wisdom tooth horrors

[poppypops]

Have had the most awful tooth ache over past 3 days. Never in my life have I felt such pain, even childbirth coming a close second!! Although that was a few years ago so the mind has erased most of that trauma. Gum started to swell to a frightening size and leak pus overnight.

Took myself off to the dentist this morning. I was advised that both upper and lower wisdom teeth should be excised and that there was extensive infection to my lower gum.

Have not had any dental work done other than polish so was unsure what to expect. When the poor dentist injected local into my pallet, the sensation was so awful/scary, I am embarresed to stay I had a full blown panic attack. Vomited everywhere and started to hyper-ventilate. Could not continue with treatment. I am sure they thought I was mad!

Back home now, local has worn off. Pain is back and I have only myself to blame. Got 5 days antibiotics so hopefully they should take the edge off.

Would welcome any advice re anxiety and dental procedures. Need to deal with the dreaded wisdom tooth extraction as they are not going anywhere soon. Any one else have similar story to cheer my old goat up?

Oh poppypops that sounds terrible. I am a complete wuss when it comes to the dentist but last week my a peice of my wisdom tooth broke off and although the tooth didnt hurt it left a sharp edge which was cutting my gum so i went to the dentist . Im 17 weeks pregnant so he wouldn't xray and he didnt want to fill it in case it caused me more problems later in the pregnancy . So he pulled it out ,i can honestly say the injection is the worst bit and after that you can just feel pulling and tugging . Give the antibiotics a while to work and go back and get it pulled ,there is nothing worst than tooth ache . Good luck !

Thanks shesadancer, agree that there is nothing worse than toothache. Slept through so feeling a bit better this morning. Roll on antibiotics kicking in! Have another app in a week or so to discuss having a GA. There is also a good possibility I am pregnant this month (fingers crossed), therefore will have to wait and see how this impacts treatment plans. Pleased to hear you are pain free now.

|there is a lot of sound advice and information on www.dentalfearcentral.org and I hope you get it sorted soon.

Are you having the work done at your dentist or at a hospital? Dentists in hospital do wisdom teeth extractions all the time so are generally better at it than a high street dentist.

I had mine done with a local and as shesadancer says, the injection is the worst bit. I recovered very quickly but the recovery time if you have a GA is likely to be longer so it is worth trying to get through the injection if you can. Good luck.

My dd1 had three removed recently, she is 17 and a drama queen! (her younger sister is braver). She had them done under local in dental hospital, the injections seemed to be worse than the extraction... she had her ipod to try and distract her, nurofen was enough as a pain killer. (I had the plus ones, but she only used the ordinary). She was taking arnica and had no bruising, swelling went away within a couple of hours. They did the extactions , two on one side followed a week later by the one on the other side. Under general three would have been done together, and her mouth less mobile as a result and possibly slower to heal (and impossible to eat). Her opinion was that it was sore for 24 hours, then got better - unlike the infections and resulting pain the anti biotics which didn't work etc. that she'd been having. Good luck with it all

I had a month of pure agony with my top wisdom tooth after years of problems ...was ready to try and pull it out myself...went to the dentist for pain killers..

he took it out in ten seconds..after numbing my gum of course...oh my god...i could of hugged him...went off home smiling...no bruising..no pain......give me a wisdom tooth being pulled over an infection any day!

Thanks all, feeling much better with AB. Wow Steger, your DD is very brave. Feeling old and inadequate now :o.

Does anyone know if they also inject you with local if you are having a GA? This would obviously defeat the purpose of me having a GA as I am terrifed of feeling so numb after.

Thanks Holymolars, looked at website. It's nice to know that it is common and I am not the only wuss around.

I'm due to have my widsom teeth removed at the MaxFax dept of our local hosp in June. I'm terrified of having a local (no needles in my mouth thank you...) but didn't want to go down the GA route as both my parents have had allergic reactions to GA, as did one of my sisters so they offered me local anaesthetic with IV sedation. The best bit for me is they sedate you, then give the local after. Apparently its quite a pleasant feeling as you've no idea what's going on! If you're referred to MaxFax, maybe ask if they offer that, it means you can go home much sooner although you'll still need to have someone with you as you can't drive.
They do usually put a long acting local in because it will be extremely painful for a while after. Surely you'd rather be numb than in pain?
Good Luck!

My dd isn't usually brave! The numbness seemed to wear off after about 3 hours, but her jaw was stiff until next morning. She was able to eat things like kinderbars (the squashy chocolate with extra milk so good for teeth, allegedly), and fairly lumpy soup the next day. I'd imagine the GA would be the same post op? Our dog had GA for a knee operation a couple of weeks later - it took him about 3 days to be 'a bit better' after it, it can be hard to deal with in your system. Good luck to anyone needing the wisdom teeth done, it seems to be worse thinking of i than recovering from it!