth and it hurt, but not terribly and I figured it was better than my first experience.

Later on the second graft fell out in a pool when I used a snorkel too soon after the periodontal surgery.  I never got it replaced though because I was making like $23,000/yr. and my insurance didn't cover periodontal surgery.  I paid all cash and it was like $2,000.

I guess I need to have this redone every 5-10 years or so.  It will never just be normal.

[Raisa]

that's exactly what wisdom teeth will do to you--fuck you.

I'm lucky enough not to have them.. they just don't exist in my mouth. haha

IT took 3 hours to take my sister's out. I had to go with her to the dentist. They ended up hacking off part of her bone because the bone was somehow blocking part of the tooth.

[Pugnate]

Internet Scott, including Overwritten.net Scott, is a mere shadow of the real me.  There is quite a bit I keep close to the vest.

Oh, and I just remembered some oral surgery I had a few years back.  I hadn't been to a dentist in awhile and a piece of food got inside the gum behind one of my wisdom teeth and got infected.  It was real bad.  I tried to stick it out for a few days, but when I couldn't sleep because it hurt so bad, I set up an emergency appointment with a local dentist on a Saturday.  He cleaned it out and noticed that the gum line at my front lower teeth was very recessed and recommended I see a periodontist, which conveniently they had at the same office.

It turned out that my orthodontist did something to fuck up a bone plate in my lower jaw when he was doing his treatment with my braces all those years ago.  This in turn is causing the bone holding my front teeth in to basically go away slowly, and with it the gum.

So the periodontist said to fix that they do grafts.  Basically, on two occasions, they cut connective tissue from the roof of my mouth and fashioned it into additional gum and stitched it to my lower gums.  The first time, the Novocaine made me incredibly dizzy for some reason and I felt sick for awhile and almost passed out.  The second time, they gave me less Novocaine.  Less to the point where I could feel the blade slicing into my mouth and it hurt, but not terribly and I figured it was better than my first experience.

Later on the second graft fell out in a pool when I used a snorkel too soon after the periodontal surgery.  I never got it replaced though because I was making like $23,000/yr. and my insurance didn't cover periodontal surgery.  I paid all cash and it was like $2,000.

I guess I need to have this redone every 5-10 years or so.  It will never just be normal.

That whole post made me feel like screaming.