I now have 30 teeth. Okay, 29.5

[brebis noire]

I had mine out under a local anesthetic when I was 20 years old, and I think the only real justification for having them out was because the dentist said I had wisdom teeth, and our insurance plan at the time covered their extraction.

The experience as I remember it was as you described Herr Magoo. The pain didn't bother me as much as the bleeding though. Swallowing blood is somewhat unpleasant. I had some kind of strong tylenol, and only took the second dose out of weeniness (didn't want to even feel the beginning of pain.)

The whole experience was a walk in the park compared to pregnancy and childbirth though. Yep.  :wink:

[Herr Magoo]

So it's now 24 hours, and it's not as bad as I expected it could be.  One of the only things that really worried me was just that I didn't know what it would be like.  Mrs. M. had all four of hers out under general anaesthetic years ago, but hers were all under bone, and hard to get out (though it still only took them a half hour for all four... like Civil War doctors or something).  When I brought her home, she was goofy and a bit giddy still,  and I headed off to get her prescriptions filled.  When  I got back she was bawling, and trying to rip her own head off.  For a long time after I thought "OMG... what if I'd decided to go try on hats while I was out, or bumped into an old friend?"  Yoinks.  She was in bed for two days, and out of commission for about 5 more.  Her first "real" food was on about day 6, and it was by all accounts the best meal I ever cooked for her, because it's so far been the only meal for which she's wept with joy (genuinely).  The meal?  Mashed potatoes, and peas.  :)  We still joke about that one.

So far I'm still on yogurt, though Mrs. M. is out getting me some rice pudding, more Jello, and perhaps some pea soup.

The only painful thing about the whole procedure was the li'l X-ray card that they insert beforehand

What the hell is it with those damn things.  It's like they fold a credit card in half, jam a corner down in your gums, and tell you to bite down!  I was pretty disappointed to discover that there had been ZERO progress on this front since I was a kid.

I'm pretty sure I left clutch marks on the arms of the chair.

I was a bit white-knuckled as well.  I think they were worried about me for some reason, and they swabbed my head with a damp towel said I looked pale.   I couldn't speak to let them know not to worry.  At the end I suggested that they should consider also freezing patient's ears.  It's the noises and the yanking (and also a little bit the smell, but you get that with a filling too.  Mmmmm.  Burning tooth.)

I suspect it was my Mob connections that made it possible.

What good would they be if they couldn't buy you a little comfort, eh?  These days it's apparently only in extreme cases that you go to the hospital (I'd guess:  diabetic, haemophiliac, pregnant, etc.)

Or eating sloppy Italian sandwiches, while guzzling beer.

Beer I could have.  Boy, I bet with percocets, I'd only need a half a beer, like when I was 16!  Also, if the sandwich was sloppy enough... :)

Thank goodness I don't even have my wisdom teeth yet. Hopefully, I will never get them.

Some people simply don't have them.  If you do get them, they could also be "safely impacted"... in there, but no worry.  Here's hoping.

Nowhere near as horrid as your accident though, Magoo.

It sounds horrid, but it wasn't really as bad as it sounds.  It makes a great story though!  :)  I had been on my way to see a movie, and instead my dad drove me to emergency to have my scraped up arm looked at.  When they were done bandaging me up, I asked if I could still catch the 9:00, and so I ended up seeing the movie after all.  I remember this because I was able to drink with a straw with my teeth clenched (the straw, of course, passing through where my half of a tooth used to be).  The next day I got a bond (the resin they use to build up teeth) that's lasted me over 20 years (uh, though it's not quite as white as it was.   A little bit tea, coffee and red wine coloured now... more dentistry in my future!)

Swallowing blood is somewhat unpleasant.

As long as it's MY blood.  :)

Thanks for the good wishes, all.

[fern hill]

I worked in a dental office for a very short time, as receptionist/bookkeeper. Sometimes I'd get dragooned into chairside assisting. Ooh, I hated that. Looking into people's mouths has got to be up there among the worst of jobs.

There were two dentists, two real assistants, and me. The dentists had a small speciality in 'nervous' patients, like so nervous they had to be knocked out for any kind of work. We're talking dental phobia here. Along with the phobics, they seemed to attract a high percentage of weird people.

There was one guy, youngish, who always seemed stoned, but not always the same kind of stoned. Sometimes he'd be manic-speedy, sometimes dozy-goofy. He was creepy, too. We grils didn't like him. He needed an impression taken of his upper teeth. The dentists had gone to lunch or something. So the assistant filled the little tray-thing with goop, jammed it up against his teeth, then had to hold it there until it set, maybe 2-3 minutes.

I was at the front when the yelling started. The assistant was yelling: 'Stop it, stop it right now.' The other assistant and I came running. When we got there, all looked OK. Patient was in the chair, assistant was still holding the tray in his mouth. She was still yelling at him, though. What's going on? Assistant: 'He's licking my fingers!'

Ewww. But funny. Assistant mad as the proverbial wet hen, almost hopping up and down, but still holding the thing in his mouth. Creepy patient sorta grinning around the tray in his mouth. Other assistant and I laughing our asses off.

[sparqui]

The dentists had a small speciality in 'nervous' patients, like so nervous they had to be knocked out for any kind of work. We're talking dental phobia here. Along with the phobics, they seemed to attract a high percentage of weird people.

OMG, I need an outfit like that Fern! I've been avoiding a dentist since moving here (5 years ago) and I swear they will need to sandblast to get my teeth cleaned. And I HATE all aspects of dentistry even without ever having been subjected to drills (filings). Just the teeth cleaning is nerve wrecking enough.

Magoo, hope your recovery continues well. I too hate those x-ray things. I gag and choke always. As for your procedure, I was fortunate enough to get the wisdom teeth pulled out under general (but after OHIP covered hospital visits). Luckily, I had a dental plan so I could afford it and took advantage of that on the advice of a colleague. I have crowded teeth anyway so it made sense. At that time, they gave me 282s I think or maybe a lesser dose. (Do they even sell those anymore -- I remember you could get 222 with some codeine over the counter in the 80s?)

Anyway, it seemed that I recovered within a few days. And it sounds like you should do fine in no time Magoo.

Went to a rural market in China were there was a dentistry stall, complete with examples of his most successful extractions as well as display of tools used. It was pretty creepy.

[k'in]

Wisdom teeth....fortunately I was born with a good crap detector.

I had just moved to toronto & needed a dentist.  A friend recommended his ("hey the dude is cool & lets you listen to motorhead on the walkman while he's working on ya").  I should have known better as this friend had spent time hospitalized getting his wisdom teeth dug out & looked like a chipmunk for a period of time after.

So, I go to this dentist.  He takes x-rays & says I have to get my wisdom teeth out (they are under the gums) and that they are crowding my molars.  I ask to see the x-rays.  I'm no dentist but it looks to me as if the wisdom teeth (& there are only 2 up top, none on the bottom) have plenty of room.  Anyhow, I tell him I'll consider his advice & then spirit myself out of there, never to return.

A few years later, the little suckers grow in, no pain, no crowding but they are softer than the other teeth.  By this time I have found a new dentist (another recommendation but this particular friend is nasty cynical so I know I'm in good hands...).  He used something that looked like a popsicle stick, they came right out.  No drugs & I went to work.  Kept the teeth as souvenir.

edited-spelling

[Herr Magoo]

I remember you could get 222 with some codeine over the counter in the 80s

You can still get them, and they still have some codeine in them.  I believe there used to also be higher codeine dosages such as you describe or similar (252?  282?)

Kept the teeth as souvenirs.

I had hoped to too.  I still have, somewhere, one of my original front teeth with the stainless steel cap.  It came out one November day while eating a toffee from Hallowe'en.  Rather macabre souvenirs though, eh?

[k'in]

Herr Magoo wrote:

I had hoped to too. I still have, somewhere, one of my original front teeth with the stainless steel cap. It came out one November day while eating a toffee from Hallowe'en. Rather macabre souvenirs though, eh?

You're talking a "baby" tooth right?  It would be serious toffee to pry loose an adult tooth.  The "tooth fairy" scarfed all my baby teeth (but the tradeoff in legal tender probably seemed worthy at the time...)

I keep my 2 wisdom teeth in a jar with sea shells, a CFNY radio button & tequila pigs (had forgotten all about those...)

[suzette]

Kept the teeth as souvenirs.

I had hoped to too.  

I have a friend who is a jeweller, specialising in found/unusual objects.  When I had my upper wisdom teeth out I decided to keep them to send to him.  Human teeth!  He would have loved it!  But, ummm.... when they came out they were black.  I mean, literally, and all spongy.  Bleargh!  I really wish I'd never known that those manky old things had been in my mouth all that time.

[Herr Magoo]

There's a part of me that wishes I could have seen my teeth-bits, just for closure, but in the end I'm probably glad I didn't.  These had erupted, so they were probably just as horrid.   :shock:

My face is about the size of a regulation volleyball right now, or at least it feels that way.  The funny thing is that all the swelling is near the bottom (the teeth extracted were lower) so I have this incredibly jowly face right now.  I look kind of like a cross between:



and



Actually, looking in the mirror was really wigging me out, until I suddenly realized why:  I was reminding myself of this guy:

[fern hill]

Herr Magoo, did you get the lecture on keeping the holes clean? Very important stuff. Mine were impacted and the dentist had to dig. Left very big holes in jaw. Disconcerting. They do even up, but it takes a real long time. While healing, you gotta squoosh them out. Amazing stuff gets in there. Did dentist give you a syringe-type thing for the squooshing?

[Herr Magoo]

He did give me a syringe, but I've been using it to mainline the percs!   :shock:

Actually, ya.  The needle-less kind.  I've given the ol' orifices a spray, but nothing particularly offensive seemed to result.  Right now I think any holes have been pretty much sutured shut, then swollen to where they're as airtight as a mason jar.

I'm prepared for horrors though.  :)

[chcmd]

Magoo, hope you recover soon - dental work sucks.  I go to a guy that does the intravenous "night-night" thing.  It's great.

A word on extracting wisdom teeth.  I went to a dentist who advised me that all 4 of my wisdom teeth were impacted and had to come out.  Of course I didn't go back. :shock:

Funny thing, years later another dentist told me I only had my upper wisdom teeth, and would never grow lower ones.  So that old bastard that lied to me years earlier would have cut my gums open then stitched them shut and charged me for extracting teeth that weren't there! :x

Moral of the story: always get a second opinion.

[Herr Magoo]

May as well add to this old thread.  I'm currently all frozen up and flabby of face, thanks to my latest dental adventure.  I mentioned in some other thread (THAT I CAN'T FIND) that I had broken a tooth over the Christmas break and was considering professional intervention.  Well, since then I had that tooth extracted (broken on a freakin' ROCK in a nut/seed bar I bought) as well as another broken tooth (broken on a popcorn kernel), as well as a full scaling and cleaning.  Two weeks ago I had all of the old amalgam fillings on the right side replaced, and today was all of the old fillings on the left. 

Thursday we go back in to replace the bond on my front tooth (read previous page; search "bike").

So now all of my teeth are basically healthy and clean.  Not in a lot of years have I been able to say that.  I think the secret was in finally finding a non-judgemental dentist.  This guy just assesses what needs doing and does it.  No attitude.  I don't really dread the pain or the discomfort so much, and I'm not particularly anxious -- on my last visit, while he was filling teeth, I kind of nodded off in the chair for a few minutes -- but I cannot abide being treated like a bad child.  Heck, with this guy, I might even start going regular checkups!  :)

The freezing though... why does it have to last so long?  I wish they could just give you one more needle at the end, to undo the freezing, then send you on your way.  It'll probably be dinnertime before I can feel my tongue again.  Seriously, my EAR is kind of numb.