4 ms·

When I had my wisdom teeth removed in Australia - they were impacting and causing me some very real grief - I had them taken out under local lidocaine. My denti

When I had my wisdom teeth removed in Australia - they were impacting and causing me some very real grief - I had them taken out under local lidocaine. My dentist was of the view that general was overkill and would simply be more expensive for very limited gain. In Australia I know it's fairly common to have general anaesthetic for wisdom teeth, but I'm not sure we're quite as into preemptive removal as the US seems to be by the looks of this article?

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
acveilleux 11y ago
I had my wisdom teeth removed (in Canada) under local anesthesia. Two of them didn't strictly have to go and were pulled out in a couple minutes, the remaining two were impacted and pushing against the next molar. I can remember no pain during the procedure so lidocaine was quite sufficient. I can see why general anesthetic might be desired, the amount of force required to break the tooth is downright disturbing. I remember wondering if the surgeon ever slips with that punch and that the sound of breaking teeth in the absence of any other feeling was eery.
vacri 11y ago
(in Australia) I had to have a tooth removed due to a botched root canal that led to an abcess in the bone. The oral surgeon gave me the option of local or general - I went for general, in case he really needed to poke around. He was clearly good at what he did - ripped out the tooth, cleaned out the abcess, and stitched me up without the need for so much as an aspirin afterwards. Only the vaguest sense of pain, and then only if I tried to find it. Also interesting in this life event was that it was done by the same surgeon at a separate private hospital. It was covered by private medical insurance, but the hospital took a $500 contingency payment up-front. The next week for my follow-up, I asked if there were any unusual costs, because I hadn't got my 'contingency' money back. He (quietly) hit the roof that this was an unnecessary payment and I never should have paid in the first place. He told me that I should demand the money back. This was at 5:30pm. 9:02 the next day, as I'm gearing up to do phone battle, I get a call from the hospital's finance department asking where to send the refund - apparently in the intervening hours, this surgeon had torn the financial controller of the hospital a new one at the unethical behaviour. Colour me pleasantly surprised!
noir_lord 11y ago
Had mine out via local as well in the UK I had one crack and one filled that wouldn't stay filled, exposed nerve etc. 20 minutes one side, came straight out, 45 the other fought ever step of the way, relief was immediate, couple of weeks and all mended. Not sure why you'd need to go under or have nitrous.
- nommm-nommm 11y ago
  >Not sure why you'd need to go under or have nitrous. Many people (myself included) have anxiety around dental work. Just like going into an MRI might be fine for you but people with even a mild claustrophobia may find it unbearable. The other thing is not everyone's procedure is as simple as yours. Your tooth was exposed, thus easy to extract. Your teeth were not fully impacted, for example. This - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNLuyFaOQoo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNLuyFaOQoo - shows the procedure for removing impacted wisdom teeth.
  - noir_lord 11y ago
    Granted the edge cases require it but anaesthesia is dangerous. Wouldn't call my second one simple, dentist asked if she could preserve it and send it to local uni as her words "that's the largest root structure I've ever seen", at one point I didn't think she could get enough force on it, had to get a different tool. Lovely woman and amazing dentist.
    - nommm-nommm 11y ago
      Of course sedation is dangerous. Sedation and nitrous both have dangers but so does avoiding dental work because of patient anxiety. So does a patient moving during the procedure due to anxiety or being uncooperate. Its all a cost benefit analysis, like everything in medicine, and each patient and case is different. Nitrous is fairly safe and very effective and should probably be suggested more as an alternative to sedation. You could open up my abdomen and take out my kidney while I was awake and it would not bother me as long as I didn't feel it. Go near my mouth or eyes though and I have unbearable anxiety. I'd let all my teeth rot out of my face before undergoing tooth extraction awake, its that bad. This is a fairly common fear. Even without anxiety my oral surgeon strongly recommended at least nitrous due to the procedure being performed. Your procedure was simple enough for a dentist to perform, and didn't require an oral surgeon, so pretty simple.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

acveilleux 11y ago

I had my wisdom teeth removed (in Canada) under local anesthesia. Two of them didn't strictly have to go and were pulled out in a couple minutes, the remaining two were impacted and pushing against the next molar. I can remember no pain during the procedure so lidocaine was quite sufficient. I can see why general anesthetic might be desired, the amount of force required to break the tooth is downright disturbing. I remember wondering if the surgeon ever slips with that punch and that the sound of breaking teeth in the absence of any other feeling was eery.

vacri 11y ago

(in Australia) I had to have a tooth removed due to a botched root canal that led to an abcess in the bone. The oral surgeon gave me the option of local or general - I went for general, in case he really needed to poke around. He was clearly good at what he did - ripped out the tooth, cleaned out the abcess, and stitched me up without the need for so much as an aspirin afterwards. Only the vaguest sense of pain, and then only if I tried to find it. Also interesting in this life event was that it was done by the same surgeon at a separate private hospital. It was covered by private medical insurance, but the hospital took a $500 contingency payment up-front. The next week for my follow-up, I asked if there were any unusual costs, because I hadn't got my 'contingency' money back. He (quietly) hit the roof that this was an unnecessary payment and I never should have paid in the first place. He told me that I should demand the money back. This was at 5:30pm. 9:02 the next day, as I'm gearing up to do phone battle, I get a call from the hospital's finance department asking where to send the refund - apparently in the intervening hours, this surgeon had torn the financial controller of the hospital a new one at the unethical behaviour. Colour me pleasantly surprised!

noir_lord 11y ago

Had mine out via local as well in the UK I had one crack and one filled that wouldn't stay filled, exposed nerve etc. 20 minutes one side, came straight out, 45 the other fought ever step of the way, relief was immediate, couple of weeks and all mended. Not sure why you'd need to go under or have nitrous.

nommm-nommm 11y ago
>Not sure why you'd need to go under or have nitrous. Many people (myself included) have anxiety around dental work. Just like going into an MRI might be fine for you but people with even a mild claustrophobia may find it unbearable. The other thing is not everyone's procedure is as simple as yours. Your tooth was exposed, thus easy to extract. Your teeth were not fully impacted, for example. This - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNLuyFaOQoo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNLuyFaOQoo - shows the procedure for removing impacted wisdom teeth.
- noir_lord 11y ago
  Granted the edge cases require it but anaesthesia is dangerous. Wouldn't call my second one simple, dentist asked if she could preserve it and send it to local uni as her words "that's the largest root structure I've ever seen", at one point I didn't think she could get enough force on it, had to get a different tool. Lovely woman and amazing dentist.
  - nommm-nommm 11y ago
    Of course sedation is dangerous. Sedation and nitrous both have dangers but so does avoiding dental work because of patient anxiety. So does a patient moving during the procedure due to anxiety or being uncooperate. Its all a cost benefit analysis, like everything in medicine, and each patient and case is different. Nitrous is fairly safe and very effective and should probably be suggested more as an alternative to sedation. You could open up my abdomen and take out my kidney while I was awake and it would not bother me as long as I didn't feel it. Go near my mouth or eyes though and I have unbearable anxiety. I'd let all my teeth rot out of my face before undergoing tooth extraction awake, its that bad. This is a fairly common fear. Even without anxiety my oral surgeon strongly recommended at least nitrous due to the procedure being performed. Your procedure was simple enough for a dentist to perform, and didn't require an oral surgeon, so pretty simple.