Awake during extractions?

[meemsie]

So during a few consultations several orthodontists said I probably should get my four second premolars removed. Some actually said I *might* be able to get away with none, but I would have protruding lip issue, and it probably would fix 70% of my problems. So I'm starting to feel resigned to the extractions. But part of me is horrified about extracting four perfectly healthy teeth for aesthetics. I did have four of my wisdom teeth removed, and I was awake for one of them. Let's just say it was so traumatic an experience that I made the dentist stopped, refused to go on with him, and switched to an oral surgeon who had me completely out.

My question:
How did you get brave enough to get your teeth extracted?
How did you talk yourself into extractions, especially if you were a borderline case? (You might get straight teeth, but you're lips will protrude, it won't be perfect etc)
Did any of you just ask to be put out? or take laughing gas?

I've been through braces once and I swear the fellow didn't do it right the first time because I've had this overbite since high school. (I'm 27.) I'm not scared about metal brackets or pressure. I'm just afraid about having memories/nightmares about how easily teeth come out.

[ashesgap]

I have had teeth pulled three times, and they were all different. The first was an upper wisdom tooth that had chipped. I got the gas but was fully awake, and it was not bad at all. The tooth came right out. Fast forward 3 years...gotta have the other three wisdoms pulled and decide, i'll just get the gas again. HUGE MISTAKE!! I had no idea the bottom wisdoms were so much harder to pull than the tops. It was awful. Thankfully thats something that only happens once. The last tooth i had pulled was my baby canine, and obviously it was the easiest. It had no root or anything, so one shot of novacaine and i was fine.
If you're going to get teeth with roots pulled, and you're already very nervous about it, why not just get put to sleep? Sounds like the easiest way to go.
There are lots of other people on here that can answer about the decision to get healthy teeth pulled, so i'll leave that to them.
Good luck with your choice, i know its not easy.

[Plumcore]

I had all my wisdom teeth extracted under local only. It wasn't fun, but it wasn't as traumatic as i thought. And go figure my nightmares about teeth falling out stopped right after. Being taken out, or laughing gas were not an available option, and i am one of those people that in this case, when it comes to teeth, i want to know what is going on. The surgeon did let me take a brake for my jaw every now and then, and the whole thing was over in 20 minutes.

Out of the 4, only 2 were a must to get out, the other 2 were borderline. I decided to take them out because i knew i'd be getting braces so i wanted as much space as possible (and that was the ONLY reason i accepted) to fix my overjet/overbite. And like you i had a retainer before, for 11 years actually and it did zilch,

[Larah]

I was awake through my extractions and it honestly was not as bad as I expected it to be. I wanted to be knocked out completely but was told that there was no way that that was gonna happen. So it was either don't have the extractions and don't have braces or be brave. I closed my eyes, put my fingers in my ears and concentrated hard on something else and before I knew it they were painlessly out!

My husband watched the whole gruesome thing....he reckons he could perform the procedure quite well now lol!

Go on be brave...I honestly found it less painful than getting your brace tightened.

[Plumcore]

I have had teeth pulled three times, and they were all different. The first was an upper wisdom tooth that had chipped. I got the gas but was fully awake, and it was not bad at all. The tooth came right out. Fast forward 3 years...gotta have the other three wisdoms pulled and decide, i'll just get the gas again. HUGE MISTAKE!! I had no idea the bottom wisdoms were so much harder to pull than the tops. It was awful. Thankfully thats something that only happens once. The last tooth i had pulled was my baby canine, and obviously it was the easiest. It had no root or anything, so one shot of novacaine and i was fine.
If you're going to get teeth with roots pulled, and you're already very nervous about it, why not just get put to sleep? Sounds like the easiest way to go.
There are lots of other people on here that can answer about the decision to get healthy teeth pulled, so i'll leave that to them.
Good luck with your choice, i know its not easy.

The bottoms seem to be more difficult to extract because the bottom jaw is ..well..the one with the joints. It moves, so when the tooth is pulled there a lot of pressure placed on the jaw joints. Most pain comes from the joint than the actual extraction, at least thats what my surgeon told me, and thats what i felt.

[N'awlinsRach]

I had all four of my wisdoms taken out at the same time under local. The worst part of the surgery was getting nauseated because of the laughing gas and dry heaving. The first few days after were no fun, but I really did not feel any pain during the procedure, just pressure and pulling. The recovery for me was close to the first few days in braces. It hurts and is annoying but no a huge deal. Good luck!

[BaliGirl]

I have had teeth out 3 separate times.

1st time was wisdom teeth, all 4 were impacted so I was put under IV sedation. I would do it again, because there was no way I would stay awake for the procedure of getting 4 impacted teeth cut out. HOWEVER, the anesthesia made me REALLY sick for a few hours - not fun when you have a bleeding mouth full of gauze. Knowing what I know now, I would have asked for stronger anti-nausea meds. I took the proactive advice of my dentist and got the wisdom teeth out before they caused problems with the teeth next to them (they were all impacted and touching the teeth in front of them, and it was only a matter of time before they caused decay that couldn't be fixed).

2nd time I had an upper premolar pulled under laughing gas + local anesthetic. This tooth was cracked and infected, so I had no choice but to get it pulled. Bummer. I wanted the laughing gas more to alleviate my nerves than anything (I was apprehensive about losing a permanent tooth that was noticeable to the world). The laughing gas didn't help with the nervousness at all, unfortunately, but the extraction was quick (pliers + one tug = tooth out). I got sick a few hours after the tooth came out, and I think it was a side effect of the laughing gas. I wasn't nearly as sick as the IV sedation, but still, no fun being sick when you have an open extraction site and gauze in your mouth.

3rd time I just had a local anesthetic for a molar extraction. This one was also cracked and infected and had to go. Major bummer. The extraction was quick (another pliers + one tug = tooth out) and thankfully I did not get sick. Any future procedures I can have done under a local anesthetic I will have done just to avoid the sick factor.

This is just my experience - I think I am more sensitive to anesthetics than most so please don't let me scare you. Just a data point - and if you decide to get IV sedation or laughing gas, you may want to ask for good anti-nausea meds.

[drgnchsr36]

I have had teeth out 3 separate times.

1st time was wisdom teeth, all 4 were impacted so I was put under IV sedation. I would do it again, because there was no way I would stay awake for the procedure of getting 4 impacted teeth cut out. HOWEVER, the anesthesia made me REALLY sick for a few hours - not fun when you have a bleeding mouth full of gauze. Knowing what I know now, I would have asked for stronger anti-nausea meds. I took the proactive advice of my dentist and got the wisdom teeth out before they caused problems with the teeth next to them (they were all impacted and touching the teeth in front of them, and it was only a matter of time before they caused decay that couldn't be fixed).

2nd time I had an upper premolar pulled under laughing gas + local anesthetic. This tooth was cracked and infected, so I had no choice but to get it pulled. Bummer. I wanted the laughing gas more to alleviate my nerves than anything (I was apprehensive about losing a permanent tooth that was noticeable to the world). The laughing gas didn't help with the nervousness at all, unfortunately, but the extraction was quick (pliers + one tug = tooth out). I got sick a few hours after the tooth came out, and I think it was a side effect of the laughing gas. I wasn't nearly as sick as the IV sedation, but still, no fun being sick when you have an open extraction site and gauze in your mouth.

3rd time I just had a local anesthetic for a molar extraction. This one was also cracked and infected and had to go. Major bummer. The extraction was quick (another pliers + one tug = tooth out) and thankfully I did not get sick. Any future procedures I can have done under a local anesthetic I will have done just to avoid the sick factor.

This is just my experience - I think I am more sensitive to anesthetics than most so please don't let me scare you. Just a data point - and if you decide to get IV sedation or laughing gas, you may want to ask for good anti-nausea meds.

I had the same issue with IV sedation. But, I knew I would get sick from the anesthetic. I warned them, they gave me lots of anti - nausea meds ..but didn't work. I was pretty much sick the entire day. But, that's how I've always reacted with anesthesia.. tonsils out, c-section.. I always get sick.

Granted, I LOVED being out when my impacted wisdom tooth was being pulled. It was quick and easy other than that!! I would do the same if I had to do it again.. and just deal with the nausea.

[fluffybottom]

I had my upper wisdom teeth taken out (along with a bunch of cavities being filled and a root scaling) and for that, I was sedated. IV, go to sleep, wake up and it's all over. Wonderful!

Later in my treatment, I had to have an upper lateral incisor pulled and the canine next to it shaved down for a crown (I'm in the process of getting a bridge). For that, I was numbed with Novocaine and took two tablets of Halcion that my dentist had prescribed to me prior to the procedure. Technically? I was awake for the procedure. I know this because I took some pictures mid-way through with my iPhone. However, one of the side-effects of Halcion is amnesia so I really don't remember much. Hazy bits and pieces, sure, but if I was bothered by anything that happened during the procedure, I am now blissfully unaware of it. While that might freak some people out, I prefer to have as little awareness of dental procedures as possible so the Novocaine-Halcion combo was a great solution for me!

[ArmyMedic68]

If your not awake during the extractions you'll miss out on all the action. It's so much more enjoyable to watch the procedure, then it is to keep your eyes closed and leave it a mystery what exactly they are doing. They use some cool looking surgical instruments too! Yeah I would rather keep all my teeth then to lose 2 perfectly good teeth for the sake of orthodontics, but it was clear there would be a much better result with the extractions. It was pretty much extractions or have major surgery to get a good result. Clearly extractions are the most cost effective of the two options. No blood no glory :)

best wishes!

[Lisa43947]

I had all four 1st premolars extracted at the same time. I never had any teeth extracted before and I wanted to go through life with all my teeth but when my orthodontist said I'd have to have them pulled I was okay with it. I figured that my orthodontist knew what she was doing. I didn't get a second opinion because there aren't that many orthodontists in myh area. I got it done and now 2 years later I'm waiting to get the lower extraction gaps filled.

[meemsie]

Hi, Lisa, Did you feel like you made the right decision regarding the extractions?

[zeira]

I got my impacted wisdom teeth out under general anesthesia. The oral surgeon said I could do it either way, but agreed that was probably better in my case. I god the second premolars extracted about a year ago under local anesthesia. It seems a bit barbaric, that they can just remove perfectly healthy teeth just like that, like a torture thing you might read about in history books. But it was perfectly fine, didn't hurt at all. You just feel some pulling and tugging, and a nagging feeling that this better be the right thing, since it's so final. One of my pre-molars had been impacted and was taken out earlier, so I had to do it for symmetry and space, but I still felt it was a hard decision to make.

[Takako]

I had all four premolars out with just local Novocaine. I had my eyes closed because personally, I can handle procedures being done to me only if I can't see it lol. Just had my nose pierced yesterday as a matter of fact lol! It hurt a lot more than my extractions hurt. At least during the procedure, anyway. Afterwards my extractions hurt, but that's going to happen no matter how you have the procedure done.

I had a total of 13 shots of novocaine, and I just felt pressure and stuff. I didn't really hear a ton of "crackling", but I could feel stuff moving around inside my jaws. It was weird! But I was conscious, so I was able to utter a muffled "whoo hoo!" when the first tooth came out! My dentist and his assistant laughed and told me most normal people don't cheer during tooth extractions XD

[RHOyally Braced]

I had all 4 of my wisdoms taken out under local. They numbed me up better than if you would get a filling (I was living in Hawaii at the time, so that's all they do if you aren't in Honolulu.) I stared at the surgeon the whole time, it was a little weird. 2 of my wisdoms needed to come out and the dentist recommended they all come out since to avoid having go go through it all over again for the other 2. No Laughing gas either. They don't have it. Now that I look back, glad I took all four out, I never want to do that again.