Wisdom Teeth Surgery: A Patient’s View

Many who come to this blog and website are of course interested in learning more about wisdom teeth removal. In the past I have posted some successful and positive wisdom teeth extraction experiences see http://blog.teethremoval.com/successful-and-positive-wisdom-teeth-removal-experiences/. Even so this site has more negative experiences. For those who want a more detailed positive experience from the surgery an article by Laura Pacey in the May 2014, British Dental Journal titled “Third Molar Surgery” is helpful (vol. 216, issue 9, pp. 490).

The article is written by the assistant editor of the British Dental Journal and describes her experience with having three wisdom teeth extracted. As someone who works in the dental field of course she may be more knowledgeable than the average patient. She describes how she feared that she would become another ill-fated statistic concerning complications following wisdom teeth removal. Prior to surgery, she had a CBCT scan performed which revealed that the roots of her lower right wisdom teeth were connected to the nerve below and her lower left wisdom tooth was close to the inferior alveolar nerve. As such she had her upper right wisdom tooth extracted and coronectomy performed on both lower wisdom teeth. She also describes having an infection.

She states

“The prospect of general anaesthesia  was nerve wracking…But as soon as I put on the hospital gown nervous hysteria descended upon me and the last thing I remember pre-surgery was feeling the pinch of the cannula and laughing uncontrollably.”

She says she woke up from surgery with a numb mouth. She then slept a lot and took painkillers over the next few days. A day after the surgery she had nausea which lasted for six days and she says was worse than the dull ache in her jaw. Her face did swell after the surgery which is seen in the article as they show a picture of her normal self and a picture after the surgery with a swollen jaw. She says the swelling of her face lasted a week.

Overall she says she had no complications from the surgery and thanked her surgical team. If you had a rather positive wisdom teeth removal experience I invited you to describe it and fill out my survey at http://teethremoval.polldaddy.com/s/6E8CF57E23BD9041.

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