So, on Wednesday I got all four of my wisdom teeth surgically removed. And, I will tell you, it is quite painful.

To recap:

Monday, I went to the oral surgeon after I had called my dentist and told her I was having trouble with my wisdom teeth. She refered me to an oral surgeon, and after having to wait two weeks and then re-scheduling to conflicts with my schedule, I got in to see the surgeon. He told me that I needed to have them removed, which was not news to me. Three of them were not visible, but occasionally caused pain, while the fourth one was wedged into the back of my mouth and often caused great deals of pain. The office had an opening on Wednesday and so I took it, figuring best to get it done and over with.

Wednesday: I arrived at 8:20 a.m. for my appointment (at 8:30). At 8:40, the nurse came out and called my name. She led me to a room with a fairly standard dentist chair. I sat down, placed a cap over my hair (which is short) and settled in. She placed a tube over my nose to deliver "laughing gas" which is supposed to relax you. I was already quite relaxed as I've had three major surgeries preceeding this one. Except for shivering due to being cold I was quite calm. The nurse then put the blood pressure cuff on my arm and then the doctor inserted an IV. Within 30 seconds I was out.

About an hour later I woke up with gauze in my mouth and feeling quite woozy. I have strong pain medicines which help, but unfortunately put me to sleep which means I cannot take them before I go to work (such as this evening). I'm glad the teeth are gone, but I'm in a lot of pain.

And I just felt like telling everyone all about it.

I'm sorry you are in so much pain. I know a guy who is currently going through this agony. Mine haven't come in yet and I'm wondering if I'm weird or if that happens to a lot of people.

Well... when I got my braces 3 months ago I was told I was going to get my wisdom teeth taken out as their making my back teeth crooked, and I would get them 3 months later. Well, I haven't gotten them out yet. Maybe sometime next month, hope it isn't too painful..

I had 12 teeth pulled when I was 13 and I believe my wisdoms were taken out..

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I had to leave work early today due to severe pain. I took another of my pain pills, hydrocodeine, around 8:30, but by 2:30 it had worn off. For the next hour I was nearly unfunctional so my boss let me go home. I came home, took two pills and went to sleep for about 4 hours. I still feel pretty bad, but at least the pain is in check.

uuh i got one out like a year an 1/2 ago, yeah very painfull!

Try all four at once. I'm feeling sleepy again from the meds. Might be time for me to go back to sleep.

I had all four done at once when I was 27.

The teeth were litterally rotting in my mouth and it was a complicated pull.

I don't know whether my doctor was better, I was lucky, or I just have a high threshold of pain, but after I woke up from sleep induction I didn't have to take one vicodin or any other pain medication... didn't really hurt... considering that before then I wanted to jab a knife through my gums and I was constantly on asperine to numb the pain of the teeth themselves. They were rotting because they were hardly breaking the gum-skin. They were rotting IN my gums, it was gross.

It made me go into debt nearly $4000 because I had no medical care (when I was unemployed)... sigh.

jennifer, not all people have to get them removed.

I think my surgery is going to cost me $100. Because they were impacted (meaning the jaw bone was preventing them from breaking through the gum), they were covered under my dad's medical insurance. As such I only am responsible for the deductible payment.

I got mine out last summer. The procedure went very smoothly (even better than I thought it would), not a lot of pain, not too debilitating. I did receive anesthesia for the operation, though. Don't know how I would have been with just laughing gas. Eek.

Thus, I unfortunately don't have any tips for you, Rogue, other than to make sure you don't do anything funny that could disturb the clot.

I've heard differing stories on the procedure, from those that went as easy as mine, to those who said that the recovery period was the worst pain they've ever felt (my brother).

I'd also suggest early removal. It seems the older the patient, the more complicated the procedure is to perform (impaction, stuff like that).

I was warned at my last cleaning of atleast two on the bottom. My mom only had her top two grow in, so hopefully it's the same for me. I'm dreading the day I go in to get them removed. I have a huge phobia of the dentist, and after seeing Coma, I don't want to be put under. Eww. Creepy thoughts.

Yeah, I think I tried to move back to solid foods to early and caused my jaw un-needed pain. I'm just so tired of eating pudding and Ensure!

And I was completely anestithized for it. I am not very tolerant of general anestesia, so I am quite glad they did (it was also probably because three of them were impacted).

I've never heard of them doing localized anesthesia for wisdom teeth, I thought it always required complete anesthesia? There is a risk of perminent damage from the operation.

Don't worry about having the procedure done. The year or three of pain that you go through because you put it off is not something I would wish on even my enemies.

I've heard of some people not being put completely under anestesia, but I don't know any of them personally so I really am not sure.

Yeah, I was in a lot of pain before I had them out, but it would be hurting for a week and then stop and then restart. I'm just glad they are gone.