Wisdomtooth/hard to remove?

[Arne]

Hello,

I have a wisdom tooth that's been badly damaged by caries. It's been hurting, sometimes less, for years. But I was always too afraid to have it removed. Well, the pain is too much. What kind of pressure and so on can I expect during the removal? The tooth has completely grown out, but the crown is destroyed. It will probably have to be cut into several pieces, right? Is this bearable under local anesthesia? Or should I use light sedation? Thanks in advance for your information!

 

[Gordon]

It'll need to be sliced into 2 through the roots and then the roots lifted out individually. Not especially complicated for an experienced surgeon. The slicing will be very much like having a filling done, lots of water spraying about but not much force applied. Lifting out the roots will involve a bit of pushing and some weird noises.
I don't know anything about you or how bearable you would find this, so I can't say if you need sedation or not, sorry.

 

[Arne]

@Gordon
Thanks for your answer. A little about me: I'm male and 39 years old. Until two years ago, I actually hadn't been to the dentist for 20-25 years. During that time, I had hardly any problems and was rather afraid of it. However, the pain from my wisdom tooth and the cavity on the right side of the x-ray drove me to the dentist. I then had the cavity filled. There was a lot of drama beforehand, but it wasn't bad at all. I wanted to postpone the wisdom tooth because it didn't hurt at first. But now it's bad.

The question that's really bothering me is whether the local anesthetic will be enough and whether I can tolerate it like I did with the filling, or whether IV sedation (not general anesthesia) would be better. The iv sedation scares me because of the additional venous constriction and the loss of control. It's just one tooth but it's broken right down to the bottom.

 

[Gordon]

It shouldn't be any worse than the filling, you shouldn't have any pain at all during the extraction. You might want to have a read at our IV sedation page here for some more information: https://www.dentalfearcentral.org/help/sedation-dentistry/iv-sedation/