# Had my wisdom teeth cut out last Tuesday..



## jmcdonald (Jul 20, 2011)

What did they do back in the day when they had to cut them out? I was wondering because I've talk to several people that had them cut out. Did they just pull the teeth in front of them to relieve the pressure?

It being a week im still in pain from it. Thats with some really good pain killers....


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## TheAnt (Jun 7, 2011)

I had mine pulled. Only local anesthetic. Didnt bother me much at all. I had a whole bottle full of Vicaprophen for years... finally decided I probably should trash it. I dont know what they did for sure but it probably involved a good ole bottle of whiskey!


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## jmcdonald (Jul 20, 2011)

Pulling is one thing. I had one pulled out 2 years ago and I was fine in a couple of days. What im talking about are the ones that are below the gum line that are pushing on the other teeth. 

Mine were below the gum line and actually grew into the roots of my back molers. I lost one moler but they saved two others.


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## LilRedHen (Aug 28, 2011)

jmcdonald said:


> Pulling is one thing. I had one pulled out 2 years ago and I was fine in a couple of days. What im talking about are the ones that are below the gum line that are pushing on the other teeth.
> 
> Mine were below the gum line and actually grew into the roots of my back molers. I lost one moler but they saved two others.


The dentist split the gum, took a small chisel, broke the tooth into pieces and then pulled the pieces out. Sometimes they missed a piece and it would work out through the gums later. My father had one taken out way and he avoided the dentist like the plague after that and I really don't blame him. My dd had hers out and the dental surgeon basically did the same thing, but she was put to sleep for the procedure and was on heavy pain meds and antibiotics for 2 or 3 days. Her jaws were terribly swollen for days. She doesn't remember much about the whole thing.


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## jmcdonald (Jul 20, 2011)

yeah i don't remember the day i had my out. Granted it was 9 am. My wife said she found me wondering around walmart at 3pm waiting on my medicine. (i apparently wanted to go in walmart to wait)


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## partdeux (Aug 3, 2011)

Mostly an unneeded procedure.

It's the equivalent to removing everybody's appendix because a small percentage of society ends up with an inflamed one.

Me personally, mine had to come out. After I agreed to have my kids taken out, and paying a small fortune for the procedure, then did some research on it. Wish I hadn't subjected them to the procedure. Youngest's teeth actually developed a larger gap after removing the wisdom teeth.


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## pandamonium (Feb 6, 2011)

Aahhh, quit your sniveling and suck it up!!! Don't be a sissy!!

Just kidding, that crap HURTS! All mouth/teeth pain is terrible. That's damn good incentive to me to make sure I see the dentist regular like!!! Imagine some bad teeth probs post SHTF!!


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## jmcdonald (Jul 20, 2011)

my point is .... its not a small percentage of people need them cut out. Most people i know have them CUT out. What do you do post SHTF?


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## ContinualHarvest (Feb 19, 2012)

Had mine out in my early 20's. They hurt from my late teens till I had them cut out. All 4 were impacted and swollen. Not fun.
Glad they are gone.


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## pandamonium (Feb 6, 2011)

What do you do POST SHTF? Well, you better be able to endure some pain!! I think TheAnt had it right, like they did in the old days! Better have a bottle of whiskey handy!! I have a med kit that A good friend gave to me, it does have a couple of vials of lidocain in there. If you dont know where to inject it it wont do much good though. I think some perscription pain killers would help. But then again so would a bottle of whiskey!!


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## pandamonium (Feb 6, 2011)

Check out the book "where there is no dentist". 
Remember KNOWLEDGE IS KING!!


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## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

A little Novocaine, a chisel, and a brass hammer. I don't know what they do now but back in the 60's when I had mine out this is what they did. The dentist rolled up a towel and put it between my upper chest and under my chin, (so may jaw would not break) then he used a medium sized chisel and a brass hammer. Then he used regular pliers to pull out the pieces.

I have 9 caps 2 posts and numerous root canals all done with Novocaine. When ever I have work done now, I do it without any pain killing chemicals, I'm not tough, it just doesn't hurt anymore.


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## partdeux (Aug 3, 2011)

jmcdonald said:


> my point is .... its not a small percentage of people need them cut out. Most people i know have them CUT out. What do you do post SHTF?


Many people have them removed... Most people do not need them removed. There was an excellent published article I read a few years ago that compared wisdom teeth to the appendix.


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## TechAdmin (Oct 1, 2008)

How far back do you wan to go? 

Most cultures left them in. That's one of the ways we can age a skeleton.


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## Wanderer0101 (Nov 8, 2011)

Wow, some of this makes me cringe. Oral surgeon, 45 minutes, no real pain and three days later didn't know I'd done anything. Dwight Eisenhower walked down to the infirmary one day when he wasn't busy and had his appendix out. Sounded like pretty good preparation to me. I think dental stuff works the same way, get it done now before it becomes a problem or a time comes when there's no one to do it but Uncle Billy.


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## DJgang (Apr 10, 2011)

I'm sure the ones coming in would trump the ones already there and the molars would be pulled to allow the wisdom teeth to come in....but... Ouch!

Wanderer has me thinking and I probably don't realize I actually do exactly what she is mentioning ....she right? Anyway, dental work gets done immediately. took the kids the other day and it was suggested one get some teeth pulled, BAM, we are there the next morning and now I realize, I don't want to put these things off just in case SHTF....


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## bahramthered (Mar 10, 2012)

Mine brutually impacted when I was 20, I felt a sore jaw for a while and then one day at the movies I thought I was trying to pick a popcorn shell out of my teeth. Turns out it was a tooth enamel fragment. The wisdom tooth was smashing into my tooth.

Removed all 5 teeth (all 4 wisdom and the one victim tooth). Hurt a lot the first three days and about all I ate was lukewarm rice, pain pills be damned (they barely took the edge off). 

Couple years later I was tasting blood in my mouth and sprouted some odd sores in my mouth. Turns out I grew a second set of wisdom teeth. They luckily came in okay. 

In a SH!T situation I could have dealt with the first set of tooth issues. I think when the second set appeared I would have been in agony.


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## BillS (May 30, 2011)

Before modern dentistry most people had missing teeth by the time their wisdom teeth came in. I had a tooth that was half behind the others. Then I lost a molar on the lower right side of my jaw. Since then my teeth in that area have straightened and the gap has been filled. I would think the same thing could happen when wisdom teeth come in.


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## BillM (Dec 29, 2010)

I watched my wifes Grandfather pull one of his own jaw teeth on the back porch with a pair of channel locks. People who lived through the depression on farms in backwoods Kentucky, were a lot tougher than people are now.


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## TechAdmin (Oct 1, 2008)

BillM said:


> I watched my wifes Grandfather pull one of his own jaw teeth on the back porch with a pair of channel locks. People who lived through the depression on farms in backwoods Kentucky, were a lot tougher than people are now.


They had to be.

That's pretty intense. My Dentist regales me with a story of a client of hers who never needs numbing agents.


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## BillM (Dec 29, 2010)

Ya'll forgot to advise the people who are getting wisdom teeth that when the last one is in, their life is half over !

I'm kind of a science buff !


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## goshengirl (Dec 18, 2010)

BillM said:


> Ya'll forgot to advise the people who are getting wisdom teeth that when the last one is in, their life is half over !


Uh oh! I never had any wisdom teeth! 

Back when my friends were getting their wisdom teeth pulled (teenage years) and I wasn't, they would good-naturedly tease me about not having any wisdom, since I didn't have any wisdom teeth. I joked back that I was just more highly evolved. 

I heard a report a couple years ago how the number of people born who would not develop wisdom teeth had doubled to 2%, up from 1% of those born in the '60s. (interestingly, none of my three children have/will develop wisdom teeth, either)

Hearing everyone's stories makes me really glad I never had any!


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## HoppeEL4 (Dec 29, 2010)

I had only three develop. One decided it needed to come in, and it there was not enough room back there (no one can say my mouth is too big!!LOL). It kept going in, coming out, and of course got infected. I went to this almost non-English speaking Vietnamese dentist (older man) who had his daughter working with him. He worked that tooth back and forth for about 15 minutes and it popped right out in one piece. His daughter interpeted before that if it had not he would have to dig for those pieces. The root had hooked downward and one had gotten bent upwards against the tooth.

Felt so much better afterwards, God bless that Vietnamese dentist who took his time to make sure it was a clean pull.

The other two on the top are causing some sinus distress...they are pushing into my sinuses to some degree...and now I do not have dental insurance. May have to find a job where they do, get it done.


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## Londoner (Aug 24, 2012)

An interesting conversation with my dentist a few years back after a tooth infection. He said tooth infections were a common cause of death in people years ago. Once you reached your late 40s your molars in particular became a ticking time bomb.


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## TechAdmin (Oct 1, 2008)

Londoner said:


> An interesting conversation with my dentist a few years back after a tooth infection. He said tooth infections were a common cause of death in people years ago. Once you reached your late 40s your molars in particular became a ticking time bomb.


I've read that myself.

It was also an issue as the only solution at the time to was to get them pulled which led to malnutrition and eventually death.


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