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Lastly consider yourself lucky.....

I HAD to have mine removed by an oral surgeon at a hospital under general anesthesia the day before Thanksgiving so as not to mess up my perfect attendance when I was 15. For oral surgery and general anesthetic, guess where the breathing tube goes? Down your nose into your trachea. Yah fun. I had to have it this way because even though I have a big mouth on here, in real life my mouth is small and there was no room for them to work, so they had to tunnel under my back molars to get them out.....All four done at once.

So Just the fact that you have the option of having your nomal dentist do it tells me NO BIG DEAL....

So Just the fact that you have the option of having your normal dentist do it tells me NO BIG DEAL....

Exactly. When mine started hurting, my regular dentist said immediately that he could not/would not do them himself. An oral surgeon and sedation was required. Yours are definitely much simpler if your regular dentist said he was willing to do it.

That's probably why the surgeon looked offended when you asked if he'd ever seen "teeth like yours". He does five extractions per day? Great. Good for him. I think doctors sometimes forget that what is all in a days work for them is totally stressful and out of the norm for their patients.

((lonelygirl))

I'm not getting it done under general anesthesia. They are using something called conscious IV sedation. I've heard that I'll technically be awake and able to follow commands, but that I won't care about anything. It's hard to imagine that I won't care since I'm so freaked out about the whole thing. I requested general anesthesia, and he told me that it was significantly more expensive and had a lot more risks. He said the only time they do it with general is when there are other health issues that won't allow it to be done under conscious sedation.

The surgeon has also only been out of school a year, so that makes me nervous too. He was recommended to me by a medical malpractice attorney though, and he did that attorney's kids' wisdom teeth.

My top left one is completely in, and will just be pulled. The top right one hasn't broken the gum at all and is impacted. The bottom ones are slightly in and decayed. The bottom ones are also completely turned sideways on the x-ray.

He told me that I could leave the impacted upper one alone if I wanted to, but recommended getting the other three out. That doesn't make sense to me. Seems like I should get the impacted one out, and leave the one that is fully in alone. It is 100% in and fine, but the dentist said that it may get a cavity later just because it's difficult to brush that far back.

[This message edited by Lonelygirl10 at 1:12 PM, August 15th (Friday)]

I had the IV sedation and I don't remember anything. I was aware of nothing until "waking up" sitting in the doctors office with my boyfriend. They didn't carry me in there, I walked, so presumably I was following commands, but I had no awareness at all until afterwards.

JMO, but if you're going to have three done anyway, go ahead and do all four. Even the smoothest dental procedure is not fun, so why do it more than once if you don't have to? Get rid of all four now, then you're guaranteed no problems later.

He said the only time they do it with general is when there are other health issues that won't allow it to be done under conscious sedation.

Fair enough. This in itself is actually a good sign. If your case wasn't straightforward, then they'd hit you with a GA and knock you out.

Listen to the others who have had the positive IV sedation experience. You'll be fine. Seriously.

The IV sedation is what I described in a prior post. It's not general anesthesia it's BETTER!!!!

Safer, cheaper, and a great nap.

Seriously it's like someone flips a light switch, they say this is going to burn a bit, and then the next thing you know they are going ok wake up were done. The half life of it is like 30 seconds so when you stop getting it you wake up.

It won't make you pukey either.

I'm a little late to this. I had my wisdom teeth out in my early 20s, then moved to Cairo Egypt for the summer, and one got infected (food in the socket that even though I used the irrigation bulb still happened) so I had to go to the dentist in Cairo because the whole thing swelled up.

So that's a vote for until waiting until you get back.

Cayc, how long after you had yours removed was it when it got infected?