<p>I had mine out when I was 23. All four were impacted and had to be surgically removed. One was sideways and had to be chiseled out, it came out in 4 pieces according to the surgeon. Good times.</p>
<p>Make sure you follow the post-op care procedures <em>scrupulously</em>. I didn’t, and wound up with an infected gum. That was one of the two most painful things I have ever experienced in my life.</p>
<p>Do you recommend taking the needles or going under?</p>
<p>In my experience, you’ll recuperate faster if you simply use needles and a little gas rather than being put under.</p>
<p>I didn’t have a choice - because of how they were impacted and since they were doing all four at once, I had it done in a hospital and they put me under.</p>
<p>Go under! Twilight sleep or whatever… you do not want to remember this or be conscious.</p>
<p>I always had my dental work done with local shots (when I was a kid, one tooth was taken out almost without anesthesia due to an accident, and our town’s dentist ran out of meds that weekend). Personally, I refuse to go under for simple stuff (endoscopy - OK, that was a requirement).</p>
<p>Max, you will need to arrange for someone to pick you up at the dentist’s office and watch you for 24 hours. Follow the dentist’s instructions religiously: only liquid foods with NO seeds, NO STRAWS. And if something does not look or feel right, call your dentist immediately (ask for an emergency contact number).</p>
<p>I had mine out in my thirties before some orthodonture work I had done to correct a jaw issue. I did it with local…They have a novacaine with no adrenaline in it, these days, which I would highly recommend for those of you who resist the going under route.</p>
<p>Good luck, Max. You actually DO seem to have good luck.</p>
<p>Max, I advise going under. I had one impacted tooth that a dentist said casually, “Oh, I can just take that out in my office under local”. It was one of the most awful experiences of my life (note that impacted teeth can require them to cut away bone to get the tooth out). I ended up waiting over 20 years to have the other 3 out (which I went under for). STRONGLY recommend the going under. Others here have had okay experiences with just local, but really, you don’t want to be awake for it if it is a difficult extraction. Note: also don’t plan on going to work the next day, or even two. It is pretty miserable.</p>
<p>Max makes his own luck (he knows where to come for advice :D)</p>
<p>Max: I was 25. Living on my own 1000 miles from parents. Very single. No dental insurance.</p>
<p>OH, and I just wanted to add, I’m not actually recommending a local!</p>
<p>I have a wierd drug metabolism and am not easy to “knock out.” The one time they tried to knock me out, they got to the point where it was going to get deadly and I was still counting…So, JMO.</p>
<p>Max, your dentist will probably do your dental work in several stages that would need separate appointments. Can you get the fillings done first and see how well you tolerate local shots (if you considering local for your other work)? My pain threshold is very high, so take my post above with a grain of salt. YMMV. Good luck.</p>
<p>Let’s not scare Max. Plenty of people do fine with the needle and some need more. YOU discuss your pain concerns with the dentist or oral surgeon. Good luck. Glad things are working out.</p>
<p>I had all 4 teeth out after they became infected. I was put completely under, didn´t feel anything. My recovery was very easy also, relative the pain I was having when they were infected, it was nothing.</p>
<p>My older daughter had all 4 of them out when she was 17. She was also completely under. I waited for her, and it was less than an hour. It was done a day before Thanksgiving. I remember giving her turkey at some point over the holiday.</p>
<p>As someone mentioned, the important thing is to follow post-op instructions.</p>
<p>My daughter´s oral surgeon required us to pay upfront. I submitted her claim to both dental and medical, our out of pocket was very little.</p>
<p>Max, some parents really s**k. Sounds like your mom is one of those parents. Please, please make sure you get counseling to deal with your situation … you are angry with her, and you have a right to be angry … but it is apparent that the anger is hurting YOU (she doesn’t seem to give a rip one way or the other … but you clearly do). My father is in his 80’s, and he has harbored anger toward his parents since he was your age. It has made him a very bitter man, to be honest. I had a very frank discussion with him about the fact that he needs to put his past behind him so that he can enjoy today without being haunted by it. He just will not do that. You are young. Don’t waste your life being tortured by your family relationship. Figure out how to stop letting it eat at you & move forward.</p>
<p>As for the lawsuit: What was your EFC each year she paid money for college? Did she pay less than or equal to the EFC? If so, remember this … the federal government expects the parents of a dependent student to pay that EFC. They don’t HAVE to do so, of course, but it they do … well, I just don’t see how the parent can turn around & legally sue you for what the government determined was her responsibility.</p>
<p>I had to take out the EFC in loans and work off what else I was able to. Only exception is the 5k-or-so payment my mother had put in during freshman year (5k only because “that was the amount your father had told me, in private, that he would have contributed to your education”). There’s absolutely no way she’d be able to justify me paying her 85k (“plus 5% interest accumulation starting Feb 1st 2011”), especially when she’s already saved so much by <em>not</em> spending it on me to begin with.</p>
<p>As for your story about your father, that is exactly the type of person I don’t want to become. I hate the feeling of always being bitter and feeling victimized. While I am taking steps to correct a lot of these mistakes, it’s just difficult. I feel like I’ve accomplished so much and tried to do everything right and yet despite everything I still feel like I am coming out far behind. </p>
<p>It’s like that famous psychology experiment (which, funnily enough, has its roots at Penn) where dogs were shocked to the point that they learned to be helpless – not knowing how to avoid the negative stimulus even when the opportunity arose. Growing up, I feel like I was exposed to the “shock” and now my time here in New York is like the “chance to avoid the negativity.” The challenge is figuring out how much control I actually have over my life now and what realistic steps I can take to improve things – and how to optimize said process. I’m hoping that this will ultimately reshape my general outlook on life into something happier and less bound by thought-plagues of past opportunity costs incurred.</p>
<p>Max, I am so happy to hear the good news about the dental situation! I’m sure that you will feel much better once your teeth are taken care of. Next, your hand. Please feel free to use us as your support system. As others have posted, it is hard even for adults to navigate the insurance/medical/dental system. </p>
<p>I hate to sound like a broken record (is this phrase even understood any more, now that records are obsolete?), but therapy would be so helpful to you, based on your last post. You know what needs to be done, please get some professional help.</p>