My wisdom tooth journey.

[Saveme]

I want to apologize about the length of this post before I start. I already made a shorter post about this with questions under the wisdom teeth forum, but I thought I’d post a longer one here without the questions. I’m not really sure what I’m looking for, I guess just some support and well wishes, or even advice or stories from people who faced similar situations and got through them successfully. I guess I really just want to get all this out and I'm glad this forum is here to do that.

Please note that this post contains details about my negative dental experience, so please read with caution.

I’ve been lucky and have never had any cavities or other tooth problems before, so I never really had any fear of the dentist growing up. My appointments were basically just quick cleanings and then about 3 minutes with the dentist where he would look in my mouth. Starting around the age of 15 or so, my dentist began telling me that my wisdom teeth would need to come out in a few years. When I was 19, he said they were ready to come out (all are bony impactions). I was really scared. I do not handle medical things well in general, so I wanted to go to an oral surgeon and be put to sleep and get them all out in one go (this is what everyone else I know who got their wisdom teeth out has done). My dentist said that wasn’t necessary, assured me that getting wisdom teeth out is not a big deal, and suggested that he do them one at a time with just local injections (the thought of which terrified me because I don’t like needles and had never had them in my mouth before). Anyway, I went ahead and signed the papers and made an appointment to get one of my bottom wisdom teeth out. I went into it feeling moderately scared but brave and hopeful that it really would be easy.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The numbing injections weren't bad (I just felt a few little pricks) and they worked well, but I am still scared of having to get them in the future. The dentist had to break the tooth into 7 pieces to get it all out and it took around an hour to get out because it had hooked roots. I would have started panicking if it had taken 5 more minutes than it did. I was on the verge of it as it was. Thankfully the appointment ended right before my breaking point and I left after getting instructions about not drinking though straws, etc. Then I spent some time worrying about what would happen when the numbness wore off. I went home and ate something so I could take my pain medication as soon as possible. My dentist told me not to baby the extraction site and to eat normal food, so I had some Chinese broccoli. I was really freaked out about getting anything in the hole, which seemed really big and deep. It was a somewhat painful meal, but I got through it okay.

A few days later (I don’t remember exactly how long), I began to worry about some other things. I realized that the dentist hadn’t told me how long to avoid straws, etc. and I also wondered what I should do if I ran out of pain medication but was still in some pain (I wasn’t in intense pain, but it still ached a bit and once in the while I would get a quick weird pain that felt very much like a pulled muscle, but that only happened a few times a day). I expected a simple answer to my first question and some kind of “the best over the counter medicine for dental pain is brand x” answer to my second question. Instead, the dentist wanted to see me again. So, I went in and he looked and said I had a dry socket. Here comes the part that truly solidified my new-found dental phobia: after assuring me that it wouldn’t hurt at all, he used a syringe and squirted some kind of paste into my socket. It hurt FAR worse than anything I’ve ever experienced in my life (and I’ve gone though several other fairly painful things). It felt like he had taken a serrated knife, electrified it, and scraped it back and forth in my wound. I honestly felt a bit out of it afterward, like I couldn’t even think right. The mild pain I’d been having was gone shortly after that and my mouth felt almost normal again, but it certainly wasn’t worth going through that kind of pain for. Then the dentist said I’d need to come back every day for a week to have that done again. My mom had gone with me and for some reason she thought he was kidding and meant I only needed to go back one more time. I didn’t know what would happen if I didn’t go back to get my dry socket treated again and my mom had convinced me that it was only one more time, so I went back the next day. I was hoping that because my socket seemed numbed by the medicine that was already in it, maybe I wouldn’t feel it the second time. I was wrong—it was just as bad. As I was leaving, the dentist confirmed that I needed to keep coming back daily for the rest of the week. I absolutely couldn’t go through that again, so I didn’t go the next day. From that point on, I couldn’t even look at the dentist’s office if I happened to ride past it in a car or I’d start feeling sick. I had to look the other way. I had nightmares about that awful pain and still do once in the while, over 3 years later.

My socket eventually healed up and is okay now. I kept going to my old dentist’s office for a while because I liked the lady who cleaned my teeth, but I dreaded seeing the dentist and eventually decided to change because he kept pressuring me to get my other wisdom teeth out and I knew I couldn’t got through that again.

My new dentist seems more willing to listen. He agreed that I need to get my remaining wisdom teeth out, but said I could wait a few years if I wanted to. I decided to wait until I started having problems (hoping I’d be one of those lucky people whose teeth sit happily under their gums forever with no problems). Unfortunately, the week before last I began having a problem. The gum over my remaining lower wisdom tooth got this soft bump thing on and then it popped while I was eating. It scared me, so I went in to see the dentist. He said I had a minor infection where my wisdom tooth is peeking out of the gum (I guess it leaves a bit of a pocket that can catch bacteria and stuff). He said I need to get that tooth out at least or it will just keep happening. My gum was sore for a few days after that, but it feels better now (I kept rinsing with salt water). My dentist suggested that I get my top 2 wisdom teeth out while I’m doing this so that I won’t have to worry about them later. I agreed—I still wish I’d been more assertive with my old dentist and got them all out years ago so all this would all just be a memory now. I can’t live the rest of my life in fear of my wisdom teeth suddenly causing problems as I have been for the past 3 years.

My new dentist offers IV sedation in his office and I will be having it done with that. My appointment is on the 19th and I am absolutely terrified. My mind has been racing nonstop since that bubble popped on my gum. I feel sick to my stomach and have been crying on and off. I just don’t know what to do or how I’m going to cope with this. My biggest fears are getting the IV in the first place, not being sedated enough or having the sedation not work and remembering everything (I’m really hoping that I’ll remember nothing and it will feel like I slept and it was over and done with in minutes), feeling something during surgery (I’m scared about feeling the numbing injections too or them not working, especially near the part of my gum that is/was infected), the pain associated with healing, and having annoying holes in my gums to clean and worry about and that stick around for months to catch food and get sore, but my worst fear of all is getting another dry socket and getting it treated. My dentist said that top extractions almost never get dry socket but he could sew up the bottom extraction site to cut the risk of dry socket there, which does make me feel better. He also said if I do end up with a dry socket, he could numb me up before treating it. That scares me too though, because it seems like getting injections near a sore part of my mouth would hurt pretty bad too.

I keep telling myself that this is a one-time thing and it will be over and done with forever once I go through with it. It’s just so scary and I’m going to be living in constant fear from now until about a week after the procedure or whenever I'm clear of dry socket danger. I sneeze a lot in the mornings and worry that I might get a dry socket because of that. I worry about him hitting my sinuses when he takes out the top teeth. My dentist said this surgery will only take around 30 minutes, but I worry about that because my last one took an hour for one tooth and this is three. All I’m doing anymore is worrying! I really don’t want to do this even though I understand that I need to.

Well, I guess that's all for now. Again, I apologize for the length and any parts that seem unfocused or don’t make sense, I am writing this while trying not to think too much about Thursday and it isn’t working out so well!

 

[Dianne]

Hi SaveMe! While my experience is different from yours, I wanted to post about my extraction/IV sedation experience. Thought maybe it might help you.

I just had 22 teeth extracted on June 12th and I now have top and bottom partial dentures. I had IV sedation. Trust me, you won't remember a thing. Prior to the sedation, I remember sitting in the chair talking to the anesthesiologist, listening to my heartbeat (as they hook you up to monitor your heart, etc.). The next thing I knew, my husband was in the room with me and they were taking me out of the chair and putting me in the wheelchair to take me to the car. Sedation is awesome! It is definitely the way to go for people like us! To add, I had no pain and very, very little sweeling. My oral surgeon was fantastic!

Try not to worry about your upcoming appointment. Our thoughts and fears are actually worse than the procedure(s) themselves. You can do this. You'll realize afterwards that it wasn't as bad as you thought.

Beleive me, I understand the fear. I hadn't been to a dentist in 15-20 years, but finally got sick of living with this fear and thought of my teeth 24/7. I had to do something.

I'm almost done with my dental journey (for now). I go next Tuesday for my second impression and should have my permanent partial dentures sometime in August. I never thought I'd be typing those words. I couldn't even see a commercial on TV or talk about teeth in general. I've come a long way and you can too! Good luck to you! Take care!

 

[Steve In Cleveland]

Saveme, so sorry to hear about your terrible experience before! For what it's worth, I had all four wisdom teeth out as a young adult, under IV anesthesia. I was pretty much out of it the whole time and don't remember any pain at all. The recovery period was pretty mild too-- just some pain meds and eating soft foods for a couple of days.

There's some pretty good recommendations on this site for what to do after extractions, and your dentist should give you similar instructions. Your previous dentist's instructions to "not baby" the socket seem entirely backwards from what I've been told-- being VERY gentle with the socket for 24 hours or so seems to be the recommended best practice. That means no sucking, smoking, chewing, and if possible no coughing or sneezing. I stayed on soft foods for about three days after and then slowly added solids back. Lots of saltwater rinsing too, just slosh your head around and let it spill out-- no swishing or spitting either!-- and that seems to help a lot. My dentist also told me that treating dry socket can be done painlessly with local anesthetics.

As for poking near the irritated site-- your nerves run all around your mouth and gums, so usually the injection site is not actually close (relatively speaking) to your tooth. Think of your tooth and nerves like an electric lamp. With dry socket it's like the lightbulb has been removed and the "nerves" in the socket are exposed to air, etc, causing the pain. The anesthetic is actually applied to the lamp cord, blocking the "current"-- not to the socket itself.

The usual disclaimers (I'm not a dentist, etc), but wisdom tooth extraction is usually a painless thing and with some soft food and care the chances of dry socket should be remote. Let your dentist know your fears about the anesthesia not being enough, and you should be able to work out a signal for letting him know if you still feel anything.

Good luck, I'm sure you'll do fine!

 

[Saveme]

Hi SaveMe! While my experience is different from yours, I wanted to post about my extraction/IV sedation experience. Thought maybe it might help you.

I just had 22 teeth extracted on June 12th and I now have top and bottom partial dentures. I had IV sedation. Trust me, you won't remember a thing. Prior to the sedation, I remember sitting in the chair talking to the anesthesiologist, listening to my heartbeat (as they hook you up to monitor your heart, etc.). The next thing I knew, my husband was in the room with me and they were taking me out of the chair and putting me in the wheelchair to take me to the car. Sedation is awesome! It is definitely the way to go for people like us! To add, I had no pain and very, very little sweeling. My oral surgeon was fantastic!

Try not to worry about your upcoming appointment. Our thoughts and fears are actually worse than the procedure(s) themselves. You can do this. You'll realize afterwards that it wasn't as bad as you thought.

Beleive me, I understand the fear. I hadn't been to a dentist in 15-20 years, but finally got sick of living with this fear and thought of my teeth 24/7. I had to do something.

I'm almost done with my dental journey (for now). I go next Tuesday for my second impression and should have my permanent partial dentures sometime in August. I never thought I'd be typing those words. I couldn't even see a commercial on TV or talk about teeth in general. I've come a long way and you can too! Good luck to you! Take care!

Thanks so much Dianne, that makes me feel better! I really hope my IV sedation experience will be just like yours. It's just so weird to think of yourself being awake but not remembering anything or caring about what goes on around you! I guess it's just hard to understand until you go through it. I sure hope it goes well!

Congratulations on being close to the end of your dental journey and good luck next Tuesday! I know what you mean about being bothered by anything to do with teeth. It seems like they're advertising dentists in my area a lot, every time I turn on the TV, there's some dentist or patient smiling and telling me to come in! I have to look away or change the channel before it gets me thinking about tomorrow.

My appointment is early in the morning tomorrow, so I'm going to try to avoid thinking about it for today (probably not possible, but I'm going to try) and do something fun. I will let everyone know how it goes when I'm done.

Thanks again!

 

[Saveme]

Saveme, so sorry to hear about your terrible experience before! For what it's worth, I had all four wisdom teeth out as a young adult, under IV anesthesia. I was pretty much out of it the whole time and don't remember any pain at all. The recovery period was pretty mild too-- just some pain meds and eating soft foods for a couple of days.

There's some pretty good recommendations on this site (in the Dental Topics section) for what to do after extractions, and your dentist should give you similar instructions. Your previous dentist's instructions to "not baby" the socket seem entirely backwards from what I've been told-- being VERY gentle with the socket for 24 hours or so seems to be the recommended best practice. That means no sucking, smoking, chewing, and if possible no coughing or sneezing. I stayed on soft foods for about three days after and then slowly added solids back. Lots of salt water rinsing too, just slosh your head around and let it spill out-- no swishing or spitting either!-- and that seems to help a lot. My dentist also told me that treating dry socket can be done painlessly with local anesthetics.

As for poking near the irritated site-- your nerves run all around your mouth and gums, so usually the injection site is not actually close (relatively speaking) to your tooth. Think of your tooth and nerves like an electric lamp. With dry socket it's like the lightbulb has been removed and the "nerves" in the socket are exposed to air, etc, causing the pain. The anesthetic is actually applied to the lamp cord, blocking the "current"-- not to the socket itself.

The usual disclaimers (I'm not a dentist, etc), but wisdom tooth extraction is usually a painless thing and with some soft food and care the chances of dry socket should be remote. Let your dentist know your fears about the anesthesia not being enough, and you should be able to work out a signal for letting him know if you still feel anything.

Good luck, I'm sure you'll do fine!

Thank you for your helpful post! I thought my old dentist's instructions were unusual, but I didn't really know for sure at the time. I saw my new dentist yesterday for a pre-op thing, and he said to stick to soft food for a few days, so I went shopping and got some stuff to eat. The instructions he printed out for me don't mention rinsing though (except to say not to rinse for 24 hours after), so I will have to ask him about that tomorrow. I found rinsing with salt water helpful last time, especially if anything got in the area.

I'm glad to hear about your IV experience, it makes me feel better. I hope mine will be good too. It's just such a weird thought!

Thank you very very very much for the info about treating dry socket. I feel much better now and your lamp example is a great way to explain it. I'm still nervous about having needles in my mouth in general, but it has to be better than that horrible treatment last time. I hope I won't get a dry socket again, but at least now I don't have to be quite so scared about the whole thing.

Thanks again!

 

[Dianne]

Thanks so much Dianne, that makes me feel better! I really hope my IV sedation experience will be just like yours. It's just so weird to think of yourself being awake but not remembering anything or caring about what goes on around you! I guess it's just hard to understand until you go through it. I sure hope it goes well!

Congratulations on being close to the end of your dental journey and good luck next Tuesday! I know what you mean about being bothered by anything to do with teeth. It seems like they're advertising dentists in my area a lot, every time I turn on the TV, there's some dentist or patient smiling and telling me to come in! I have to look away or change the channel before it gets me thinking about tomorrow.

My appointment is early in the morning tomorrow, so I'm going to try to avoid thinking about it for today (probably not possible, but I'm going to try) and do something fun. I will let everyone know how it goes when I'm done.

Thanks again!

Sending good thoughts your way for your appointment tomorrow. You'll see, it's not as bad as you think it will be! Take care and let us know how it goes!

 

[Saveme]

Well, I made it! I was really nervous the whole way to the dentist's office and while sitting in the waiting room. Once I got back to the exam room, everyone was really nice and reassuring. The assistant gave me a blanket which made me feel safer for some reason. Then they attached some heart monitors to me, put a blood pressure cuff and a finger oxygen level thing on me, leaned me back in the chair and began trying to find a good vein in my inside elbow crease area for the IV. It took a few minutes, but the dentist found one and got the IV in in one go, which I was really happy about. It really didn't hurt much at all, was quick and felt very comparable to getting your blood drawn. Then he started saine and injected the sleep medicine stuff.

I didn't feel any pain at all and I don't really remember much about the surgery. I do remember the dentist moving a bite block from one side of my mouth to the other at one point (actually, I remember the assistant telling me they were going to do so), I remember looking up at the ceiling once or twice, and I remember the dentist saying something along the lines of "I don't ususally stitch it up that much, but she's really worried about dry socket." It felt like it had only been a few minutes, so when I heard him say that, I though he must have done my lower wisdom tooth first and just got finished with it. Turns out I was competely done after that! He slowly sat me up and gave me a few minutes to come to, then handed me a little bag with my teeth in it (they are pretty neat looking). A few minutes later, the assistant brought in a wheelchair and wheeled me out to my mom in the waiting room, then to the car. It did take right around half an hour, maybe a bit less, and the dentist said everything went really well--an easy surgery. Yay!

I felt fine afterward, maybe a little bit tired and the tiniest bit off balance (especially when I first got out of the dental chair and into the wheelchair) but there was no extreme dizziness, nausea, heavy feeling, or anything else at all. I actually never went to sleep when I got home like I expected to do. I tried my best to eat (managed a few bites of yogurt, maybe half a scrambled egg, and a cup of applesauce) but it was really hard because I was numb. Then I took my pain medicine (he suggested two over the counter pain medications that we stopped to get on the way home but said I can call if I need a prescription for something stronger) and got a few ice packs for my cheeks which I have been putting on and off every 20 minutes or so all day (I actually need to go put them on when I get done typing this).

So far I am not in too much pain at all. My numbness has worn all the way off (yay, no nerve damage!) and I've been home for around 5 hours now. I do think the stitches feel kind of weird, kind of tight for lack of a better word. I also have to keep reminding myself not to go poking around in any of the areas with my tongue! My upper left socket bled quite a bit. I put gauze on it twice and now I think it has mostly stopped--before I could see blood on that side of my tongue when I looked, now I just taste it the slighest bit once in the while. Hopefully it will stop all the way soon, but I've read that light bleeding is normal for the first day or two, so I'm trying not to worry. I was also a bit nervous to keep biting on gauze for fear it would mess up the healing or wipe away any clot that was forming.

Now I'm just worried about the days to come! I hope I don't swell up too much if at all. I also hate swallowing or drinking water or anything else because I'm afraid it will mess one of the blood clots. I'm also a bit nervous because my dentist didn't give me any antibiotics, so I really hope I won't get an infection. He said they are not likely to get infected because the surgery was so quick, but I'm still nervous!

Anyway, I will definitely be posting in the success area on here once I'm a little farther along with my healing. I'll also come back here to update over the next few days. Please keep me in your thoughts/prayers for the next week or two while I continue healing and hopefully don't have any problems! I hope this has helped anyone reading it who is worried about IV sedation-it's definitely a good thing to have for something you're scared about.

 

[carole]

CONGRATULATIONS REALLY WELL DONE. It is good that you have a good considerate dentist now. Happy healing, I wish you all the best.

 

[letsconnect]

Congratulations - wishing you a speedy recovery and thanks so much for the update !!

 

[Saveme]

Hello! I wanted to come back and give everyone an update now that it's been almost a month since I got my wisdom teeth out. I really meant to come back sooner but time managed to keep getting away from me somehow.

Anyway, my healing went very well! I only took pain medicine for the first three days and was never in any bad pain at all. I did swell up a bit on the left side (where I'd had both the top and bottom wizzies out) but it wasn't too bad and went down after four or five days. I also ran a slight fever for a week or so, but I read that is pretty normal so I didn't worry and just kept an eye on it. My stitches felt tight for a few days but once in the while one would break or something (?) and then my gum back there would feel a bit looser/better. They disappeared completely after the first week and everything was fine. Sleeping was uncomfortable for a while. I slept propped up for the first three nights and I also tried to sleep on my back because I didn't want to put pressure on my jaw/sockets. I'm generally a side sleeper, so I had a hard time getting to sleep like that. I eventually gave up and slept on my side anyway after the first 3-4 days which was much more comfortable and did not seem to hurt my sockets at all! I did sneeze a lot despite the antihistamines I took (I remember that I sneezed 12 times the first morning after my surgery). I tried to limit my sneezing as much as I could but it happened anyway and absolutely nothing bad came of it!

I did have one thing happen that scared me quite a bit though--after the first 3 or 4 days, I noticed a really bad odor coming from my mouth. It smelled like my mouth had smelled before when I had dry socket and when I had the gum infection, and when you do a search for "bad smell after wisdom tooth extraction", dry socket and infection are pretty much the only things that come up. That worried me a lot to be honest, but I wasn't in much pain at all and I knew I had a check up in a few days, so I tried not to let it bother me. I told myself that it was probably just because I couldn't brush in those areas and the sockets had to be trapping some food even though I was doing gentle salt water rinses after meals and before bed.

I went back for a check up on the 6th day after my surgery and my dentist said everything was healing up nicely--my top extractions were already closed on the bottoms so they were out of the dry socket danger zone, but my bottom one was still a bit open and he said to go another week without straws, spitting, etc. to let it heal. He said the smell was nothing to worry about and that it just happens sometimes with extractions. He gave me a syringe to better rinse out my sockets after meals, and the smell went completely away after using it for a day or two! The syringe still comes in handy when I get something stuck in a socket. I just wanted to mention that in case anyone else reading this has a bad smell after extractions and is worried--it doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong.

I stuck to a soft diet for the first five days after my surgery, basically stuff I could swallow without chewing like yogurt and protein shakes. I discovered that a banana blended with almond milk and a few ice cubes makes a really tasty "meal"! On the fifth day, I finally decided to try chewing a bit and had some soft potato wedges. The sensation of getting food in my sockets was kind of weird but not at all painful (I tried not to get any in them, but it was pretty much impossible). The wedges tasted especially good after not having solids for so long! I kept to a fairly soft diet for a while after that but worked my way back to a pretty much normal diet by the end of week 2. Once I started eating more, I noticed that the tooth in front of my upper left socket hurt a bit when I bit down on it when chewing, so that scared me a little bit. It didn't seem bothered by heat or cold so I tried not to worry. I did start using some anti-sensitivity toothpaste because it had helped last time (I had bad sensitivity to cold and everything after getting my first wisdom tooth out). That tooth no longer hurts at all, so I guess it just didn't like having its neighbor removed and has settled down now.

I am doing fine now, almost a month after my surgery. I still have holes that catch food now and then, but they seem much shallower than the hole I had last time and I hope they will be gone in just another month or two. I am not in any pain at all and I feel perfectly normal! All in all, this experience has been a good one! I'm glad I got the courage to change dentists before I ran into trouble with my wisdom teeth and I'm relived that it is over now and everything went so well. I will probably still be scared if I ever need other dental work in the future, but at least now I know that I can make it through things like this and I have a dentist that I can trust. I hope my story helps anyone reading it who needs to have IV sedation and/or get their wisdom teeth out! Good luck to everyone and thanks so much for the support--I am really glad a website like this exists to help people. Take care!

 

[carole]

Thank you very much for such a detailed and honest account of your wisdom teeth removal. It is good that you found a dentist that was prepared to listen and put your needs before his own. I hope you will continue to drop in from time to time and let us know how you are doing. If you need or would like to give support please feel free to come back to us.

Don't be a stranger