Question:
I am sitting here sick to my stomach and really nervous. You
see I just turned 25 and still have all my wisdom teeth. However last
night I started to notice a little pain on one side of my cheek. And it
feels as though my wisdom teeth may be coming in on top. : ( I have a
REALLY hard time at dental appt/s! I have been known to hold off as long
as I can. There for putting me in a lot of pain!
What my biggest fear is....that I will have to be put to sleep. I
have been put to sleep once when I was 9 and had a terrible experience.
So, there in I think that if I am to be put to sleep again, the same
feelings will arise. Anyhow, then I get thinking...gosh, could i handle
all the anxiety being half awake during the extraction??? It is a no win
battle. I hate this soooooo much! I cry and cry and cry. Just one day I
would like to feel what it is like to walk in to a drs office without
anxiety! One time I sat in the chair and when he was about to numb me I
said I have to get up. And i left....it was that bad! I felt like I was
going to die, pass out, etc!
Will some of you tell me a few things about when you had your
wisdom teeth taken out? Like when you were put to sleep and all . When
You woke uo what did you feel like? See the other thing is...How much
pain were you all in afterwards. You see I also have a DEEP fear of meds
..so I don't take any. About all I can take is tylenol and I can take
motrin now also. Will that be enough pain medicine?
Answer:
How do you know they have to come out? Unless you have no room for them or they
are lateraly boney impacted they may not need to be yanked. In the event they
do-you can take nitrous oxide as a sedative it is inhaled is completely
reversable when you breathe room air in-so you control how high or sedated you
get from it-this with local blocks will be enable you to have it done with no
pain or significant anxiety. You can be premedicated with xanax or another
benzo before you go and you can get general anesthesia which is much different
today then 10 years ago-there are better meds to induce the anesthesia. As for
pain afterwords you can probably get away with a high dose of motrin equivalent
to 3 or four advil otc tabs and you may request the dds to give you codeine
sulfate tabs 1 grain that you can break pieces off of and take with your motrin
if you need it-you may not. The mouth heals rapidly as it is a moist membrane
that the body requires for fuel intake so it is designed to have accelorated
healing capabilities thus your acute pain will be for the first 8-12 hours. Ice
applied topically to your cheek for 20 minutes or longer will reduce pain as
well and inflamation-you will get this info from your surgeon. The procedure is
not very long-for one molar maybe 20 minutes at most. Don't work yourself up
(yeah easy to say) this is a fast simple procedure that will not be
traumatic-the anticipation and what ifing you are doing is more painful then
the extraction.
I agree with Margrove (as usual!).... This procedure may not be as
bad as you fear. As a former dentophobe who had my wisdom teeth yanked two
at a time, several weeks apart, in my 20s, I can tell you it was really
most bearable. I had only local anesthesia (novocaine or lidocaine) and
didn't feel any pain during the extractions.
I especially endorse Margrove's recommendation to take an anti-anxiety med
an hour or so before the appointment. It will really calm you down and
make the whole experience easier to endure.
Like you, I am phobic about general anesthesia (even the new improved
kinds -- or as recent as 10 years ago, anyway), so the local anesthetic
was a clear choice for me for the wisdom-tooth extractions.
Advil or Aleeve help with the pain afterwards. I took Tylenol w/ codeine,
given to me by my dentist, but the codeine really freaked me out and I
refused it after the 2nd set of extractions.
You can do it! (But yes, I know how scared you are feeling right now...)
