Wisdom teeth trip report

[Ulysses]

Many years ago, three of my wisdom teeth came out (about halfway out), all pretty much straight. The dentist said there was no problem and getting them out was up to me and completely optional.

Fast forward to a couple months ago. My fourth wisdom tooth decides to come out. It is decayed and a big chunk of tooth actually chips off at some point. It started hurting and I went to the dentist in late September, who sent me to an oral surgeon. Guy did the X-rays and said that the fourth one had to come out, and the other one on that side should probably come out as well. He said the other two were fine, but might as well get them out to avoid any potential future problems. I decide to go ahead with it, only then finding out that this guy is no longer in Blue Shield network. So, after getting reimbursed by insurance, I'll be out like $2k. F that. So, I pay him $200 for the evaluation and X-rays and find a new oral surgeon.

Talk to my dentist and he recommends a few on the plan and I check out some reviews. Find a guy that sounds pretty good.

Wednesday night I go buy a bunch of soup, some chocolate pudding, some tapioca pudding, a cheesecake, some fruit pops, a lot of yogurt, and some croissants. I figure that should hold me for a few days.

Yesterday morning, a friend takes me to Dr. Bedrossian around 9:45. Fill out some stuff and am getting prepped around 10:15. My co-pay for 4 extractions and sedation is about $400. Assistant chick says this should be pretty easy as all my wisdom teeth are aligned pretty straight and not really impacted at all. A little after 10:30, the doctor comes in and they hook me up on some IV sedation (and some gas). I am aware of him probing and yanking at one tooth. Very slight discomfort. Then I'm aware of some pressure as he yanks on the second one. Then, the chick starts unhooking everything. Huh? I ask her if we're done. She says yes. I'm still not confident all 4 were pulled. I ask her how long that was. 30 min. Seemed like 5 to me.

It's 11:05. They stick me in a recovery room. For some reason, they have my ride wait outside. Around 11:45 they let her in and give the post-op instructions - no hard food, pain and antibiotics, gauze in the mouth, etc. We take off to go get my Lortab (described as like Vicodin, but stronger) and some Penicillin. Also get some Ginger Ale, as they said I might get a little nauseous (didn't happen).

Get home around 1pm, pop a couple of pills, eat some yogurts. Watch TV and fade in and out of sleep. I'm feeling a little weak, woozy and disoriented, but not too bad. Worst thing is my mouth bleeding like crazy, having to replace these gauze pads a lot. I start to feel better in the evening. There's constant pain, but it's not very bad. Swelling a bit, but not too much.

Around 10pm I decide to sit up and answer some of the 200 or so unanswered emails I got during the day. I compose three and then all of a sudden start feeling dizzy and can't concentrate at all. Decide that couch and TV is the better option, so I go back to that.

Went to bed sometime around 1am. Got up this morning and the bleeding had pretty much stopped and the pain was not bad. Swelling is a little worse today - they mentioned day 2 and 3 swelling might increase, so I've had the icepack on my face, which sucks. Also still tastes like blood in my mouth, which is pretty gross.

Overall, feeling pretty good today, all things considered. I plan to take it easy this weekend, but expect to be pretty much fine by Monday.

[BottlesOf]

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A little after 10:30, the doctor comes in and they hook me up on some IV sedation (and some gas). I am aware of him probing and yanking at one tooth. Very slight discomfort. Then I'm aware of some pressure as he yanks on the second one. Then, the chick starts unhooking everything. Huh? I ask her if we're done. She says yes. I'm still not confident all 4 were pulled. I ask her how long that was. 30 min. Seemed like 5 to me.

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I had the exact same experience when I had 2 wisdom teeth out and the IV seadtion. Time is compressed, and you can't believe it's over. No pain, slight pressure during the exp.


Good luck with the recovery.

[xorbie]

When I had my teeth removed, I got total anasthesia, so I was out cold for a while. Apparently I woke up but had no idea wtf was going on, because I was like that for half an hour before I can actually remember waking up.

Also the doctor told me to eat a lot of starchy foods with the pain medication, so I had a lot of mashed potato, not sure if its the same with whatever you have.

[Sponger15SB]

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Around 10pm I decide to sit up and answer some of the 200 or so unanswered emails I got during the day.

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Uh, what?!? Two hundred? How is that even possible? Wtf are these about? Do you run some sort of advice column or are the CEO of a 1,000 employee company.

One of the things I remember from getting my wisdom teeth out like 2 months ago was getting just retarded high on the nitrous before I asked him to turn it down. He asked me how I was feeling and I said something like "I wouldn't even care if the building was on fire right now" and then I told him that my friend was getting her wisdom teeth taken out at the exact same time but at a different oral surgeon and he asked who it was and I told him "I'm not really sure, all I know is that he is a real perv who hits on all his female patients, but he is suppose to be really good".

[Blarg]

That's the way to do it. I had all four out without an I.V. drip or anything like that, and novocaine wears off on me very quickly; it's a weird thing with my system. Anyway, it was pretty nightmarish. You had smooth going in comparison.

Be careful you don't let anything get stuck in the holes. It's surprisingly hard to keep them totally free of crap while they heal. A water pic can help a lot.

[JMP300z]

When i got my teeth out I remember waking up from sedation and trying to ask when they were going to pull my teeth...this was like already after being escorted into a waiting room after the surgery....I couldnt talk so I wrote down on a pad "when is the surgery?"...sooooooo out of it.

-JP

[Sponger15SB]

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When i got my teeth out I remember waking up from sedation and trying to ask when they were going to pull my teeth...this was like already after being escorted into a waiting room after the surgery....I couldnt talk so I wrote down on a pad "when is the surgery?"...sooooooo out of it.

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Yeah, I did this after my elbow surgery. Many people do this exact same thing. haha

[jaydub]

I tried to escape but couldn't figure out the door handle.

[Ulysses]

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Uh, what?!? Two hundred? How is that even possible? Wtf are these about? Do you run some sort of advice column or are the CEO of a 1,000 employee company.

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I'm the CEO of a small company and acting COO for a medium-sized company. Bulk of these emails are sales and partnership related. Some are media/PR related. The rest are mainly internal strategy/management-related. And some newsletters and other non-critical information/updates, plus of course some personal email. Probably only 50 or so that are really critical every day that I can't delegate.

[Eurotrash]

ah, I went through this grand experience about 4 months ago. I was out with an IV drip for the first 2.5 teeth, then for some reason they had to lessen the anesthesia, so I was semi-conscious for the remainder. didn't hurt, really, just the pressure that everybody else seems to be describing.

I had similar instructions. The thing I really remember hating about the blood-in-your-mouth taste was that I always feared my stitches were just being ripped out every time I opened my jaw or chewed in any way. Also, after a few days, the area around your jaw might turn a lovely yellowish/black/blue color if you were bruised a bit during surgery (which I think is unavoidable)


the only main difference is that after I had mine out, I popped some Vicodin and was browsing OOT like a champion only about an hour later. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]