Having an Operation to Remove Wisdom Teeth

I've had a bit of a dental emergency over the weekend which saw us making an emergency dash up to the Royal Melbourne Dental Hospital on Saturday after 2 & 1/2 weeks of constant pain that suddenly got so bad that it felt worse than labour and 3 mersyndol and 2 panadol in about 2ish hours didn't even make a dint in the pain.

The dental hospital took an x-ray of my right wisdom which showed a cavity almost the size of a pea and that the roots went right through the bone and were touching the nerve canal. I was told they could either extract it and the left wisdom tooth then and there and risk permanent nerve damage and lose the feeling in half of my face and never be able to taste things ever again (though it could also have only been temporary damage that lasted 3-6 months) OR I could see the specialist and have a full jaw x-ray and have surgery to remove the 2 wisdom teeth.
I chose surgery for obvious reasons, there is no way that I want to go through the rest of my life not being able taste things or feel hot and cold or tell when I have bitten the inside of my cheek or my tongue.

So I'm waiting for the specialist to call and tell me when to come in, I'm still in a lot of pain and now taking a LOT of Panadeine Forte just to keep on top of the pain, which means all the milk I'm expressing is now going down the sink as I can't give it to DD with all those painkillers floating around in my system.

What I'd like to know is what can I expect when I go to see the specialist, with the operation and after the operation?

I want to be as prepared as possible as I'm absolutely terrified of having operations and being cut into thanks to the emergency c-sec I had with DS.

I just hope that the specialist calls tomorrow as I can't keep on taking 10+ panadeine forte a day just to be pain free and able to function as a mummy.

They may be able to do it under a twilight sedation or a GA, and it's not like being "cut into" at all, because your mouth is open. I had a wisdom surgically removed in the oral surgeon's chair, it was pretty much like a normal visit to the dentists but a longer time in the chair, but with more of a recovery period (and more painkillers) afterwards.

FWIW I recently had some very nasty oral pain (nerve dying inside a tooth) and the specialist said the most effective painkiller combination is to take nurofen and panadol together. You might get more mileage out it than the panadeine forte.

BTW if the specialist doesn't call, you call them. Sometimes the urgency gets lost in translation, so if you call to follow up you might get in sooner.

Ouch, you poor thing - no wonder you were in so much pain. Yes, the PF would barely be touching the surface.

I had all four wisdom teeth out about four years ago. The specialist went through my xrays, the procedure and explained the pros and cons of leaving them in vs taking them out. He gave me the option of having them out in the chair or under a GA in day surgery. I'm scared of operations too but I felt that being completely knocked out rather than sitting in a chair semi-conscious was the better option!

At the day surgery they did a quick check-over, laid me down and started the count backwards from 20 thing. I was out like a light and woke up with a mouth full of stuffing about an hour later. I was heavily dosed up on PF and antibiotics and headed home, slept a lot. I think the things that helped the most were icing my face constantly for the first two days (to avoid 'chipmunk cheeks'!) and rubbing with arnica cream to reduce the swelling. Then I started gargling with salt water or mouthwash to keep the area nice and clean.

Make sure you keep up your fluid intake, eat soft foods when you feel up to it and ice, ice baby.

Recovery took about a week for me but only because I react badly to meds; most people are back up and at 'em within a couple of days.

I completely understand your fear and concern. The actual op will be over in the blink of an eye and then you can concentrate on getting better and being with your beautiful baby. As you say, it will be worth it.

Good luck xo

I also had all four wisdoms taken out under GA, when I was 18. It was easy-peasy - the worst part was fasting before going to hospital, and prepping for surgery (which is pretty nerve-wracking, and I can totally understand your fears). But it was the best option for me, my wisdoms hadn't popped up (do they?), but were growing sideways into my other teeth and causing me a fair bit of grief - there was no way the surgeon could get to them other than to go in through the side of my jaw, itms??
I woke up, sat in recovery with ice-packs on my cheeks for an hour, then went home and was back to normal the next day, apart from some lingering aching and a bit of bruising on my cheeks for about a week afterwards.
It sounds like that might be the better option for you, seeing as you're in so much pain and the alternative is a dicey one, I wouldn't want to risk losing sensation/taste either. Have a chat to the specialist, ask if you can go under a GA and see if maybe you can have a support person to get you through the scary prep bit? Good luck with it all, I hope you're pain-free and back to normal very soon!! xx

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I also had all four wisdoms taken out under GA, when I was 18. It was easy-peasy - the worst part was fasting before going to hospital, and prepping for surgery (which is pretty nerve-wracking, and I can totally understand your fears). But it was the best option for me, my wisdoms hadn't popped up (do they?), but were growing sideways into my other teeth and causing me a fair bit of grief - there was no way the surgeon could get to them other than to go in through the side of my jaw, itms??
I woke up, sat in recovery with ice-packs on my cheeks for an hour, then went home and was back to normal the next day, apart from some lingering aching and a bit of bruising on my cheeks for about a week afterwards.
It sounds like that might be the better option for you, seeing as you're in so much pain and the alternative is a dicey one, I wouldn't want to risk losing sensation/taste either. Have a chat to the specialist, ask if you can go under a GA and see if maybe you can have a support person to get you through the scary prep bit? Good luck with it all, I hope you're pain-free and back to normal very soon!! xx

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Same here.

Except mine had never starting causing me pain. They were growing in sideways tho and my parents had just spent 3k on braces and the wisdom teeth were going to ruin their handy work :)

The worst part I remember is having to eat mush for a few days and looking like a sea monkey as your face swells a little. Pain wise I can't remember a thing!
Mum had hers out the same way and apparently it was just when they bought chicken nuggets out and chicken treat and she was ****ed she couldn't eat them XD

i had all 4 of mine out last year in the hospital, knocked out.
same things as helle, they were growing sideways and ruining my brace work.
one was also making an abyss on my gum :/

my specialist didnt really tell me the pro's and con's he just said we really need to get these out!

i pre made jelly & custard before i went in and lived on that & cup of soups.

i had disolvable stitches in and they took about two weeks to dissolve.. i was in extreme pain the day after getting them out, it calmed down after that.. still sore but i was in tears the first day

i was hideously swollen & bruised for about 2-3 days, the bruising was still there after that but the swelling wasnt too bad, just looked like id eaten a sh*tload of doughnuts ;)

icepacks for your jaws is a very big recommendation.. when i left the hospital they gave me two to slip into a bangage to wrap around my face..

and panadeine forte!

good luck! x

p.s i see youre from morwell, i got them out at maryvale private, they were lovely!

You poor thing, that sounds horrendous!

I have no advice on the teeth thing as I've never had wisdom teeth, but just the Panadeine Forte thing worries me. The max dose is 8 in any 24hour period. Taking any more won't help with the pain any better/faster, and you risk major liver damage by overdosing.

Hope you get that call today.

Was going to say the same thing as Kim - also panadol, panadine and p/forte have the 8/day limit combined, so any of these count towards the 8/day if that makes sense...

FWIW I had 3 out in the chair a few years ago, it was the worst experience ever, nothing like normal teeth coming out :( and the pain was horrid. If I could do it again, I would have the surgery.

Tooth pain is exceptionally unpleasant, if your pain relief is not effective, get something else... I would also agree with MD regarding combining the meds...
Looking after 2 little ones and getting up over night while you are in pain would be nasty :(

Next time you get stuck near Oakleigh, give me a call and you can come for a cuppa if your not in a mad dash for hospital

:hug: hope you feel better soon


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I had mine out under GA during my teens as well. Mine where under my gum so an incision was made in both cheeks and they tunnelled down to where the teeth were and pulled them out through the inside of my cheeks.

I wasn't in pain after wards, it just felt like my mouth was filled with cotton wool but really there was nothing in there and just very swollen. From about lunch time the same day to 9pm I slept only waking up to spit out some pooling blood from time to time. The pain really didn't set in until the following morning and I felt pretty sick but was manageable.

I had dissolving stitches and the knots fell off after a while, the biggest pain was having a mouth full of food then realising I'm chewing on a knot and having to fish it out of my mouth.

It wasn't a pleasant experience but it certainly wasn't the worst thing I've ever been through.

Hope it goes well and you get in soon!

If I wanted GA I had to wait a month so I got it done straight away in the chair...

I had 5 teeth surgically removed. two impacted wisdome teeth ( on weird angles and half in the gum but rotten :( and the other two, plus the extra one was because I left it so long so I had nerve damage to the one next to it....

I was awake, it wasnt too bad. the relief was there as soon as the teeth were gone.

I didnt have Any PAIN relief . though it hurt like hell nothing 'works' on me but the heavy drugs and I too was worried about how id function.

The most annoying thing is having HOLES in your mouth until they heal... Some cant be stitched up... I had 8 stitches though altogether .. Best of luck

I had all four out in the chair - two at a time.

It was a bit scary but it was cheap, I had quotes elsewhere for $800 in the chair, this local dentist did it for the ordinary extraction price at the time so $400 all up.

OP's mouth sounds a bit more complex though.

There's some dissolvable painkiller you can get from the chemist for afterwards too, for anyone doing it this way.

Thanks for your replies everyone.

I still haven't heard from the specialist, so will be calling them at lunch time when hubby is home from work so that I can use his phone as mine is out of credit :(

I hate it that I had been having to take so many painkillers just be able to manage the pain, it's been better since Tuesday morning, and I only had to take 4 PF and 2 panadol for the day, and 2 of the PF were only because I forgot to NOT chew with that tooth d'oh! I have been trying so hard not to take that many PF, but when it's hurting so much that you're screaming and there's nothing else that you can do to stop it then you have to try the only thing that you have available itms.
The doctor in emergency on monday morning wouldn't give me anything stronger than panadeine forte, even though I had told him that 3 mersyndol and 2 panadol hadn't made any difference, he just told me to see my GP and get a script for more panadeine forte.
The cold weather also makes it flare up as well, which isn't nice :(

The good thing about having it done at the dental hospital is that it shouldn't cost us any more than $24 as we have a health care card, it's just the wait that is doing our heads in.

I also think that there is an abcess under the left wisdom tooth, as there is a lump on the side of my jaw that is a bit tender and it has become a little bit smaller since I've been on the antibiotics, so that might be why I still have so much pain on that side. The right side is perfectly fine with the temporary cap on it, no pain at all which is a HUGE relief!

The main issue is the possibility of permanent nerve damage though, hence why they will be doing surgery instead of a normal extraction and I will be insisting that they do it under GA, because there is no way in the world that I will be awake for that, I hate dentists as a general rule and I've had my fair share of teeth pulled in preparation of getting braces as a teenager (most of the work they did is ruined now though lol 6 years without visiting a dentist due to waiting lists - there's currently a 7yr waiting list for emergency work where I am - and lack of funds when I needed it done and having the plate break 3 months after the braces came off did that), and that was extremely painful as the local anaesthetic they use wears off too quickly with me and doesn't numb the entire area for some reason (just before I got the braces they pulled out 6 molars over 2 months to make room for my wisdom teeth and it took almost 20 injections each time just to get the area numb enough to pull the teeth out with only a medium - eg 6/10 on the scale - amount of pain).

SJ - Thanks darl, next time we're up there we will txt you and stop by.

Alish - Thanks for the tip on the jellies and custard, I'll definately be making them up before I go in, managed to eat some roast pork rack and roast vegies on monday night as long as I didn't chew with my wisdom teeth and the molars directly in front of them, and hubby made a potato mash to have with the corned silverside he cooked until it was really tender for me last night so that I didn't have to chew too much, today he's getting me a whole heap of thin soups as i'm hardly eating during the day to try and avoid causing any pain.

Still dreading it, but a feeling a bit more at ease after reading all your replies, sorry my reply is so long and somewhat disjointed, and I know I've rambled on a bit, I'm so overtired and feeling a bit out of it but can't sleep until the panadol kicks in.

Big hugs, hun. It sounds like you're having a really rough time of it, I really feel for you :( I had a sinus infection when pg with DD2 that my GP refused to treat, it hurt even worse than my wisdom teeth did and I was miserable for weeks and weeks... so I can definitely relate!! I hope you get hold of the specialist today and you can get things moving for you, sort it all out soon so you can be pain-free asap. x

JJ massive hugs, you sound so miserable. I know how draining that pain can be. Hoping they get you sorted out ASAP