How does taking out your wisdom teeth work?!

I got all 4 of mine out 2 summers ago. I was EXTREMELY nervous before the actual procedure. The procedure itself, though, wasn't bad at all. Here's my experience:

I got to the oral surgeon's office. They had my mom and I read and sign some forms (I had to sign because I was 18, if you are under 18, your parent signs). Then they called me in to take an x-ray, which only took about a minute. Then they sent me back to the waiting room while the x-ray was processed/printed. Then they called me back into the room where they were going to take my teeth out.

The place that I went to allowed me to bring my iPod to listen to during the procedure, so I had that sitting on my lap, ready to go once they got started. Before they did, however, they explained to me exactly what they were going to do. For me, one of my teeth had started to come in, another felt like it was trying, and the other 2 were still in my gums. The oral surgeon told me that she was going to give me an IV with anasthesia (sp?). She said that, once it took effect, it would be like I fell asleep in front of the TV, that I would respond to things they told me to do, but would have a fuzzy memory of it all. This is exactly as a friend of mine said he felt during his (at the same place) - he said he had very vague memories of the procedure.

So, after she told me that, she and her assistant tied a tight band around my arm and had me squeeze a stress ball so they could get the IV in my arm. I looked the other way because the sight of needles going into me (or anyone) creeps me out. It hurt a little when she put it in, hurt more than a flu shot but it wasn't unbearable. Well, I sit there for about a minute. The dentist and the assistant go in the hallway behind where my chair is and start whispering to each other and I'm thinking, "Oh great, something's wrong." They come back in and say, "Ok, this isn't working here." and take the IV out of my arm. They then say they are going to put it in my hand because my arm wasn't cooperating.

So, they tie the band on my arm and I squeeze the ball and look away again. The IV in the hand hurt more than in the arm, but the pain went away quickly. I remember asking the dentist, "Should my fingers be numb?" and she said, "That's just because we had the tight band around your arm twice, they lost circulation, they should be back to normal in a minute." Then I looked out the window for a few seconds, and the next thing I knew, they were waking me up and it was all over. I remember being extremely surprised that it was over so quickly, but of course what felt like a few seconds to me was really about an hour or so.

So, after I woke up, they had me keep my hand on my chest while the anasthesia wore off some. I was still very drowsy and tried to go back to sleep in the chair. My hand slipped off my chest in my drowsy state and the assistant came back and put it back on my chest and asked me to keep it there. I guess that was because the IV was in that hand and they wanted the bleeding to slow or something?

So, after I sat there for a few minutes, they got my mom from the waiting room. She came to the hallway, the dentists got me out of the chair, and they all helped me to the car. I don't remember too much about the drive home.

We got home, I went to bed and slept for a while. The bleeding the first day or two was very annoying, but once that slows down it's not bad. Your mouth is pretty achy and swollen for a while. It took me about 5 days to feel well enough to eat real food, another week or so for the pain to completely go away. My worst pain were the corners of my lips. They were extremely cracked from how wide they had my mouth open, and took forever to heal.

Overall, not a bad experience, but definitely not something I would want to do again. Hope yours goes well :)

Oh - about the IV in my arm that didn't work.... I guess they missed my vein or something because I had a huge, nasty bruise there the next day lol.

Donst get so worried :) if you want, your dentist will put you under amnesia which will put you in a deep sleep. You wont feel them taking it out. The dentist will usually tell you if it's mandatory to take them out. If there bothering you then yes you have too. Also, after the procedure is done you will feel sore for the next week. You will have a list of thing you can not eat like hard foods or using straws. There are clots and you can't take mess with them or they will come out and nerve will be exsposed. You DO NOT want that. But all an all dot be scared. You will be healing for about a month and you will be prescribed Pain Killers.