Wisdom Teeth Removal- anesthetic type?

[The Critic]

So, I have an appointment on 7/20 to get all four wisdom teeth removed. They are impacted, but they are not hurting yet. The cost is around $1200, but insurance is covering all but about $200.

Anyway, the doctor said that he's only using a local anesthetic. I'm not getting general anesthesia. Most of my friends who have gotten their wisdom teeth removed have had the general anesthesia.

Am I being needlessly worried, or should I really look into finding a doctor who performs the surgery with general anesthesia?

Thanks.

 

[Julian]

Did you ask the doctor what his (what the anesthesiologist’s) rationale was? Maybe he thinks they'll just pop right out. Maybe he just wants to see that look of fear in your eye though. I know a few like that.

The intital appointment would have been a good time to check, though you still might be able to get a hold of someone... most aren't going to flip out if you're nervous and need to ask a simple question about something.

 

[Bernard Feltzer]

I only had one wisdom tooth removed with local in the oral surgeon's office.
They wanted to put me out completely, they said that is how eveyone does it. I said no.
He gave me about 4 shots of novacane, stuck his pliers in, I felt him wiggling the tooth, then he pulled it out while his assitants stuffed my mouth up with pads for the hardly none at all bleeding. He ran out of the room.
I sat there terrified waiting for the pain to happen. It never did. The gum healed perfectly within a week, not one drop of pain ever occured, I didn't even need to take any pills. I had it removed because it was chipped and cutting the inside of my cheek, the edge was very sharp. It only cost $45 for the whole thing. That was in 1996.
I would be too afraid to do all four at once, if your doctor has to cut the tooth into sections to remove them, it will probably hurt a lot. If you want to stay awake, do one tooth and see how it goes. If it is too intense, you can reschedule for a general anesthesia, or just do 2 teeth at a time, after the gum heals, then you could do the other two. It helps to have one side of mouth functioning to eat food. If you have all four done at once, you ain't eating for a month.

 

[moribundman]

Usually, you do not require or even want full anesthesia. Usually, a topical anesthetic (benzocaine) is applied to the gums with a swab so that you will not feel the local anesthetic (usually lidocaine) injection, which will numb your jaw and dental nerves.

How hard getting the teeth out is depends on how straight, twisted, or crooked they are in the jaw. Some can be just pulled, some have to be cut into pieces. Ask your dentist to explain your x-rays to you so that you can get a better idea what to expect.

I find it odd that your dentist didn't say if this will be a comparatively easy or laborious procedure. He must know because he has seen your x-rays.

 

[Matt_S]

If he's not going to do general, which I probably wouldn't want if it wasn't necessary, see if he'll at least do the gas. That'll put you in la-la-land enough that you'll be aware of what's happening, but won't have a care in the world. When they're done, they'll flush you with pure oxygen and you'll be back to normal in minutes. My dentist offers it whenever he does any sort of work on me and I highly recommend it.

 

[TooManyWheels]

You are definitely not being needlessly worried. As Mori said, investigate this VERY thoroughly, as you could have an experience like mine.

Going in I had no idea what I was in for. I wasn't particularly worried, I had had loads of dental work done and have a high enough pain threshold that I am seldom overly bothered.

You know the movies where they use the threat of dental work as a form of torture? That was my actual experience. He used local anaesthesia only. Two hours of the most brutal thrashing I have ever had the misfortune to come in contact with. His title was Oral Surgeon, but there was nothing surgical about it, Butcher would have been more appropriate. An alley drunk with a pair of pliers would have had as much finesse. A year later I needed a root canal, and I believe it was due to the damage he caused by thrashing around in there.

"Getting physical" with people has never been a part of my nature but I came very, very close in this instance. I now know what it is like to be on the edge of totally "losing it".

The anaesthetic did nothing. If nothing else, I could have done without hearing the ripping sound of my teeth being torn out. Three hours later the sockets were still flooding blood. Fortunately, my future wife knew to have me bite on tea bags, which eventually stopped the bleeding.

Learn absolutely as much as you can about this, it is not something to be taken lightly!

 

[Kestas]

Mine were done at an office that did nothing but wisdom teeth. They did all my friends too. It seems that all the local dentists referred this work to that office.

General anesthetic, all four (two impacted) were taken out at once. I was eating normally in a day or two with no pain.

 

[Lonnie]

Follow post-op instructions to avoid a dry socket. Follow them to a 'T'. Dry sockets are no fun.

 

[9296D21B14]

I have dreadful dental history with multiple oral surgeries, wisdom teeth extraction, root canals, fixed bridge, reworked root canals, etc. As a result I also have a well entrenched and well deserved dental phobia. I have also had numerous light IV sedatives that were completely unremarkable except I had no pain or memory of what happened. General anesthesia has it's risks but there are many that are usually well tolerated. There is no reason in the world to go into what can be a complicated procedure without every assurance from the doctor that it will not be any more unpleasant or risky than possible. Get a second opinion which does not come from a motor oil website message board. Enjoy the post-op ice cream.

 

[carlprop]

Talk about a timely topic! I just had to have a tooth extracted. It started out being a root canal. However, the decay was too extensive and had to be pulled. One of the back molars. All of this done with general anesthesia and no pain. But I'm feeling the pain now! Biting down on gauze and lots of Motrin.

 

[Virtuoso]

I had my oral surgeon knock me clean out for the 45 minutes it took to pop 3 of my wisdom teeth. If that's what you'd rather have I'd give them a call, maybe they can perform it (costs more) or refer you to someone who can.

 

[Al]

They put me out for mine. Wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[dwendt44]

BTDT, local. Wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

My only thoughts now, years later, is this:
A dentist, or any doctor for that matter, shouldn't be locked in to one type of anesthesic, patients vary as does
the difficulty of the 'proceedure'. Open wide:

 

[bmph8ter]

I just (couple months ago) had all 4 removed (partial impacted) using only local anesthetic. General anesthesia (being put to sleep) makes me kinda nervous and it was going to cost more (about an extra $800) so I opted to not use it. He (the dentist) did give me a Valium and a phenergan before the procedure so that helped calm me some.

I got a steroid dose pack and some hydrocodone after for the pain. I actually had less pain during and after the procedure than I had been dealing with the previous year. One of mine was decayed, so sometimes it hurt like a ____.

 

[Stewart Fan]

I had two pulled at the end of November. I got a couple shots of novacaine and they went to work. I guess mine were impacted because the had to break them up to get them out. The whole thing took about 15 minutes.

The surgeon was really hesitant about doing the surgery with just the novacaine. She said 99% of her patients opt to be knocked out. I didn't want her playing with the family jewels if I wasn't awake to enjoy it.

It was a really easy procedure,and I was able to drive myself home after.

 

[1sttruck]

I had a wisdom tooth pulled in boot camp; a local, one corpsman holding my head down, the dentist yanking on the tooth with pliers while telling the corpsman to keep my head from moving so much. I did get a day of bed rest and day of no duty.

 

[rriddle3]

If they are actually impacted (lying on their sides, pointing toward the tooth in front) then I had the same procedure done 30 years ago. The oral surgeon gave me Benadryl, then novacaine, then gas. He had to slit the gum along each tooth and dig the teeth out, then sew the gums back up. I can't imagine having a procedure like that on just local anesthetic. Recovery for the next 2 days was not pretty.

 

[OriginHacker21]

I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed in 1 pop. They were all above the gumline but they were growing out from the jaw hitting the jaw bone and cutting the side of the mouth.

Had 2 doctors in there. 1 for the oral surgeon and 1 for the anesthesia part. She stuck in an IV and put on a nose mask. Counted to 5 and before I got to 6 I was out cold. Was out for 30 minutes and woke up with all the teeth out.

Definitely save your pain medicine for the 3rd day - thats when it really start hurting.

But yeah I paid about $1300 for mine (after insurance).

 

[ITSMR2U]

Had three pulled using local. One tooth had to be split using a hammer and chisel and I was advised not to sneeze for a week or so because a root had gone into my sinus cavity and the opening had to heal. Would rather have been out (the sounds were the worst part), but it was painless 'till the local wore off.

 

[moribundman]

A comment which appear necessary, because nobody has mentioned this yet, and if I were Michael I would by now have gotten out of Dodge and I'd be running for the hills in fear, holding on to my snaggly and impacted wisdom teeth!

A teen or young adult is much less likely to experience some of those nightmare procedures that some of you report! A young person's jawbone is still flexible and the chance of complications is much lower compared to an adult's risks. Get your wisdom teeth out before you are 25, and the chance of complications during or after the procedure is small!

The biggest risk involved in tooth removal (wisdom or other) is permanent nerve damage (mandibular, lingual, etc), which can leave a person with a numb feeling, with facial paralysis, or without a sense of taste, or with a phantom taste. That's why you have to sign a disclaimer, in case you end up FUBAR.

Today lidocaine is mostly used by dentists, because it has a lower rate of nerve injury compared to the previous popular analgesics (like articaine), and because it's well-tolerated by people with allergies . When I had one lower wisdom tooth removed a decade ago, I reacted very badly to the arcticaine shot a few hours after having the tooth removed.