Wisdom teeth removal under GA

This was my experience too. Take sick leave x

I had all 4 of mine out under general anesthetic. I think I had about a week off but I am a teacher so no way I could have talked all day. If you are just sitting at a desk you might be ok, although tired. Do you not get sick pay?

aodirjjd, only if you are a qualified dentist, dental or theatre nurse can you make such claims. Wisdom teeth are notorious for being difficult to remove because of the way they are laid in the gum. Sometimes they are completely submerged, have hooked roots or near a nerve. She is having a GA which tells the story straight away.

Mine were done under GA. I went back home so my Mother could look after me. The first week was rough. All the bruising comes out, especially where you are clamped to the table. I had bruising on my forehead and chest, and looked like I'd been strangled. My lower face looked like it had been blown up like a balloon too, I had cheeks like a hamster.

Good lord I can’t believe they didn’t give you the good cocodamol when you were discharged!!! Definitely get hold of some to see you through the first couple of days for sure. Rest well, OP!

Childbirth and wisdom teeth out are the two worst pains I've ever had. Childbirth at it's worst was more painful but wisdom teeth went on much, much longer.

This!! I had 2 weeks off work, also 40 years ago. Dr was very happy to sign me off and even said to ring for another week if needed. Face as described by pp above plus bad bruising. Take lots of time off, get the soluble painkillers in, and rest up x

God that's some update , definitely get stronger painkillers and salt water washes when you are able .

Like others have said the swelling is really bad etc. The worst thing for me was the can't brush your teeth you can only gently swill your mouth because of the blood clots. Smelly breath and feeling manky teeth was the worst. You could go back to work but you'll probably feel manky.

I took 2 days officially after the op. Then I actually wfh and did very little the next day and chilled the following 2 days. Was still a bit swollen a week later. This was only 1 wisdom tooth under general but was difficult to reach.

I had two widsom teeth out with no GA, just local. If it wasn't for all the blood, I wouldn't have known they'd come out at all. I was back at work an hour later.

I should have said I'm still on soft food, it's only been 5 days since mine was pulled, top one, the previous one was bottom and was close to the nerve but all was ok

@mitogoshi It’s exactly the same depth of anaesthetic that you’d get for any other operation. The anaesthetic also isn’t the only variable that affects how people feel post op/how soon they can get back to work. It can be a quick procedure to remove teeth but it also can take a lot longer - have definitely seen it take an hour to get a single tooth out before and for the surgeon to need a bit of a sit down afterwards - it sometimes takes quite a bit of welly!

I had the bottom one out under just local during Covid, I wasn't even given the option of ga, I was in agony beforehand so to be honest I just wanted it gone, took 9 months to even get that appointment. It was fine, went to work 2 days later. Not sure why they are insisting on ga, as the risks of ga are higher than the procedure I was told

Normal advice after any procedure with GA is that you shouldn’t be doing anything important/requiring much brain for 24-48 hours or so afterwards.

Having all 4 wisdom teeth can leave you feeling (and looking) like you’ve been hit by a train! It doesn’t always, but definitely can. I tend to advise people (when anaesthetising for dental) they may need a couple of weeks to get back to feeling fully functional. Sounds like it may be a good idea to speak to your surgeon again to get an idea of what they’re expecting in terms of recovery so you can plan a bit better. The dental surgeon should also do the initial sick note not the GP and they should be able to advise you before you start how long they’d be expecting you to need to recover.

Fatigue etc post procedure is due to a combo of the anaesthetic and surgical insult - tricky teeth generate more of a physiological stress response from the body. While the types of drugs most commonly used for the anaesthetic are generally a bit better in terms of recovery than they might have been when PPs had their experiences 20odd years ago, the operation itself hasn’t changed much and can leave you feeling a bit battered.

it’s not uncommon to need opioid pain relief afterwards (usually just something like codeine/dihydrocodeine) and they can make you a bit dopey (as well as some people finding they get nauseated) and might mean you need longer off.

I can't speak for ga or 6 teeth but I went to work straight from having one wisdom tooth out under local, really was no big deal. Numb for 2 hours then no pain really, far less than the agony I felt beforehand!

It's a light anaesthetic for teeth typically as it's a short operation unless there's complications, my ex had 2 teeth out under ga (after 6pm) and went to work the following morning. Do expect to need to eat soft food but too tip avoid rice as it gets into the holes.

If it was me I'd be going in 2 days later

I had 4 out under GA, they were badly impacted and i needed quite a bit if time off. I had terrible dry sockets, took longer to recover from than childbirth!

I had one out under local which was much better for me than the sedation I had for the first two (I never had a fourth one). Is that something to consider? I was right as rain straight afterwards.

I've had friends go back to work the next day and some that wet eoff several days and one that was off for 2 weeks (but she had complications and had to spend time at the hospital)

I had all four out under GA last year and two days post surgery I couldn’t move from my bathroom floor because of the vomiting. I wasn’t in significant pain, but I was scared of dry socket and couldn’t move without being sick. I couldn’t even have worked from bed that day. Not sure if it was the surgery, the anaesthetic or the antibiotics, but it really floored me.

I had 3 out about 20 years ago and I had nearly 2 weeks off work. I was bruised and in pain and off my face on morphine for the first couple of days. Fortunately there were no complications but even after a week I still felt quite delicate. I guess it depends what job you do as to whether you think you can go in but I would say take sick leave rather than rush back.

I had 4 wisdom teeth and 2 others, removed, by the dentist, using “gum numb” - it worked better for me than GA.