Wisdom tooth removal under general anes.

[Ellendram]

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to share my story because I was petrified about my removal and hope to ease someone else's fear.

I had an impacted wisdom tooth in my lower left gum that needed to come out because it was not only decaying but starting to affect the neighboring teeth. I had put off the surgery two times because of the fear I felt about the procedure. Mostly due to browsing internet horror stories. My surgeon advised that I should be put under general anesthesia since I am 43years old and the tooth may be difficult to remove.

I arrived on Friday morning to have the surgery. I was shaking like a leaf. As soon as they brought me into the room, I began to cry. Needless to say I was very worried, scared and anxious. To be honest- I almost turned around and left.

The nurse in the room calmed me down and shortly there after, the Doctor came in. He took his time, explained everything and I decided to move forward.

The nurse gave me some Nitrous Oxide that I inhaled through my nose. It made me relax almost immeadiately, so much so that I did not even feel the IV start. Within about 15 seconds I was asleep. The very next thing I remember is being walked into the recovery room. I had zero pain because my mouth was full of novacaine. My husband was brought in and I stayed there for about 20 mins. I had no loss of control, I understood everything that was said and felt very alert and pain free. I had a small piece of gauze in my mouth to keep pressure on the surgical site.

After we left the Doctors office we filled my prescriptions. One for pain, one for swelling and an anti-biotic. I took them when I got home and fell asleep for about 2 hours. I started my ice packs immeadiately and kept up on my pain meds as directed. I had to change the gauze about 3 times (very easy) and then the bleeding stopped. The pain was very manageable and minimal but the meds did make me tired.
I slept through the night comfortably.

Day 2 I had minimal swelling and some mild incision pain which was almost erased with the meds. I began a salt water rinse as directed and continued to rest. Slept well through the night again with very minimal pain.

It is now day three (sunday) as I type this and I am off the pain meds (just motrin) and feel great !

Please- if you are scared and anxiety riden please don't be. I wasted so many sleepless nights worrying ! It is not nearly as bad as you think. I promise !

 

[tabatha7]

Thank you for your story. I am 44 and have to have both bottom wisdoms out. They are partial boney impactions. I'm terrified beyond terrified. Hope it will be as easy for me.

 

[tabatha7]

I'm still trying to figure out what is meant by general anesthesia because if they walked you to recovery you must have had the iv type sedation. They told me to check general also on my permit form. There was a choice of iv sedaton and general. I'm thinking that general is deep sedation and not the kind where you have to be in the hospital where you are not breathing on your own. I guess general is a deeper sedation where you are really out of it.

 

[Ellendram]

Tabatha-

Here is what I have learned about General anesthesia. General Anesthesia is a medical term to describe the act of putting someone into a state of sleep, amnesia and loss of reflexes. There are many different ways to administer it. Factors that decide the type of administration include, type of procedure, length of procedure, and wellness of patient.It is not always intubation. That is why my GA was worn off and I was able to walk out of the room. Hope that helps.

 

[tabatha7]

I think I'm having the same anesthesia you had. They told me to check general on the card also. My oral surgeon said he wanted to have propofol for me. He tells me that I will be comfortable and snoring through the procedure. Gosh, I hope that's true. He promised I wouldn't feel any pain during the procedure but that I would swell and be very sore afterwards because of the bone removal. Not looking forward to that at all.