Wisdom Teeth Advice: Local Anesthesia/NO only

[WantWisdomTeethGone]

Hi everyone! I'm wondering if anyone could share their experience having impacted wisdom teeth removed while awake (no IV sedation, just local anesthesia or NO)? I really want to avoid sedation if possible but I'm afraid it will be traumatic if I stay awake. Please share any success stories you had going this route! Also, did anyone have a dentist/surgeon who used the Wand anesthesia delivery system?

 

[Micham]

Hi! I just had two removed 3 days ago, and my other two were removed 2 months ago, all with just local anaesthesia.

Honestly, the only discomfort I had was from the needle but it's more like a sharp pain that immediately dulls, so it was OK. I had inflamed gums as well from another condition so it was worse for me than would be for most people, but even so, virtually no pain. Your lips and tongue go numb in a few minutes and it feels weird, but you can still swallow and be fine. They should check with you to make sure you feel nothing.

For my less impacted top teeth, both were out in under a minute. Super fast and didn't really feel anything. The bottom teeth were more of a struggle, basically you do feel a lot of tugging and pressure on the lower jaw as they extract the tooth, but absolutely no pain. These took around 1-2 minutes but still very fast. The stitches for the bottom teeth feel weird but not painful, you kind of feel the sensation of movement through the gum but it's dulled and again no pain.

I was very nervous before, but it really was not too bad being awake. I kept my eyes closed the whole time, and all I really felt was quite a lot of pressure but no pain. Being able to go home within 45 minutes was a really big bonus! I did not take painkillers either, just ice. So I was really pleased.

The best thing is to let your dentist know what you are really nervous about, they are really accommodating these days and they will chat with you beforehand.

 

[NervousUSA]

@WantWisdomTeethGone I just got an impacted lower one and a non impacted upper one removed this way, with novocaine only. My experience was very like the previous poster. It was painless, and no big deal. It took a little while to get the impacted one, and I could feel drilling, pressure, tugging, etc, but there was no pain. There were some cracking and grinding sounds. The non impacted one was very quick. I think the whole activity took about 20 minutes, and my dentist took a break during this procedure too, he had to go do something in another room. The injections were mildly painful. After this experience, I don't understand the push for sedation for patients who don't request it or want it for this procedure. I had to switch practices to find a general dentist who would not refer me to an oral surgeon, or insist on sedating me themselves, to get this done.

 

[mariyam]

I'm so glad I stumbled in this post. I have a wisdom tooth extraction coming up (along with other thing but not the same day) and general anesthesia isn't an option for me, really bad post anesthesia anxiety and confusion.

@NervousUSA I also don't understand why so many push for general anesthesia for patients. For the longest time I really thought that was absolutely necessary and it couldn't be done without out. I'm so happy there are people in the world who have survived the process without GA. These stories make me feel less panicked, though the day of the procedure will probably be another story.

 

[NervousUSA]

@mariyam I believed it couldn't be done without it too, which was part of the reason I didn't see a dentist for about 19 years. because I had freaked out from them trying to send me to an oral surgeon to have all four pulled with GA or sedation when I was a young teen. GA and sedation are my biggest dental related fear and I can barely handle even conversation about them with a dentist. I was very panicked on the day of the procedure too, because of all the hype around wisdom tooth removal, and the push for GA or sedation made me think it might be some extreme thing. Now I just feel dumb, because it was so no big deal. I had a non wisdom tooth extracted another time, and that was worse than wisdom tooth removal.

I put a lot of thought into this after finding out how easy the procedure is, and suspect or wonder a couple things about it after my experience. One is that it may be financial. With my general dentist, the fee set by my insurance company to pull one wisdom tooth is $178, but I know oral surgeons charging many times this much, thousands of dollars, and all requiring general anesthesia or at least sedation, as far as I know. This price difference could cause motivation for the more expensive procedure. My dentist wasn't very enthusiastic about doing it and would have clearly been just as happy to refer me to an oral surgeon, which made me wonder if it wasn't super profitable for him. I had to be firm with him to get what I wanted.

I also believe that it could be something to do with the removal of un-errupted wisdom teeth from teens. I have read that this is both more expensive than removal of errupted or semi errupted wisdom teeth, and much more painful to recover from, since it is more invasive. My husband had one un-errupted wisdom tooth taken out with sedation as a teen, and he described an experience being on vicodin and antibiotics and in terrible shape for a week, but he had the others taken out later with novocaine, when they were more developed and said it was nothing, no big deal, just like my experience. Maybe people feel that teens are less likely to stay calm with just novocaine, either because of young age, or because a procedure with a scalpel and stitches for each tooth, or imagine the procedure itself being more painful because of the more painful recovery, I don't know. Then they start thinking all wisdom teeth removal would be like this kind of situation. Kind of a one size fits all. I am really not sure. I do know though, that sedation itself doesn't reduce pain, just affects anxiety, so even in these situations with teens, it is still novocaine that is dealing with the pain, if a full GA wasn't used.

Anyways I hope that everything works out for you and turns out to be no big deal. I can tell you I have two more wisdom teeth to pull next month, and after experiencing the other two I have no feeling of worry or fear at all, I feel like its nothing to worry me. Before doing the first two, I was a state of dread for months that completely ruined my quality of life, but it turned out to be a total non event.

 

[mariyam]

@NervousUSA I'm so glad I am not the only one who was taught certain things weren't possible without tons of fanfare and panic inducing hospital stays or being incapacitated and waking up confused and now with the bonus of what is wrong with my mouth. When I was told some mild amnesia was normal I said nope no thank you. But now to learn that it was just their normal is just irritating. How many of us were traumatized by that teaching when it wasn't even necessary at all. One of mine is slightly tilted so the dentist explained it may get loud but there shouldn't be any pain because we aren't in the 1600s and her goal isn't to further traumatize me and the person being in pain is not part of being a good dentist (or person). The "rational" part of my brain is like ok we can do this we are armed with info and people's good experiences. Of course telling the freaked out part of my brain to chill out is a bit more challenging. Thank you so much for sharing. It's helped me breathe better.

 

[NervousUSA]

@mariyam I am glad to be of help to you! you put it so well "it was just their normal". Yes it is sad to have undergone so much trauma for absolutely no need, I wish I had been given the truth about the different options I had from day one. It was really portrayed to me that there was absolutely one option, removal of all at once, GA or sedation, and an oral surgeon, which is just not true. I was afraid of the loudness or noise aspect too, because I had been told that was one of the reasons the GA or sedation was needed, so I couldn't hear the noise! It turned out to be less noisy than a dental implant I had done, and having some badly done fillings drilled out. What I say next is something that is definitely not for everyone, but something that worked for me. After all I had heard, what it took for me to believe that the wisdom tooth removal with local anesthetic only would be ok was to watch the procedure done with local anesthetic only on youtube. It was hard to watch, and felt shocking to watch, but seeing with my own eyes that the patient was wide awake and clearly not in pain finally made it real to me that local anesthetic would be enough, after all those years of hearing otherwise.

 

[mariyam]

@NervousUSA I found a mini "how they do it" I randomly picked the channel and it turned out it helped too. I think I just got lucky because I picked a how they do it vs look at it done! It's still deeply unsettling (the tools, the sounds) but it is nice to know that everything they use has a purpose. I have to keep reminding my self they did go to lots of school for this and it's society that has taught me to view them as lesser, mini doctors.