To be petrified..surgical tooth extraction, curly roots and sinus involvement.. NO SEDATION

[Oucht]

Dear god I want to vomit. Molar is cracked through and giving me loads of pain. Dentist cannot get me seen either on NHS or privately for months unless I use their visiting surgeon who does their implants.
It needs extracting and he has looked at the x-ray saying it will be a very difficult extraction with curly roots and that I should be prepared for sinus cavity perforation where they touch, that he would attempt to stitch it up but that it could leave me worse off.

That can be done but without sedation next Wednesday.. or I wait for months when I am in agony with this tooth split down the middle. I said yes and I'm bricking it.

Whereabouts are you based? I had sedation recently at a dentist local to me. They called in an external company and I was seen within 1.5 weeks.

I think you can find somewhere that will sedate you quicker if you are willing to pay for private.

Bless you. I had a surgical extraction recently as my tooth was so bad I was on the verge of sepsis (I know that sounds ridiculous but I had a really infected lymph node and felt really ill). I was awake for it and although it wasn't fun..the local anaesthetic really worked you need to make sure it's kicked in before they start, even if they have to keep giving you more. Soldier on through it and you will be so much better in no time

Presumably they will still numb you up so is no need for sedation. I have utterly shit teeth and have spent a lot of time in a dentist chair. Unless you're usually terrified of the dentist, I wouldn't worry too much about it...

I take it you will have an anaesthetic though? I've had various occasions of root canal treatment (some quite tricky), dental implants and extractions and never had sedation but was very well numbed up. I'm not a superhero re dental treatment but it was all OK.

If you are very nervous, could you see if you can get something prescribed by your GP to help? Or even Bachs Rescue Remedy - it is marvellous, in my opinion!

Do not have this done without sedation.
DD had a wisdom tooth extracted under local anaesthetic. The x-ray hadn't shown that the root was curly. I had to go in with her and hold her hand in the end as she was having a full blown panic attack. It was a very traumatic extraction.

She has to have another tooth out, but they have said they will sedate her for the next one.

You have my sympathies.

I had my curved root back molar removed in June. I was in so much pain I told them if they didn’t remove it I would myself with pliers! I had it done after 3 injections into my mouth to numb it. They said there was a big chance it would crack and break and I’d need to have surgery to remove it. I said just do your best. The injections were the worst bit. Then it took them 2 minutes of pulling and twisting to get it all out in one piece. It was gigantic and curved at the roots but they got it out. They said it was really infected and they got it all out. I know the pain you have and the fear but you can do this! You’ll feel better once it’s out. Don’t wait, have it done asap Wednesday.

Why cant you use the the visiting surgeon?

Can you ask for strong pain relief in the meantime?

I wouldnt have it done without pain relief. I'm surprised your dentist doesnt have done sort of adequate pain relief.

ETA If dentist plans to use local anaesthetic then yeah I'd jump at the chance to get it out before xmas.

I had a tooth extracted with curly roots a few months ago without sedation. To be honest it was an easier extraction than others I’ve had that have supposedly been more straightforward. I was worried about the potential sinus issues but really I shouldn’t have been so worried

I have recently had a complex extraction and a sinus lift procedure in preparation for an implant in a few months and needed a number of stitches. The first injection stung but after that I experienced no pain, just tugging, pullibg and pressure. I was in the chair for over two hours in total but my dentist and the dental surgeon were both very reassuring and told me exactly what they were doing at each stage. Recovery was straight forward too - minimal facial swelling and only took painkillers for 48 hours afterwards.
Given you are in pain, I would definitely go for the extraction now. If you can practice some mindfulness/breathing techniques that might also help - I was able to distance myself from much of what was going on.

Thank you everyone. I am in Essex. I don't think I could find anywhere that would do it as quickly as this privately as I would still have to have an initial consult and an x-ray and then book the surgery.

It is being done under local anaesthetic. I wouldn't even consider it without that. I have said yes and booked the appointment.
I am just super scared that this will be as bad as previous experience.

I had a bottom molar needing removing and my dentist and her boss tried for 2 hours to get it out before giving up leaving me with 4 roots stuck in my face.. funnily enough over xmas last year!
Their visiting surgeon was the one who I had to see (and pay privately) to have them removed a week and a half later.

It will be the same surgeon. He is only there as he is teaching the owner how to do implants. He is not a regular member of staff.

It is the visiting surgeon I am having do it. I am already on tramadol for other health conditions but it's not touching it at the moment. The tooth is broken through the nerve,

Your poor daughter. I have been there, I was left with 4 roots in my face for 10 days after 2 hours of dentists trying.

I don't have any useful advice but just wanted to send you a virtual hug. I've had two extractions in the past year and it is so worrying and painful until you know you are healing OK. I hope all goes well for you.

I am booked in for a filling on the other side of my face the same day too! They're both hurting right now and I'm so hungry.

Somewhat scared that something is going to go wrong leaving me needing medical help that I can't get come xmas day and around it.

That's a long time to wait when it's causing you so much pain and misery. Well worth getting it done sooner if you can.
I had to have something similar and my GP gave me a low dose of diazepam to take before the procedure. Could that be an option for you? They don't routinely hand out benzos these days (understandably) but my anxiety levels were SO high the GP was willing to supply a dose as a "pre med" one-off. You'd need to check with the dentist there's no reason you can't take it and someone would also have to go to the appointment with you but for me it was completely worth it to get the treatment done quickly. Good luck OP.

Poor you. I'm going in for an extraction tomorrow, but I think it's fairly straightforward.

You've made the right decision, though, OP if you are in pain. Toothache is dreadful! It's likely that your dread of the event will be worse than actually having it out - and focus on the fact that you should be pain free after that. It will definitely be worth it. You're in pain right now, and can't wait for months.

Good luck!

Good luck for tomorrow. Most people have straight forward extractions, I've never been lucky enough to manage that bar 1 tooth that a dentist got out in an hour.. the others have been broken, roots left in and even done under general anaesthetic... wisdom tooth broke through the jawbone under my tongue!

I had two teeth extracted recently, and then two implants fitted. No sedation for either. I found that listening to an audiobook helped distract me. It at least kept me calm during the waiting bits, although not much can distract once the serious stuff starts. Jeepers.

Good luck!

OK, don't flame me here, and I know you're already anxious, but...please make sure that the dentist doing the work is either a man or a very strong woman. I had a slight female dentist do a similar extraction on me, and...long story short, she wasn't strong enough to get the tooth out in one go (she was actually kneeling on my chest at one point!), caused a crack in my upper jaw through to the sinus through wrenching it back and forth.

That caused such a bad infection (which the practice manager denied and sent me home with ibuprofen) that as soon as my GP saw me he said I was about 24hrs from being rushed to intensive care. At least, that's what I'm told he said - I was completely out of my mind and have no memory of it at all.

Your story has frightened me and I'm not going for an extraction 🤣. That sounds horrific.

Unfortunately pain and stress affect people's perception and memory.

A dentist pushes in a tooth to get it out , they don't pull. There is absolutely no mechanical advantage to kneeling on someone's chest , if you actually did it you would break ribs and collar bone and to do it would require a level of balance , flexibility and athleticism that is , frankly , beyond most dentists. Even without that dental chairs do not go low enough to allow anyone but the most freakishly tall and long legged dentist to even attempt it.

Not nice!
I have been unlucky enough to have 6 teeth removed so far, two were done by this same surgeon.. although one of them was just 4 roots where my dentist had tried to remove it herself for an hour followed by the top dentist at the practice for another hour.. had to go home and wait 10 days for the roots and the cracked tooth next to them to be removed.

I have had a wisdom tooth take 1 hour with a strong dentist putting a lot of force on it.
I am not a stranger to traumatic extractions but I do think this one could top the lot!!

Except...that's actually what happened. I wasn't in pain at the time because it was a routine wisdom tooth extraction, I wasn't stressed (I'd already had a couple of extractions before then), and the nurse was chuckling about it with her afterwards. My recollection of that particular event is crystal-clear; it's when the infection developed over the following 24-48hrs that my memory starts getting spotty.

I have no idea whether she was supposed to be pushing or pulling (it's not exactly my field of expertise), but there was enough side-to-side force that she asked the nurse to hold my head still.

As for breaking ribs and collar bones...don't make me laugh. I'm not exactly slight of build, and as noted...she weighed maybe 7 or 8 stone? That's hardly even close to the force required to break somebody's ribs. On the bright side, she did ask first before climbing up.

You really, really cannot do this and you really make it difficult to take a tooth out.
You really can break a rib , CPR which is only done with hands can frequently result in broken ribs.
This video shows nothing gory , it's just a demo , but explains precisely why kneeling on someone's chest is just about impossible when taking a tooth out.