[OT] Wisdom Teeth

[Grishnak]

I've got all 4 wisdom teeth through and they fit in my big gob no problem hehe.

 

[Henry]

Had to have mine removed - I chose the general anesthetic, because wuss that I am, I couldn't stand the thoguht of hearing what I KNEW he was going to have to do.

My operation went through perfectly, and I only had about a week of bleeding. But then, when I was a teen I had the pain threshhold of a papier maché doll.

 

[Blasphemonkey]

I've only had to have one removed so far, and that was because there was cyst right underneath it. Mmmm, cysts...how yummy.

When you get your wisdom teeth out though, do you lose points on wisdom? Is this some sort of permanent ability damage? Is it a point of wisdom per tooth or something? I hope not, because that sounds pretty HARSH! Damn you, DM!

- 3/4 wise monkey

 

[KB9JMQ]

My jaw bones are too small (according to my dentist).
Had mine removed before they had even broken thru the skin.
This was after I already had 4 other permanent teeth removed.

Between that and orthodontics I must have put someones kid thru college

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Mine came out when I was 23. Had a tootache--turned out to be an abcessed wisdom tooth, and one of the others was impacted.

So I go in--it's local anesthetic (novocaine). 8 shots. I thought the one into the abcessed tooth would hurt the most (and said so after that shot), but the dentist said, "No, the one in the roof of your mouth will be worse." He was right. 5 of the shots "didn't take" and I got them again. So, 13 shots of novocaine later, I'm ready to go.

The dentist is drilling into one of the teeth, and then using a blunt-edged instrument to pry it out. Drill, pry. Drill, pry. Drill, pry--snap! My tooth broke the stainless steel instrument. I had stitches in two places, but no major issues or problems. Just my steel-breaking teeth.

The night before my appointment, I had been up all night typing my Master's thesis. Then I moved all my stuff into storge, went to the dentist, ran errands around town (post office, returning my office keys, etc.), went out with friends, and then next morning took a plane ride home. The happy pills helped, but I stopped taking them after two days because it was just getting too easy to pop those pills.

So, if the one hadn't been abcessed, I would never have gotten them out (at least at that time). Since I had to get the two bottom ones out (the abcessed one and the impacted one), the dentist said we should get all 4 at once.

I still laugh about the whole experience (the extra novocaine shots, breaking the instrument), but at the time it was a little un-nerving. Probably because it was my first "medical incident" as an adult. I got sticker shock when I saw how much I had to pay for the prescriptions involved, and before the extraction I had to sign a waiver which listed all sorts of gruesome possibilities (up to death) which I would not hold the dentist reponsible for if they happened as a result of the procedure.

 

[John Crichton]

Ugh...

The problem with wisdom teeth is that even if they come in normal and fine (like mine did), since they're so far back they decay pretty easily. But if they come in normally and you take good care of them, there's no reason why you can't keep them for a while. I didn't have mine out until this year, and I got them about five years ago. Unfortunately they're hard to keep in good condition - even though I brush every day, mine still started to decay. YMMV, of course.

I can verify this. My top wisdom teeth are decaying and the bottom ones are fine. Of course, my family has a history of mouth issues which sucks. One of my wisdom teeth actually got so bad that I had to have it pulled in an emergency-type situation (it was decaying from the back forward). I won't get into any gory details because it just get disgusting from here on out.

It actually happened while i was gaming @ a Con. I bit into a Skittle and *crunch.* I had no idea what was going on at the time and didn't realize until the next day what had happened. Went in, had it yanked, was on painkillers and missed a few days of work. Wasn't fun but I've been through worse. Didn't feel a thing while they were extracting it and I was in there for about 90 minutes so I decided to watch the dentist do it from the reflection of his glasses...

 

[Tabarnak Smokeblower]

Ring me up as a lucky one who's teeth came in straight and stayed that way

TS

 

[ArielManx]

I had my bottom wisdom teeth pulled at age 21. There wasn't enough room for them to come in so out they had to come. I was awake but took the laughing gas so it was no big whoop. One tooth broke as it was being pulled so the dentist had to big a bit to get each piece out. One deep stitch in each side and a bottle of antibiotics and home I went. I filled the painkiller prescription but stuck to Advil. I sure got tired of soup and applesauce...

Still have the top ones, though as several have noted they're a pain to brush. I asked the dentist about pulling those too, but he said as long as they stay healthy I should keep them (they came in straight) because I'm already missing two teeth on top from my botched-up braces experience. Wisdom teeth make great anchors for partials and bridges, apparently. So if you don't have any problems, keep 'em!

I'm ever grateful that I didn't inherit a certain trait from my grandfather...the roots on all his molars were crossed, like X's. My father told me the day Grandpa came home from having his teeth pulled in preparation for getting dentures, his whole face was black and blue; Doc (as everyone called the dentist back home) had gotten up on the chair and braced one hand on Grandpa's head while pulling with all his might (and his biggest set of pliers). *shudder*

Ariel

 

[Buttercup]

According to my father-in-law, who is a retired oral surgeon, in most cases the wisdom teeth are not properly formed, being porus and lacking adequate enamel. So even if they fit in one's mouth, they tend to decay pretty easily. He says that the percent of people who have strong, properly formed wisdom teeth is incredibly small. At this point in the conversation, he went into horrid, excruciating detail about some of the jaw reconstructions he had to do because people neglected to get their wisdom teeth out and their jaw bones started rotting away.

Now, my father-in-law is a great guy, but he likes to gross me out. I have found over the years, though, that even his most horrifying stories are true. So decide for yourself.

 

[jaerdaph]

I didn't do it when I should have, and now it's causing problems so it has to be done anyway in addition to more dental work as a result of waiting, so I highly suggest just doing it.