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I've been putting off getting my wisdom teeth out for about 10 years, and the dentist finally scared me enough last week for me to get them out.

My problem is deciding when to get them out. I am leaving for Paris on September 26 for 10 days, and I don't want anything to mess up that trip. My options are either getting them out August 20th, or waiting until after I get back from my trip to do it.

One wisdom tooth has a cavity, and the tooth is decaying. The dentist told me that I could wake up one morning with an infection and in extreme pain. It scared me, and I met with an oral surgeon this week. He didn't seem as concerned, and told me that I needed to get it out in the next year. He did say that there's always the possibility that I'll wake up with an infection, and he can't make any guarantees.

So, my question is whether I should get it out before or after my Paris trip. If I do it before, I'm worried about complications (nerve damage, dry socket) and whether I will be able to eat normally on my trip. If I wait until after, I'm worried I'll wake up in extreme pain right before or during my trip like the dentist warned. For people who have had it done, what would you recommend based on your experiences? Is a month enough time to fully heal and be back to normal, or should I wait until after trip?

Thanks!

I had mine out when I was 18. The few days after I useless due to pain killers, but within a week I felt 95% back to normal. If you get them out then make sure you follow the doctors orders on how to care for yourself.

I had all four of mine out when I was 18. It was not too bad, and recovery was fairly quick. I THINK that if you went ahead and had them out on the 20th of August, you should be fine to go on your trip. I never had a tremendous amount of actual pain, just a lot of soreness for a while.

I'd do it before you go I think. I too put off getting them out and last year had one abscess due to infection. It was absolute agony Lonelygirl10. Brutal. I never ever want to go through that again.

I know it's a long shot but if you were on your trip and that happened it would completely ruin your trip. For that reason alone I would just get it over with.

IMO, get them out before you go.

As the others have said, the recovery time is usually 1 week or less. And having them hurting or getting an infection in one while you are in Paris could REALLY screw up your trip. Not to mention the hassle of trying to get treatment out of country if it becomes an emergency.

And getting them done August 20th still gives you a good month to deal with any possible complications (although chances are fairly good there won't be any).

As an aside, though I know you don't want there to be an issue, if you don't have trip insurance, you might want to see about getting it. That should at least put your mind at ease that if there are any problems (which could happen even without your wisdom teeth issue), that you won't lose everything you've put into this trip, and so you could schedule it again in the future if something happened.

I say get them out before. I had mine removed about 6 weeks before a big trip, I did end up with dry sockets. I was still fine long before the trip. You should be able to eat normally as well.

Both my girls had trouble with theirs - they developed dry socket and were in horrible pain.

That said, having a month between getting them out and going to Paris should be enough time.

Thanks everyone. The surgeon told me that my recovery may be longer since I'm over the recommended age for it. All my friends have told me that they were eating normal in two weeks, but they all got it done at age 18. Anyone here get it done after the age of 25, which I guess is the recommended age for it?

Lucky, how long did it take your girls to recover from the dry socket?

I too put off getting them out and last year had one abscess due to infection. It was absolute agony Lonelygirl10. Brutal. I never ever want to go through that again.

Yup, that is what finally scared me into not putting it off. I'd like to avoid that if possible, but also don't want recovery/complications messing up the trip. I'm going to Paris for my 30th birthday, so it's a pretty special trip for me

I had all four of mine removed when I was 19. I went shopping with my grandma afterward. I had no issues. Everybody said I should take at least 4 days off work to recuperate. I didn't need to. I followed my doctor's instruction and did just fine.

I got my top two out about 6 years ago. So I was in my mid-30's then. I got them out on a Friday and spent the weekend at home "recovering". Eating pudding and applesauce. I didn't have much pain and whatever soreness I did feel was gone by Monday. No dry socket issues. The only problem I experienced was getting sick from the pain meds he prescribed. Vomiting with cotton stuck in your mouth is never fun!

The part that bothered me most was when the stitches started dissolving. I could swear I felt a string in the back of my throat that made me want to gag. :)

I recommend getting it done before you head off for Paris. I would recommend getting the procedure done at least 3-4 weeks before you leave.

My Mom was in her early 40's when she had her's removed. As far as I remember her recovery was normal.

I had mine removed when I was 15, my sister was 17.

DS23 was 17, DD22 doesn't have wisdom teeth, DD16 was 15 as was DS16.

All recoveries were about a week, no dry sockets, off pain pills within 2 days.

I'm in the camp of getting them removed before your trip, can you imagine if you were to wake up with the infection in Paris?

[This message edited by imagoodwitch at 8:17 AM, July 25th (Friday)]

I was late 20's and just remember taking about a week to really recover. I did have dry sockets, but again, didn't last very long.

Do it and get it over with!!

I had mine out at close to 30. They were very difficult to extract because they were positioned a funny way in my mouth. I was in a lot of pain for at least a few days after, but didn't have a lot of swelling or bruising. I was back to work within a week and eating normally within a couple of weeks.

My mom had one removed at the insistence of the dentist when she was in her late 40s/early 50s. She ended up with a dry socket. I remember the dentist told her that the antibiotics took 10 days to really work. She was in a lot of pain but it was for a period of 10 days.

If you have a month between the surgery and the trip, I would say everything will be fine even if you have a complication, which I hope you don't.

Do it on the 20th of August. It is extremely unlikely you will have any issues from it a month later.

I had mine out in my early 20s, I recommend taking someone with you, I didn't and was sad about that! I also recommend getting the full anesthesia--I only got local, and regretted it. Recovery wasn't that bad, just a little weird. I kept losing pieces of corn kernel in the sockets because genius me decided corn chowder would be the great recovery food (tmi, sorry). So, don't do that!

I had a friend who just had hers removed two weeks ago and she recovered just fine. She's 28 or 29.

All your replies are making me feel a lot better about this whole thing. I've never had any type of surgery before, so I'm super nervous about it. My job is also a medical malpractice attorney, so I think I see the worst possible complications all the time and it's made me paranoid.

I just want to make sure that I'm able to eat normal and enjoy all the good food in Paris. It seems like no one took longer than 4 weeks to be normal though?

I chose the IV sedation option, and I'm nervous about that too. I've read that you're technically conscious for it, but 99% of the time you don't remember anything about the procedure. I asked him about general anesthesia, but he explained that required a breathing tube, have to be in the hospital for it, and has a longer recovery. I stumbled on a forum in my research though where someone posted about being awake and in pain during the procedure and unable to communicate or move, and that has me paranoid now too.

I was 39 when I had that wisdom tooth pulled last year. Like I said it was already abscessed. They put me on antibiotics for a week and that made the horrible pain stop, but it was still very sore. It was not an easy extraction, and the tooth broke which added to the fun. The extraction itself though was painless with local anesthetic. This was on a Friday and all swelling and pain was gone by Monday. Probably another week before I felt I could chew on that side normally. There were no other complications.

So even though it was only one, hopefully it makes you feel a little better that it was just not a big deal to get it out and heal

Also STOP reading tooth extraction forums. I did that and was terrified. . If you have a real phobia with this, I know my dentist offered me something for the night before for anxiety. I didn't end up taking it. The only time I got really anxious was when they administered the freezing and my throat started to go numb. It was just a weird feeling. I would suggest telling the dentist you are scared and ask exactly what to expect. Most of them are really good with this stuff because so many people hate dental procedures.

[This message edited by SI Staff at 9:16 AM, July 25th (Friday)]

I have two late in life experiences with this and both went fine.

I had the top two pulled in the dentist office with just local anesthetic when I was 28. They weren't impacted, I didn't need stitches. It only took like 15 minutes. I took one pain killer as recommended, felt perfectly fine, amazing, and just went about my day. That was a mistake. The pain killer had me throwing up for the next three hours. I'm sorry JoAnn's employees. I switched to Advil and it was really quick and painless after that. Really no down time at all.

Then this last May (at 30) I had the lower two, which were impacted, surgically removed by an oral surgeon. This time the anesthesia made me nauseous, but once that wore off the pain pills were perfect and I slept for the next three days with ice packs wrapped around my face Back to normal food in a week. The holes took about a month to close fully so I did have to rinse them after eating, which is a tiny pain.

As for dry socket, you will know within a week if you have it, so you will have plenty of time to address it.

My oral surgeon had me take Vitamin C, and Bromelain (pineapple supplement, helps reduce swelling) for a week before surgery. He also did this platelet rich plasma injection thing during surgery that allegedly reduces the risk of dry socket.

Are your teeth impacted? For me that was the biggest difference, and surgery was definitely more of an ordeal, but both healed relatively quickly and I'm glad I have them all out now.

I had all four of mine removed when I was 22. I had them removed by an oral surgeon in my hometown during college winter break. Within 2 days I had to be back at college. I did need to follow up with an oral surgeon once I was in college town due to some sensitivity. But I was totally fine.

You will have a full month of recovery time before your trip. I think that is plenty of time.

It's a personal decision, but I agree with Norabird about the anesthesia too.

When I had mine out, they wanted to go with just a local. Really, really tried hard to convince me. I informed them that there was no way they would be doing the surgery unless I was completely out.

Afterwards, they told me it was just as well that I'd had them put me under. Mine were impacted. If they'd started me out on local, they would have had to sedate me mid-procedure.

And the sedation was just IV sedation. What I remember - They gave me gas first, which just made me kind of spaced out. Then they put the IV in. I remember that because I have veins that are hard to find, and the nurse doing mine was having trouble (most people don't have nearly as much difficulty as I do). I watched her put it in the back of one hand, and take it out. The back of another hand, and take it out. Both wrists, the same. She finally got it in on my forearm, but by then I had gone to sleep.

I woke up in the recovery room. The only problems I had - several bruises (they didn't really hurt) where she had unsuccessfully tried to put in the IV, and me sitting there, very calmly, telling my mom that I was going to go find the woman who put in my IV. I wanted to go beat her up. If you knew me, you would know how EXTREMELY out of character that is for me. My mom just told me no, and I said ok. We sat there and waited until I was coherent enough to walk before we left. Oh, and I was crying a bunch too. Not because it hurt (it didn't yet), but because... well, because I couldn't help it.

This is why Norabird's suggestion to take someone with you if at all possible is a good one. Anesthesia affects people in different ways. My mom said she'd had anesthesia, she couldn't quit crying when she came out of it. Me... I did the crying thing too, but it seemed completely rational to me that I should go find the woman who put all those bruises on me and give her a few. Not that I was fighting or argumentative - since when my mom told me I couldn't, I just said ok. It's good to have someone you know with you until it gets out of your system enough that you are relatively back to normal.

ETA: And no, I didn't remember anything really. The last thing was when she was putting the IV in, and the next thing I remember, I was sitting in a recovery room. I really don't know if I walked there or they used a wheelchair, but either way, they had me get up from the chair where they did the surgery and walk at least a little. Didn't remember any of it.

[This message edited by osxgirl at 10:13 AM, July 25th (Friday)]

I had all four removed when I was in my late 20s/early 30s. My recovery in the first few days wasn't great (dry socket), but once they figured that part out, I was better within a week.

I'd have it done before you go.