Just had 2 wisdom teeth removed.

For the second time in my life I have been anesthetized. My needle phobia seems to be improving needle by needle

They only removed the right two since the left 2 are fully in without problems (although the guy still wanted to remove them even though there was no reason to ). The top one was all the way in, too but he said if the bottom one goes the top one should so it has a place to rest.

Anyways....

Anesthesia is really cool. I remember the guy stabbing my inner elbow and saying I should be out of it soon. Next thing I know I was biting down on gauze. I've been home about 90 minutes. Half my face is still numb but otherwise I feel great (no post-anesthesia nausea ).

How long before pain kicks in?

catbox_9 wrote:

How long before pain kicks in?

soon.

Been there, done that. Non of mine came in so all 4 were broken up and extracted. Lots of salt water rinsing after.

Glad you have gotten over your needle phobia!

GoGetEmTigers wrote:

Glad you have gotten over your needle phobia!

Almost got over it. I'm at the point now where I don't vomit and pass out from needles but I get nervous. Not super nervous though. I still don't watch myself get injected.

As for my healing.....
It's now been about 8 hours since I woke up. I was applying new gauze every 30 minutes but at 6:00PM I stopped because my dentist called for a follow-up and said I could stop for a while to check to see if blood pools in my mouth. It didn't so I am not using gauze.

The lidocaine is completely worn off so I would be in excruciating pain if I stabbed a knife through my cheek. I have been applying ice for 15 minutes on 15 minutes off as instructed (which is a huge hassle by the way).

So far I still have NO PAIN whatsoever. That's probably good but in a way it's bad because I'm still anxious about the pain I"ll have at some point. I even managed to eat pizza (using only half my mouth) without any pain.

So far I've taken 1 extra strength ibuprofen (800mg) at 12:00 followed by half a Vicodin at 3:00 (they said to take a whole one but I've never taken that before and was afraid of nausea and I don't like using acetaminophen-based products as they're bad for your liver) and another ibuprofen at 6:00. I don't think I'm overdoing the drugs as I should have had 1.5 more Vicodin by now. I don't feel at all drugged out. Vicodin did NOT cause nausea which is awesome. So far today has gone way better than expected. Makes me feel stupid for having trouble sleeping the last 2 night and waking up for good at 5:30 this morning.


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That was a long post but I'm bored and needed something to do for a few minutes.

Another update....

My 12 hours of alternating ice every 15 minutes ended at midnight finally (that sure was a hassle!). I set an alarm for 3AM and 6AM so I could continue with my medication schedule (I know, I'm crazy).

For those that fear I'm a drug addict, I have been cutting back on my meds since my pain remains nonexistent. At midnight I took 400mg of Ibuprofen rather than 800 followed by another half a vicodin at 3AM. At 6AM I took 300mg of Ibuprofen and when I woke up at 9:30 I took 1/4 Vicodin. I'll probably do 200mg of Ibuprofen at around 1 followed by 1/8 of a Vicodin at 5 and then no more Vicodin after that assuming pain remains the same.

Shouldn't pain have kicked in by now?

Quote :

Shouldn't pain have kicked in by now?

I think you lucked out. I would guess you won't have pain, or just minor if you do. Has the DR. started you on the salt rinses yet? They may not do that anymore, but normally it is used to help healing and to keep food out of the wounds.

I do salt rinses after every meal starting 24 hours after surgery. Still no pain. My mouth sort of feels weird but it doesn't hurt. Yesterday I only took 1/4 Vicodin and a total of 400mg of Ibuprofen. I doubt I'll take anymore drugs.

They say I can start using mouthwash if I want, but I'm kind of scared to try. I might use heavily diluted mouthwash and slowly work my way up to normal mouthwash over the next few days to a week.

Also, I normally work Thursday-Monday but my boss figured I'd be in a lot of pain and needed to take some time off work so I took 3 days so I'm off until Sunday! I still get paid since I get ample sick time. I might have more teeth removed to get more 5 day weekends :haha:

I remember when I had my wisdom teeth pulled. I was about 16. Not fun.

I enjoyed mine. Never got any pain or swelling...mostly. About a week later my jaw (or more precisely temporomandibular joint) was sort of sore. This was probably from chewing only on one side and shifting my mandible to the left constantly. That's now resolved. Getting time off work was fun...and I still got paid.