My Tooth Hurts...

James S

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been an interesting few months for me dentally... Discovered that in spite of what I thought was excellent care of my teeth that a wisdom tooth that I had been allowed to keep as a teenager was rotten :( Went to the dentist after it actually broke and he wasn't able to fill it permanently. Needed to either get a root canal or just have it pulled.

Seemed silly to get a root canal on a wisdom tooth since nobody else I know even has them so he put a temporary in it and I'm scheduled to have it out next week.

I've since learned that you can't really get a root canal on them, it's a very specialized procedure as the roots are so confused that it's almost impossible to do it properly, so out it comes.

But in the meantime it hurts :( I'm off to take a tylenol. It's not so bad that I need anything stronger yet.

I'm certainly not looking forward to having them out, but I guess most people survive the procedure.
 

ACMarina

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I had my wisdom teeth removed the day after thanksgiving, as it was a part of this masterful plan to not get sucked in by all of the wonderful leftovers in the fridge..

It didn't work :)
 

jtr1962

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I have one that was filled about 14 years ago. The filling came out recently. It doesn't hurt or anything but I should probably have it pulled before it becomes infected. Speaking of pain, because the after effects of local anesthesia make me feel exhausted for something like 2 weeks, last tooth I had pulled was without any pain killers whatsoever. It was a few minutes of agony but at least I didn't have to endure 2+ weeks of sleeping 23 hours a day.
 

TITAN1833

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been an interesting few months for me dentally... Discovered that in spite of what I thought was excellent care of my teeth that a wisdom tooth that I had been allowed to keep as a teenager was rotten :( Went to the dentist after it actually broke and he wasn't able to fill it permanently. Needed to either get a root canal or just have it pulled.

Seemed silly to get a root canal on a wisdom tooth since nobody else I know even has them so he put a temporary in it and I'm scheduled to have it out next week.

I've since learned that you can't really get a root canal on them, it's a very specialized procedure as the roots are so confused that it's almost impossible to do it properly, so out it comes.

But in the meantime it hurts :( I'm off to take a tylenol. It's not so bad that I need anything stronger yet.

I'm certainly not looking forward to having them out, but I guess most people survive the procedure.
James S,do not worry,recently I have had two wisdom teeth taken out,walk in the park really,it hurts a lot more if you leave it fester! good luck.
 

Diesel_Bomber

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I feel your pain, James! I take good care of my teeth now, but my parent's complete lack of dental hygiene training as a child is now catching up with me. I get the shakes and sweats for just a cleaning, I am NOT looking forward to the multiple fillings and pullings awaiting me.

May the dental gods smile upon both of us, and anyone else who has to sit in that chair. :buddies:
 

Brlux

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Wow don't get me started. I just got a rot canal this morning on one of my molars. I am going back in a few minuts to get the crown started. I have 2 more teeth that also need root canals and crowns. I have no dental insurance and it is expected to cost me around $5000 for everything. Kinda tough to swallow for a full time student. I hate my teeth.
 

James S

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yup, no dental insurance here either. So this is all cash up front. But I've been spacing it out a bit. I blame the lack of water fluoridation where I grew up on well water. So I have always had soft teeth. Even the dentist didn't blame me for it though, seems that it's so tight against the tooth next to it that he wasn't at all surprised that I wasn't able to do much decent flossing between them. Should have come out a long time ago.

So far it's not blown up to an abscess or anything, it's just achey and tender. I hope it comes out before that happens!

Course, I could have just told them to fill it and I'll take my chances. I have a couple of friends who advised that thinking that there was a vast conspiracy to pull our teeth when it wasn't necessary. But I don't think those folks have had an abscessed tooth and I don't want one!

I'm a little nervous about being drugged and have some guy take a pliers to me. But I've spoken to people and everyone who has had it done recently says it's so much better (or at least not nearly as bad) as it used to be.

This will be the test for me personally to see if the anesthesia knocks me out for a week too or not ;) I posted in another thread about something similar that i didn't see how that could be for such a short acting drug that they use. So now I get to test what I believe on myself ;) Now thats science!

I"m getting a little adrenalin just thinking about it, so I"m going to stop now... And go wait for the plumber that is on his way out to fix the water main leak in my front yard that has started again. Ugg, it's always something!
 

3rd_shift

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I had all 4 of mine out at the Dallas Baylor College of dentistry for under $450 bucks in August of 2000.
Same story as one of mine broke and hurt like (censored). :mecry:
2 were pulled, while 2 were "dug" out. :eeew:
35 seconds after the IV sedative was administered was when the whole room turned sideways and :poof:
No regrets as the procedure went fine and I was up and kickin' rump by the next day. :rock:

Heck, even by that afternoon, I was kicking some rear ends again on the internet playing Quake2
deathmatches on the internet and actually winning some of the fragfests while under the influence of the prescription painkillers. :wow: :drunk:
3 days later, I was back to eating my regular "diet" of junk food as the holes already started filling in with healthy gum. :thumbsup:

I still have the pulled teeth in a baggie to this day. :eeew: :rock:

So yes, get those little calcium based turds out asap.
Life becomes a bit simpler as soon as you do. ;)
 
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AlexGT

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Wow! $5000 bucks for pulling a tooth? OMG, thank God I know a good dentist across the border in Mexico where I can have it pulled for around $40 and wisdom tooth for around $80 - $150 these US dentists are crazy!
 

raggie33

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LAST TIME I WENT TO DENTIST THEY SCREWED UP DIDNT GET THE HOLE TOOTH SO AS A I SLEPT I BLEED ALL NIGHT WOKE UP WITH A FACE COVRED IN BLOOOD PILLOW WAS RUNIED SO WAS MATTTRESS ILL NEVER EVER GO TO A DENTIST AGAIN EKK SORRY FOR CAPS
 

LukeA

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I had all 4 of mine out at the Dallas Baylor College of dentistry for under $450 bucks in August of 2000.
Same story as one of mine broke and hurt like (censored). :mecry:
2 were pulled, while 2 were "dug" out. :eeew:
35 seconds after the IV sedative was administered was when the whole room turned sideways and :poof:
No regrets as the procedure went fine and I was up and kickin' rump by the next day. :rock:

Heck, even by that afternoon, I was kicking some rear ends again on the internet playing Quake2
deathmatches on the internet and actually winning some of the fragfests while under the influence of the prescription painkillers. :wow: :drunk:
3 days later, I was back to eating my regular "diet" of junk food as the holes already started filling in with healthy gum. :thumbsup:

I still have the pulled teeth in a baggie to this day. :eeew: :rock:

So yes, get those little calcium based turds out asap.
Life becomes a bit simpler as soon as you do. ;)
I got my wisdom teeth out two years ago. I was anesthetized for it, because they were all impacted. I don't have the teeth, and I assume that they became dust and little chips, which is fine by me.
 

Dr Jekell

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Ask your dentists about the different anesthetics he/she can administer as it can be done under a local anesthetic instead of full sedation.

Recently had a molar on the right out as the top was rotten, but unfortunately for me the roots were very healthy (the poor dentist had fun trying to pull it out), & I have found out that I bleed well especially when getting a cleaning done.

I had mine done under a local which meant when it wore off I was pretty much free to do what I wanted (except vigorous exercise, due to possible side effects).

I also found out that it is a VERY good idea to take some pain meds before the local wears off (you don't want that story:sick:).

Once the gum heals over properly (takes about 7 - 14 days) you can start to use it for chewing and it will over time harden up & start acting like a tooth (not full mind you but enough to help with chewing).
 

Brlux

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Wow! $5000 bucks for pulling a tooth? OMG, thank God I know a good dentist across the border in Mexico where I can have it pulled for around $40 and wisdom tooth for around $80 - $150 these US dentists are crazy!

That is actually for 3 root canals and 3 crowns but ya I seriously considered going south of the border for the work. I have some friends who go to a highly recommended Mexican dentist whoos office is a few miles south of Yuma. They say the office is very clean and modern; you would never know you were in Mexico. I called and got a quote to have it all done there for about $2000 but it would have been terribly inconvenient with several 7 hour round trip commutes to complete the work. Not to mention my wife was also very uncomfortable with the idea. It is probably a better alternative for big dental thins that can be done in one shot like having wisdom teeth removed.
 

junkfms

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been an interesting few months for me dentally... Discovered that in spite of what I thought was excellent care of my teeth that a wisdom tooth that I had been allowed to keep as a teenager was rotten :( Went to the dentist after it actually broke and he wasn't able to fill it permanently. Needed to either get a root canal or just have it pulled.

Seemed silly to get a root canal on a wisdom tooth since nobody else I know even has them so he put a temporary in it and I'm scheduled to have it out next week.

I've since learned that you can't really get a root canal on them, it's a very specialized procedure as the roots are so confused that it's almost impossible to do it properly, so out it comes.

But in the meantime it hurts :( I'm off to take a tylenol. It's not so bad that I need anything stronger yet.

I'm certainly not looking forward to having them out, but I guess most people survive the procedure.


Dude, I don't mean to pump your adrenalin up or anything. I just had one of them taken out early September. The innest right molar which it did not vertically stand but completely horizontal laying in my mouth for years since teenager! One evening it started pain around the area but I could not be bothered about it I continued chowing fried chicken for dinner. Later that night it got painfully hurts. The gum went swollen:green: I had hardtimes going back to sleep but somehow managed to.

Came into work in the morning that's different story. My god after I had breakfast the previous night feeling returned. With the pain all day at work got me frustrated :thumbsdow Could not think straight. Luckily, my office has a nurse office where you can get medication issued the ibuprofen to kill the pain. Next day I went straight to the see the dentist in a public hospital (reason why I chose public hospital cos I knew a few bigshot directors there who could pull some strings to expedite my operations....well it's unfair but hey.. who could refuse this offer?)

Then here is the highlight. The dentist available was the one who looks just like he just graduated yesterday! The guy was so young with baby face. I thought to myself "Damn..this is going to be a difficult one... bad karma for snatching others queue" Then I was so wrong!!! This young dentist probably the gentlest hands. Ever steps he kept asking whether I felt the pain. During the operations he told me that the molar sit horizontally which made it impossible to pull all at once and would be royal pain due to the nerve this and that. :poof:So he drilled it into little pieces and carefully pick out one by one. Dude... it's not the pulling! It's the drilling that got me:mecry:

After operations it's guarantee that you'll live your life miserably in about 4-5 days with pain killers if not more.

Hey! now I am happy taking it out:twothumbs So may I wish you good luck on your case. This is always end up in happy ending anyway!:D
 

3rd_shift

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Idunno.
My 4 tooth removal was really quite smooth.
As I say, I was kickin' butt by the next day after leaving most of my prescribed painkillers stranded in the bottle.
I only took one set of pills, and never looked back.

I still have that old bottle and will be throwing it out in the morning.
Find the right oral surgeon, and things go super good. :)

It was one small shot in the arm, followed by the IV, followed by all 4 unwise teeth gone.
Next day,
Back to kickin posterior cheeks rescueing office building plants from certain doom as I was doing every week on that indoor tropical plant care route. ;)

Start looking for an oral surgeon in a dental college to get the little buggers out.
If he/she does a good job, get thier business card for future dental care after graduation.
I wish I had. :oops:

I have 3 cavities needing attention now 7 years later.
Plus an incisor rebuild from 1990 that crumbled in 2003 making me a possible candidate for a Dumb and Dumber #3 movie. :laughing:
Plus a bowlful of tarter and plaque to scrape out. :eeew:

See your dentist regularly folks!
Don't be like me and some others you know! :candle:
 

PhotonWrangler

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I've had two wisdom teeth removed and the whole procedure involved far less pain than I'd expected. Sure I had novocaine, but I somehow expected a really hideous and painful recovery afterwards. I was pleasantly surprised.
 

Gaffle

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I have had 3 taken out. Good ole Novocain kept numb, and sane. I had no problems, and nothing to make me loopy. It was really not that big of a deal. I felt like an idiot because I should have had them taken care of sooner....
 

James S

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and I"m double angry at mine, as well as previous dentists for not finding anything. It has been 2 years since I went to a dentist, but thats not enough time for these to hollow out and nobody ever said anything, or suggested that I wasn't getting those clean. The rest of my teeth are just fine, no other cavities or other problems, just those! (I've had the rest checked up now in paranoid fashion!) I'm going to ask them why they marked down "general" for the anesthesia when mine are not impacted or otherwise extra difficult. You'd think a shot of some 'cain or other and a valium or something would enough to not have to tie me to the chair ;) Couldn't hurt to ask them if that is really necessary.

The doc comes highly recommended and it's a small enough town that I actually know others who have had similar things done by him, so I'm not terribly worried about him being a hack.

One upside to having wisdom teeth pulled is that it lobs the price more than in half from having something salvaged and capped. Jeeze, those are expensive. But if it was other than the wisdom ones I'd definitely want to keep them. Just seems stupid that nobody noticed that they were getting cavities, even looking at the X-Rays I had in the year prior. I've switched to a very fancy regular dentist now who recommended this surgeon to me. He's got a hugely fancy office and big windows on the 3rd floor overlooking the historic district and only about $20 a visit more expensive than the last guy with a dingy office and a military surplus X-Ray machine (no really, just kidding, but it was dingy) so I'm going to the fancy docs from now on when I can afford it.
 

James S

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Well I survived! 2 wisdom teeth less as of this morning.

Overall not too bad yet, but I know I"m not yet experiencing the fullness of the swelling and pain that will come over the next day or 2.

In my case all of them were "erupted" so no digging through that was necessary. But one was straight and easy. That one hardly hurts at all right now. The other was laying on it's side more or less and required more work to get out. That one is pretty sore.

So I'm taking some drugs and sleeping mostly today. Finally I just had to get out of bed and walk around a bit and decided to check in.

Its funny, I dont remember falling asleep in the office at al, and completely dont remember my wife leading me down to the car. I vaguely remember getting into bed at home. Right now my jaw muscles are a little sore cause they probably clamped me open and the one he had to work on it quite sore. But I was just due for another dilaudid and as that kicks in I expect to be able to go back to sleep.

Thanks for all the encouragement folks, think I'll probably survive :D
 
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