Wisdom teeth removal under GA - what to expect

[tooyoungat40]

Hi, can any one offer any experiences of this? I'm due to have two bottom wisdom teeth removed under GA. What can I expect in terms of pain and recovery?

TIA

I had one out at the dentist with local last year.. the procedure was pretty brutal so be glad of the GA!

I don’t know about recovery from GA but my recovery took around two-ish weeks. It was very sore for 3-4 days, minor bleeding and my face was really swollen. I ate a lot of soup and drank through a straw. Made good use of painkillers. After that, the swelling slowly went down & was left with a less sore but irritated gum and a disgusting taste. I went back to the dentist & it was infected and also the stitches had started to dissolve oddly and were digging into my gum. So I had those partly removed & antibiotics. Took another 5/6 days to be pain free. I stuck to soft food throughout until I felt confident to eat anything chewier!

Honestly, while painful, the whole thing wasn’t as awful as expected. And after years of pain & infections, I’m so glad the damn tooth is out & I'm pain free!

Good luck

I had all four out under GA a couple of years ago. Took a few days to recover from the GA & I was very careful not to knock my gums as I didn't want to dislodge any clots. I had codeine from the hospital and felt fine within a week. Any pain was totally manageable & it really was fine, although I wound myself up prior to surgery

I had three removed under GA. They couldn't remove the fourth due to where it was and they thought it would make me lose sensation in one side of the tongue.

I ended up with a dry socket, then an infection and couldn't open my mouth very wide. However, when I came around from the GA I panicked and they had to remove the stuff they used to pack the gums with. So, I am pretty sure that caused my dry socket.

They couldn't pack my dry socket because of the lock jaw.

It was an awful time but after I had recovered I was just happy to stop getting infections and pain all the time. I am sure you will be fine as long as you don't do what I did and take good care not to dislodge the clots.

Thank you so much for all the replies. From the sounds of it, those replying were in a position where the wisdom teeth were causing issues and needed to be taken out. I'm having second thoughts hearing about all your experiences because, at the moment, mine aren't causing me any bother. My dentist says that they are growing sideways facing into the side of my other teeth and pushing against them. She says the gap is a likely area for infection BUT I have never had an infection. Should I just hold off until they do start causing me bother? I don't think I could put up with post-operative complications and infections if there's nothing causing me pain or bother at the moment.

I don't know what to do.

I can go and speak to the dentist who is supposed to operate (not my normal dentist because she's not set up for GA. Should I ask them to see if they can tell if it will be a difficult or easy procedure? Surely they can tell from X-rays if my teeth are going to be awkward to remove or not? If it doesn't look straight forward, then I'm willing to hang on to them.

Hi OP I've just had one of mines taken out today in the hospital with a GA it wasn't causing me any bother but the angle it was coming in at, would likely have caused more issues in the long run!
It's painful but they are very good in recovery and was home around 2.5 hours .. was a bit groggy for a few hours, drinking through a straw and soft foods for a few days.

2.5 hours after it was removed*