Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Wisdom for wisdom teeth

So...i need your comments. I have to get my wisdom teeth taken out, and the thought of them pulling 4 teeth is pretty.....scary. i hate dentists. I have two options. One is to have local anesthetic and have them taken out in the dentist chair, (which is free) and the other is to be knocked out and have them taken out in surgery (which....isn't free). for all you readers out there....what was your experience with either one? would you pay to be knocked out? what's the recovery time like? yikes.

7 comments:

Ben and Melissa James said...

My one and only experience with wisdom teeth was being completely knocked out. The joys of modern medicine! I think it depends on how you react to the meds. I woke up crying (I don't know why) and mumbling about how handsome the doctor was. It was about 3 days until I didn't feel any more pain, recovery is not that bad...you've already had a baby so you can anything!

carrie said...

Kim,

Carrie, I met you at Heather's shower in CA. If you have a high pain threshhold I would do the local. Recovery is faster and you will not be groggey when you are done.

Unknown said...

i'm terrified about this too. tho i dont yet have wisdom teeth. but maybe someday i will and have to make this decision. tho the thought of having another c-section is pretty terrifying. gus was knocked out when he had his removed. said some pretty funny stuff when he came too. his recovery was pretty short and he was up and about pretty soon!

lis said...

Oh boy....I know how you feel about dentists...I didn't have a particular dislike for the dentist until my "teeth curse" started in college. To make matters worse, my bro-in-law is a dentist so I'm torn between familial affection and absolute repulsion ;)

My wisdom tooth story is epic. Here's the short version. I had the bottom right out because it was causing me pain and we scheduled the others. Then 2 days later I had to have the top right out emergency because of an infection. I had the top left out about a while later because the receptionist didn't schedule enough time for both on the left, so then I had to go back a while later to get the top left out. Sigh.

If I were to do it again, I would have them knock me out (or I would hit my head on something to knock myself out) and get all 4 done at once.

Realistically, I would be fine doing it 2 at a time. For me, the hardest part was the day of - having my jaw wide for too long and the actual pulling of the tooth, then the next several hours of being numb and uncomfortable, then not numb and uncomfortable. The few next days I was soar, but nothing a little advil couldn't deal with. I felt back to normal in a few days except for favoring one side while eating.


there's my extremely long 2 cents :)

Victoria said...

I had all four wisdom teeth out at once. I was knocked out for it which I would recommend. I don't remember any of the surgery. I was shaking when they woke me up--I'm sure it was a reaction to the meds. The recovery was pretty quick. I was a little swollen on one side of my mouth because one of the teeth was still below the gums (the surgeon wanted to take all of them out at once). That was the side of my mouth that hurt the worst. I felt pretty good by the third day.

Melissa A said...

I don't know you, but I read your blog all the time! I LOVE South Africa, been to Pietermaritzburg and Mbazwana in Zululand three times on mission endeavors. Anyway, I found your blog through some others from Master's. About the wisdom teeth - I had all four removed and was knocked out. I have also had another tooth pulled before under local. The one local was acutally not bad and the recovery was pretty quick, however I don't know how it would be having four out with local. I liked being knocked out because there was much less anxiety. I woke up crying as well, but I was only groggy for an hour or two. It's really only that very first day that you might need help with the baby and would feel a little under the weather. As long as you follow the directions for care you should be back to normal in no time. God bless!

G. Lee said...

I had to do all 4, but not all at once. 2 of them were really deep and I had to get knocked out for those, the other 2 they were able to do with local. I would say find out how deep they are, if they're almost surfacing, then the local will be ok, but if they really have to dig in there to get them, you might be better off getting knocked out. ; )