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Wags wrote:
... but two never really appeared.
A recent full X-Ray would reveal them. Hate to tell you this but they are there somewhere, probably like my lowers --- grew horizontally. There's just enough of a gap between crowns and back molars to create a hazard for the molars, where stuff could get in and threaten gums. But it's my uppers which have poked though, pointed partly outwards. One side I can't tell, the other side I've been conscious of it for many years but got used to it. Both are difficult to clean around.
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incognegro, you are lucky. It was suggested to me to be knocked out "for your benefit and for mine" -- oral surgeon said that. Uppers will be no problem since they're mostly exposed. Lowers, well, he's gonna have to get out the Sawzall.
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d-
good luck to u.
the idea of a 2nd driver is a good one.
i'd also have standing by an ice pack to keep the swelling down and eventually a heating pad to soothe.
lastly, i've sipped a decent quality rum in similar situations with fine results.
be well
rob
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Ah, yes--I remember getting my wisdom teeth pulled. 1994, U.S. Navy Ensign. Dentist: "You're going to be on submarines? You're getting all your wisdom teeth pulled, next week." Me: "Uh...yes, Sir."
On the big day, I sat down in the chair, and three dentists swarmed me. One put a piece of cloth over my face, forehead to chin, with a hole cut out for my mouth. Another readied the gargantuan novocaine needles (there were four), and the third gathered the pliers.
Teeth one through three came out easily enough, but I knew something was awry as my head jerked up without giving up its final buried ivory treasure. The doctors pondered for a moment, while drool dripped down my neck. The tooth doctor with the largest pair of pliers readied them for another attempt, and said, "When I count to three, I'm going to pull forward and out, and you pull your head back the other direction, hard. One...two...THREE!"
I lunged my head backwards, and the pliers careened out of my jaw with a sickening suuuck-POP!. The doctor was flung two steps back and was caught by a comrade, and my head bounced off the vinyl headrest with a double-thud. I felt as if I had just witnessed a Civil War era surgery, and the throbbing inside my brain and the swelling in my cheeks began in earnest.
Two days and much mac-and-cheese later, the swelling went down, but fourteen years later and I can still feel the holes left behind.
A week after the operation, I changed naval communities, and never once deployed on a submarine journey long enough to worry about whether or not I had any wisdom teeth.
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I kept mine into my fifties; one was extracted years before the final three.
I felt pretty good the first two days but felt so bad the third that I called the dentist on call.
She told me that often you feel like you have the flu on the third day...
Wish they would have told me that up front so I wouldn't worry.
Good luck!
=wr=
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deckeda wrote:
[quote=Wags]
... but two never really appeared.
A recent full X-Ray would reveal them. Hate to tell you this but they are there somewhere, probably like my lowers --- grew horizontally. There's just enough of a gap between crowns and back molars to create a hazard for the molars, where stuff could get in and threaten gums. But it's my uppers which have poked though, pointed partly outwards. One side I can't tell, the other side I've been conscious of it for many years but got used to it. Both are difficult to clean around.
Not what my dentist told me. Two are in the xrays under the surface, but the others are absent. He said it was fairly common, known as hypodontia. There is genetic variability between different human populations that controls the likelihood of forming wisdom teeth. 30 years ago my dentist insisted they should come out. I ignored his advice, mostly because of cowardice and cheapskatery, and they have never caused my any trouble. My current dentist doesn't think I'll have a problem unless I start to suffer reverse aging. If hair starts filling in on my bald spot I'll worry.
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Just don't make the mistake I made. They wrote me two prescriptions, one for "pain", one for "moderate pain". Once the anesthesia started to wear off, I decided there was nothing "moderate" about this pain, so I told my wife to just get the "pain" medication. Nobody thought to tell either of us that "moderate pain" means more severe than "pain". (And I suppose no doctor would ever think of using the term "severe pain" in front of a patient.)
Other than that, and other than the disgusting surprises that arose until the tunnel between one upper socket and my sinuses healed up, the recovery was uneventful. I wasn't interested even in mac and cheese for several days, though; I stuck with Ensure, which worked like a charm, and some sort of Twinlab energy drink that I'd used when I was biking a lot.
Good luck!
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I remember when my husband had his pulled years ago.
He took his pain meds, washed 'em down with Southern Comfort, and cried watching Terminator...just before his face crashed into his bowl of soup.
LOL...Good times!
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