Spring break is thankfully on the horizon, a little over one week away. I need it. While I love college (seriously), a brief respite from reading schedules, paper deadlines, and other such things is always welcome. The weather has been getting increasingly nicer, and that coupled with lots of bird singing has been making me want to spend less time in the classroom and more time outside. Soon, soon.
Unfortunately, not all of my spring break plans revolve around lazing in the sun with a good book. I recently went to the dentist complaining of some sharp pain in one of my molars. The verdict? No cavities, but it’s time for my wisdom teeth to be taken out. My top wisdom teeth have been in for years now, hanging low and generally being a pain to keep clean. My bottoms are just now starting to come in, which is apparently what was making my tooth hurt. My bottoms are laying almost completely horizontal rather than vertical, so “coming in” really translates to “ramming into the rest of my teeth.” Ow, in other words.
So as to not miss any classes due to pain medication or other such issues, I’m scheduled to have them out on Monday, the 22nd – the first real day of spring break. What a way to celebrate, no?
I’m nervous about it; the dentist told me that as long as I do what they tell me to, it won’t be too bad. Of course, on the flipside of things, whenever I’ve told anyone else about getting the teeth removed, their first response is a grimace, followed by something like “I had mine out when I was X years old, it was awful.” Thanks for the encouragement, folks. 
My other, more enjoyable plan for spring break is to read The Third Reich at War by Evans. It’s the follow-up to The Third Reich in Power, which I thought was excellent. The Third Reich at War comes out on the 19th, but for some reason, a number of libraries in the OhioLINK system already have copies. I’ve already requested one. 
What are your plans for the opening weeks of spring?
Oh don’t worry Josh, it’s no big deal. (How’s that for encouragement?).
I had all four of mine taken out at once. Like yours, my bottom ones were “impacted,” I think is the term and half covered by my gums. When I went in for a preliminary look the guy showed me that the back half of one of my teeth was a light blue, in other words on the way to rotting.
I scheduled the appointment for some months later and had them removed. I didn’t want to go under so I only had local anesthesia (8 needles EVERYWHERE IN MY MOUTH), when they put the heart-rate monitor on me it was racing and they offered again to knock me out, I refused. The best part: it took him only 25 minutes start to finish, a drill to divide one of the teeth into four pieces, and a hammer-like device to break it apart and pull it out. He was also kind enough to scrape my exposed jawbone while he was in there because the rotting tooth had caused some of the jawbone to get… infected or something. With the pounding and scraping I was feeling in my skull, boy, was I was glad I had as much anesthetic as I did, it took 8 hours to wear off.
I had to eat through a straw for 3 days and clean out the holes for like a month with the little water syringe they give you but that’s it though. I didn’t even have swelling. I got a prescription for some 40 oxycodone pills but I didn’t take a single one, I never even took so much as an aspirin because the pain just wasn’t a problem.
So, scary stories aside, the real encouragement is this: you won’t feel any pain (especially if you go under) and it doesn’t take very long for you to resume your normal routine of life. Get it done, forget about it and move on
. Then scare others with tales of how awful it was lol.
As for what I’m doing over next while, just working on the thesis and losing in online chess.
I had mine out… March 2004 (or perhaps April Fools Day immediately following), based on the timestamps of some really stupid digital camera pictures. I’m sure there was pain in the weekish following, but really not enough to have much of a particular memory about it five years later.
Really my main memory is of the weirdness of the procedure itself. With whatever was given to me, I wasn’t exactly _asleep_ throughout, but what was over an hour long felt like a half-awake 15 minutes where I could hear and feel awful things happening to the awful teeth, but without pain.
Also that it feels really weird having to keep the empty sockets clean until they fully heal up.
Good luck! Be glad you have an easy decision and can just get the whole thing over with.
I was told I should have mine out too, because they’ll probably never come out and they say that in the future you can get an infection under your gum because of it. I haven’t had any pains or anything, so… I don’t know if I’ll do it or not. They said I have a slight risk of nerve damage from the surgery because some major nerve is higher up and closer to my teeth than normal. Doesn’t sound worth it, right?
Wisdom teeth are so annoying. Why do we even still have them at all if almost everyone needs them taken out? They’re like the appendix, but at least that thing usually leaves us alone.
I’ve had so many teeth out over the years, it’s a complete breeze!
Really, it isn’t that bad. Are you having them out under general or local? I had my wisdoms (all four) out under general and the hardest bit was waiting around. I was trying to revise for a chemistry exam at the time, and really hated wasting the time!
If I remember correctly, day two and three were the worst. Your mouth heals really quickly, so as long as you keep from prodding the gaps with your tongue too much, you’ll be fine!
A word of warning, you won’t be eating toast for a while though!
I cross my fingers for you!!! If your flesh normaly heals good and if you can tolerate pain killers, this visit to the dentist won’t be a problem for you.
Oh…and one hint: If possible, take someone with you to the dentist, who takes care that everything that goes into your mouth comes out again.
Marcels dentist forgot a piece of gauze in one of the holes
(You only want to read this after you’ve had your teeth removed: http://zeitlos.twoday.net/stories/3015712/ )
(And you might want to read this before you go to the dentist. https://www.docmorris.de/de/suche/produkte/DHU/Arnica-D-12/Globuli/13903;jsessionid=F8364817EBB59CA76725E6B12B8E8112.n01
I really don’t believe in homeopathic medicine, but this really helped)
Tom: I’m going the easy route. They’re putting me under. When I was younger, I had to have some teeth pulled that had pretty awful cavities in them. They numbed my mouth and used laughing gas on me; unfortunately, I was silly enough to not be able to communicate, and they hadn’t fully numbed my mouth. So they were jerking on teeth with essentially pliers, and it hurt. I have no desire to have that happen again. :\
Slone: Yeah, I’ve heard that the empty sockets are a little weird. I’ve also been told repeatedly to not mess with ‘em.
LearningNerd: Listen to your dentist, have them taken out. Gum infections are not fun, trust me.
Cas: General; see above comment to Tom.
I’m going to have to focus really hard on not prodding the sockets with my tongue; I tend to mess with sores in my mouth constantly, which of course just makes them worse.
Zeitlos: I’ll have Amber check everything before we leave.