Having all 4 wisdom teeth out in 2 weeks, totally petrified and need some POSITIVE advice/ experiences to help me get myself to the hospital and get them OUT!!!!

[Roseblade]

As the title says, after putting off having the blighters out for seven years, have now accepted that they are affecting my health, with pain, trapped food, disgusting taste/smell in mouth etc etc.

Am having them out under GA in two weeks.

The problem is,I literally start to shake and feel panicky and unable to cope every time I start to contemplate it.

have never had a GA before and have a morbid fear that I will not wake up. Am also utterly afraid of the pain afterwards, having heard so many horror stories.

But must get there and have them out, as being in constant pain is affecting how I am with my little one and thats not on.

Can anyone tell me, how will I feel when I come round, will painkillers be able to keep the pain down to a reasonable level? How long before I am semi ok again?

HELP!!!!

Hi there, only time I have had GA was for wisdom teeth. Was scared but, predictably, it was all perfectly fine. Even the pain was loads less than I had been told about. They told me to book a week off work and I felt like a fraud, felt fine about 2 days after! I don't remember taking anything other than paracetemol/ibuprofen. Get some soup in though And of course get someone to be there with you. It was lovely waking up to see dh there.

Ah, there was supposed to be a smiley wink after the bit about soup! I promise it really wasn't very painful xxx

Class A drugs.

Seriously. Take all they offer you!

Had my 4 taken out under GA in hospital... I would say that's a better scenario because they are able to give you stronger pain relief.

It really wasn't too bad, honestly

(Was only joking about the Class A's )

Thanks lio, I feel like such a 'baby' I've been through childbirth for gods sakes! People just seem to have such horror stories !

It'll be fine. I had mine done years ago, under GA. Woke up feeling cold and with a headache. Nurses gave me a painkiller and a blanket. After a snooze I was home that evening.

They sent me off with painkillers and something for the swelling. It was uncomfortable, certainly, but all over in a week.

I hope you have someone to look after you for a few days, and also to do all the childcare.

I had all mine out in March - I'll be honest, it was painful but that was because I got an infection. The day I started my anti-biotics the mega pain went so my big advice would be that if the pain seems too much it probably is and go and get it checked out.

I was totally unprepared for how hard it would be to open my mouth and that was largely unrelated to pain levels, my mouth just swelled up and felt very stiff.

Soup was quite hard to eat (hard to get the spoon in!) so I would recommend things like mash potato, overcooked SOFT pasta, chips in gravy, mashed veggies. You can't eat very hot or very cold stuff for a big so things like cups of tea and ice cream are out.

I think it took me a week to feel confident eating and to feel properly normal. But as I say once my infection went things got much better.

I hope it goes well - oh and for me the GA was a piece of cake - much nicer than having my mouth open for ages whilst awake!

Oh Roseblade, I had the fears recently about a GA and it was fine. The pain post-wisdom teeth is nothing like the pain of childbirth or indeed the pain of your bits post-childbirth. One thing to watch for is that you can be a bit vomitous afterwards because the blood runs down your throat and makes you sick (this came as an unpleasant surprise to me). I seem to remember having to eat mostly soup and stuff for a week or so. Good luck.

Positive encouragements v. appreciated .

Indeed, it's fantastic for purposes of weight-loss

had all mine done at once in hospital and had no probs and didnt feel a thing you will be fine dont worry x good luck

LOL!! have alreagy lost FIVE pounds in sheer desperate anxiety, by the time its all over I will be size zero.... (although am planning on melting ben and jerrys choco fudge ice cream as main sourse of nutrition post op theres got to be some consolation!

True about needing support, you shouldn't be looking after anyone else straight away after GA. And to the idiots who told you horror stories, a raspberry and a big finger.

I had one out under local (day surgery only) on Tuesday. Not massively comparable, but anyway....have found that my tooth area is completely fine now (Sat night) but my mouth is still recovering from the way it was manipulated (for that read "pulled to buggery") during the surgery. Also, I had a biopsy of the inside of my mouth taken at the same time and that's the bit that's still bothering me.....

I'm still eating fairly plain food because anything vinegary and citrusey stings like hell, but otherwise am eating much more than slop now.

And the benefits of not having lots of food trapped and that pressure is definitely worth it!

I had all 4 out by GA some years ago. My brother was dismayed amazed to see how well I was afterwards (he'd been in more pain).

I was pretty much fine. A bit sore, yes.

My advice - DON'T EAT RICE! Oh, a grain of rice is such a snug fit in those nice new cavities....

I've had 4 GAs now. All fine. You will be.

hey - had the same about 6 years ago - wow, best thing I ever did, changed my life completely, totally recommend it - short term discomfort for a lifetime of toothpain free happiness. Easy choice. Good luck!

I had all four out under GA a couple of years ago. I was shitting myself about the GA too (it was my first) but when I came round I just wanted to go back to sleep again - it was the nicest sleep ever!

I had an awful time afterwards, but that was because I got 'dry sockets' quite commen in women on the pill apparantly and the holes do not clot so I was in agony for about 9 days and could not eat a thing. Lost 1 stone in total. I didn't know it was dry sockets and thought it was normal to have that much pain so suferred for longer than I needed to. Then was given extra strong pain killers that seriously made me sleep ALL DAY (unconcious more like) and had to visit my dentist daily to ahve a tobacco like substance shoved in the holes.

I still think it was worth it though. Now I am trouble free.

Had mine out years ago when a student - all 4 at once, under GA, boyfriend dumped me that day, had to go to work that evening in a pub - drank brandy all evening and felt no pain - physical or emotional - until next morning! So feel comforted that I can almost guarantee you'll have a better experience than I did

But I can recommend the brandy

Well, I haven't had a GA... I had 3 of mine taken out one by one over several years, just like a normal extraction. They were relatively easy and painless so was totally amazed having heard all the horror stories!

I was obviously fortunate that their positions have all been straightforward, and even the one that was anticipated to be difficult, and so not done at the dentist, but organised at the dental hospital ended up being a breeze,dentist could have managed at practice after all.

You can take arnica pillules for the likely bruising, and ask to speak to anaesthetist before pre-op so that he/she can try to put you at ease and take note of your fears etc.

If you're on the pill you might like to take extra precautions as taking extra pain relief and/or antibiotics if there's any infection could play havoc! I know someone who got pg cos she had her wisdom teeth out and didn't realise pill efficacy could be affected, Ask your doc about this to be sure.

As you can see from my story having wisdom teeth out is not always a nightmare!

I had all mine out under GA when I was 21.

Was told I'd need a week or so, but pretty sure I was functioning fine after 2 days. (all so painless I can scarcely remember it - no bruising, no swallowing blood, nowt.)

cruelly forced to eat custard and ice-cream, what can I say?!

Got mine out years ago (all 4/GA)

It was totally fine
The only blip I had was that my sister was looking after me, and she gave me drugs whether i needed them or not for the first while - my liver couldn't keep up, and I felt a bit dizzy.

Oh, and after I ate steak for the first time, I got a tiny bit stuck in the hole where my tooth was, and I couldn't get it out. Had to go back to the dentist to flush it out.

My breath improved after getting the rotten meat out!!

Had all 4 of mine out under GA 17 years ago.

My memories of it are:

Initially on waking up and directly afterwards I can remember HUGE gaping holes where the teeth were (obviously) in my mouth and it feeling all raw and fleshy in there. They didn't bleed as much as I was expecting and I wasn't in very much pain at all.

The worst thing by far was that one side of my tounge was completely numb. They had warned me when I signed the consent form that there was a risk that the lingual nerve could be severed during surgery and I was one of the unlucky ones it happened to. Apparently newve grows back like hair does and it totally came back to more or less normal within about 4 months.

I had dissolvable stitches and was discharged with antibiotics and co-codomol (but I didn't really use as I didn't have much pain).

I didn't have any swelling or infection but did have yellowish/greeish bruising arond lower jaw area.

I ached all over like I'd been kicked by a whole rugby team who'd also jumped on my chest from a great height this lasted for a few days.

To be honest what caused most cufuffle for me was the general discomfort of the aching body, the numb tongue and not being able to eat properly or talk comfortably for the initial few days post op.

After a while you adapt and if healing is quick you'll feel right as rain in yourself. Understandably you will have jellyish fleshy holes where the teeth were there for a while and the holes will seem gaping. You'll notice that food will get trapped there too so you'll have to be pretty fastidious about oral hygiene.

One tip from me - they will give you a factsheet when they discharge you and it'll give you instructions about rinsing thoroughly with a salt water solution so many times a day. On mine it said that bicarbonate of soda could be used instead of salt. It does exactly the same job and won't make you wretch like salt will. I was petrified of infection so rinsed for what seemed like months afterwards.

I'm sure you'll be fine and it sounds like this is going to improve your quality of life imeasurably. It's only a few days of discomfort and the results wil be well worth it for you.

Good luck, speedy recovery and I hope it's not too much of an ordeal for you.

Do let us know how you get on.

had the top two out under local at the dentist a few years back. didnt feel a thing tbh... even afterwards.

personal tip; upon waking from a GA, tell them it hurts unbearably and they might give you more morphine. looooovely.
can see why junkies get addicted.

I have read this thread with interest. I am also due to have 4 wisdom teeth out next months but opted to have them done 2 at a time, over the span of just 8 days under a local and am pretty terrified too. Just wanting to wish you the very best of luck and offer some hugs