Another wisdom teeth question

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Am trying to schedule my daughter’s upper wisdom teeth removal within a certain window of time this August/September, and I know in the past I’ve heard that either the tops or the bottoms are usually easier to extract. She had the two bottoms out a couple of years ago, but the tops were not ready, so we were told to return in two years for the tops. She had a dreadful experience with lots of complications (except dry socket), so we’re going to a new oral surgeon. At any rate, we don’t really have a choice if they are ready to come out, as she will be spending the fall semester in London, so we have to do it in August if they need to come out before she leaves. She stayed at school for summer school this summer, so mid-August is the soonest we can do it.</p>

<p>She has her consultation appt. on August 18th, and the removal scheduled for August 21st. If they determine that it can wait until Christmas break, we’ll do that, but otherwise, she’ll have them out on the 21st (Friday) and the 29th she has to go back to school for a week or more for spring mainstage productions, and to oversee auditions for a play she wrote that will be produced in the fall.</p>

<p>I’m soooooo hoping that this removal surgery is easier on her than the bottoms, and I know that one set is known to be less traumatic than the others, but can’t remember which.</p>

2

<p>Well, both of my kids had all four removed at once and both were completely over it in less than one week. My son actually went out with friends less than 24 hours after the surgery. (However, his pain tolerance is extremely high, so much so that I worry he won’t recognize serious injury when it happens, so don’t use him as a guide.)</p>

<p>When I think back on my own experience, I was fine in less than a week. One set was impacted, so removal was more complicated and there was more pain for a few days, but it didn’t last long.</p>

<p>I think your daughter should be fine unless there is an unusual complication. I’ll keep my fingers crossed; starting the semester with tooth/jaw pain would not be good.</p>

3

<p>Our son is scheduled to have his wisdom teeth (all 4 of them) removed on Monday morning. Tomorrow, I plan on making a batch of chicken and rice soup and he’ll probably live off of that for a few days after the surgery.</p>

4

<p>I would have be prepared with the name of a dentist near your daughter’s school, preferably one that is readily accessible, on the off chance that there will be complications. My daughter, fortunately, had no complications, but it’s better to be prepared.</p>

5

<p>“… so we’re going to a new oral surgeon.”</p>

<p>Nice to hear that there’s still some learning going on in the world … My D had all four (impacted wisdom teeth) out at age 19. It went very smoothly and (like midmo’s kids) was over it in a week. Hers had not erupted, but boy did they look ugly on the Xray. </p>

<p>I think this experience is highly individual. Mine came out easily at an advanced age. My baby brother was out of work two weeks. Go figure.</p>

6

<p>S had his wisdom teeth taken out last Wednesday, so he’s on liquid diet. His oral surgeon says he should stay with it through this weekend.
I think eight days should be enough for your daughter to heal. Sounds like she has a busy fall ahead of her!</p>

7

<p>I’m sure I’ve told this story on some other CC wisdom tooth thread, but basically what went wrong had its roots (no pun intended) in my D2’s fear of needles. Not just a “I don’t like them”, but a real fear. D1 has had a couple of oral surgeries from this oral surgeon and did develop dry socket, but even that was handled well. He comes highly, highly recommended. </p>

<p>When D2 went in, we gave him a history of her asthma and IBS, as well as her anxiety about the needles. They gave us the standard prep sheet, which stated no food six hours prior to surgery, and included a valium to take an hour before the procedure (which I think is stupid because by the time it enters the system and you get relief, it’s almost time for anesthesia anyway - I think it should be given at least two hours prior). Her procedure was scheduled for 9AM, and she had her last food at midnight, so she exceeded the recommendations by three hours. However, she had gotten herself into such a worked-up state the night before that as soon as she went under the next morning, she threw up… and the oral surgeon swears it was lots and lots of undigested food. When he told me he wished he had saved it to show me, I knew at that point we’d be looking for a new oral surgeon for the next procedure. I completely believed it was undigested, but I also knew she had been overly compliant with his pre-op instructions. I understood this was a very serious situation - she could have aspirated, and with her asthma, things could have gone south very quickly. But he kept insisting to me that she’d been non-compliant, despite her telling him (when she was in recovery and I was standing there next to her) that she had been compliant. After this back-and-forth for a bit, he finally admitted that sometimes people can get themselves so worked up with worry that their food will not digest properly and timely. Unfortunately, the way he spoke to us had already sealed the deal that we would not go back.</p>

<p>So now my daughter, who has just had a lot of bone removed along with her bottom wisdom teeth has an incredibly upset stomach, has absolutely no interest in any kind of sustenance, so when she took the pain meds on an empty stomach, it just exascerbated the nausea, furthering her insistence on not eating. The not eating led to a very, very stiff jaw, which then became painful and further disinterested her from food. Had it not been for the ice packs and warm compresses (after a couple of days), I can’t imagine how long it would have taken her to heal. Her swelling actually wasn’t too bad (no bruising, either), but her jaw was so sore, and her stomach so upset, that recovery was complicated.</p>

<p>So we will take a different approach this time around, and ask for two or three valiums, so that she can take one or two the day before, as well as the morning of, which hopefully will help ease her nerves so that her stomach will work properly! I think they gave her Tylenol #3 the last time, and she feels it didn’t really help (I told her she can’t really know because she doesn’t know what it would have felt like if she hadn’t taken it!). But I’m feeling so much better now knowing that the uppers are generally easier to come out than the lowers (info I got from a PM - thanks!), so at least if we can stay on top of the pain, she might be more likely to exercise her jaw. </p>

<p>She already has the name of a dentist near school, which we almost used just to have her go get some x-rays, but the oral surgeon’s office here offered to do the x-rays and consultation the same day, and we’ve already scheduled the procedure.</p>

8

<p>By the way, we’ve gotten very creative with soft foods so they don’t feel like they’re living on jello. Other things that work well are yogurt, cottage cheese, scrambled eggs (cooled down), smoothies, plus the standards of popsicles and jello. They just get so tired of those after a while.</p>

9

<p>Teriwtt:</p>

<p>Our S had no special instructions for his oral surgery which was scheduled for 11am. In fact, I asked him to eat something beforehand as I suspected he would not want to eat anything for a while after the surgery. It was done with novocaine and he walked back home (about a mile or so) about an hour later.<br>
right now, he is still experiencing some pain, but that’s because he leaves too long intervals between the pain killers. I keep telling him he has to take some before the pain begins. But he is getting better.
There’s a soup thread going; I’ve posted a couple of recipes and will be making some others this weekend. We do have a fridge full of jello and yogurt at the moment.</p>

10

<p>^^ How could I have forgotten? Valium before the surgery … pain meds after. And yeah, don’t have your kid walk home afterwards!!!</p>

11

<p>Actually, I asked the nurse if S needed to be accompanied home and she said no. It was only novocaine.</p>

12

<p>A friend of mine had complications after her upper and bottom wisdom teeth were removed. She didn’t notice any problems until a week or so later, when she started smelling something really awful every now and then. Turns out that she had an infection of her left maxillary sinus - somehow, during the surgery the sinus was damaged and it was contaminated with nasty stuff that got infected/slowly rotted inside that space. It cleared up with a round of antibiotics, so it turned out alright.</p>

13

<p>DD’s jaw ached for several weeks, her extractions were in late May, right after the school year was out and she was playing in an international tournament mid-late June and she still had a headache all through the tourney, much to her surprise :(</p>

<p>No problem, just her healing process.</p>

14

<p>orchestragirl had all four out two weeks ago. No serious complications thank goodness, although the left side (top AND bottom) were both impacted so the surgery was more involved there and there was a lot more lingering pain. She did not have a valium beforehand, but she was anxious about having anesthesia for the first time. Coupled with the aftermath of the anesthesia, the pain meds made her extremely nauseous, and she decided they were more trouble than they were worth, so gave 'em up after the first day. She felt pretty rotten for the first 3-4 days, then there was a sudden breakthrough of feeling better on day 5 and gradual improvement since then, thought still not 100%, and her left side is still pretty achy.</p>

15

<p>Ooh, I had my 4 wisdom teeth removed a little more than 2 weeks ago. The bottom teeth definitely hurt more (had to do with those teeth being embedded in the jaw). I don’t think I even felt pain in my upper teeth, that’s how big the difference in pain was.</p>

<p>Anyway, as long as she takes her antibiotics three times a day, for the prescribed week (or however long it is), there shouldn’t be any infection. It is incredibly important that she takes antibiotics, because two holes in a moist cavity that isn’t being adequately cleaned is destined to attract microscopic life. You could also request for a non-alcohol-based mouthwash. </p>

<p>My surgery didn’t lead to any complications, but not being able to brush properly eventually led to a milky taste every time I swallowed. I bought a baby toothbrush and used that instead, since the swelling prevented me from using my regular toothbrush. </p>

<p>The pain left about 5 days later (including day of op), and I was able to eat soft food on the 6th day. On the 10th day, I was eating chicken.</p>

16

<p>I had my wisdom teeth out this summer-- all four, all impacted, and the bottom two the roots were left in because they were too close to the nerve. I went under general anesthesia which was by far the best choice for me. I was fine the first day with the lingering novacaine and the pain meds, but wasn’t so great days two and three, but was off of vicodin by the second day. If youre worried about nausea they can give you an anti-nausea medication with the sedative which is supposed to help. I had it since I tend to get somewhat motion sick.</p>

<p>It became sort of hard to talk with the swelling, and the not being able to brush your teeth was a pretty awful side effect that no one warned me about. It was a good 6 days or so before I could open my mouth wide enough to really brush my teeth. </p>

<p>The bottoms were definitely worse than the tops-- the only problem with the top is that it roots tend to be near the sinus cavity. It is possible to cut into the cavity during the surgery, and although they repair it, can lead to infection</p>

17

<p>Upper wisdom teeth are more simpler to remove than the lowers…bone is less dense.</p>

<p>It took about a week for D to recover most of her mojo after she had her wisdom teeth removed a couple of weeks ago. We’re very lucky in that one of our friends is an oral surgeon who does fabulous work.</p>

18

<p>Two kids, scheduled on same day , back to back, I took one, husband arrived with the other.</p>

<p>Drs did NOT warn about dry socket, but as fate would have it, ran into previous neighbor girl, who got it, and it was a nightmare.</p>

<p>So I did what I always do when I need to find out about things- googled dry socket. </p>

<p>Tons of helpful good advice (much contradicted what drs had written on their sheet)</p>

<p>And, no dry socket in this house, and son pleaded for real food, but I stuck to the schedule (can’t remember how long now) and eased him into it. </p>

<p>Good luck Terri. Needle phobic myself, so I understand your daughters concern. No fun!</p>

19

<p>To the OP–I understand your concerns but I’m hoping your obvious high anxiety isn’t passed on to your daughter. I’d be more tempted to keep the “you’ll be just fine, honey” face on. My three had their 12 wisdom teeth out 4 at a time. Oldest two were done the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. One kid was playing soccer Thanksgiving Day, the other took til about Friday before feeling pretty good. Youngest had them out this summer on a Friday and was pretty good by Monday (although used it as an excuse not to do the Wed swim meet). Oldest has a needle phobia and the valium morning of the procedure worked well with him. Youngest was the only one who got sick to his tummy afterwards. In hindsight, it probably was not a good idea to give him the huge McDonald’s milkshake the older ones had had following surgery. This kid is not particularly prone to nausea but perhaps dairy isn’t the way to go for their first food.</p>

<p>What I did wrong when I had mine out 150 years ago was not ice like I was supposed to. Avoiding as much of the swelling as you can in the first day or so will really help.</p>

20

<p>It’s possible also to have the procedure and not have any complications. My daughter had all 4 taken out one morning and went to a party that night–she felt just fine. So I agree with the above poster who said to try to be optimistic.</p>