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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   2791 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 21, 2025

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What's the verdict on prophylactic wisdom tooth excraction?

My dentist told me that he thought I should leave them alone until they start bothering me. Like @FiveHourMarathon, they were intermittently painful for small periods of time, so I eventually decided to get them out. Other than a couple days of pain, I don't miss them or anything. Weirdly, only 3 came in. The two on the bottom were in there good and they have to be broken up with a drill, and they were quite painful afterwards. The one on the top left side was a clean yank. They probably could have left that one in just fine. Unlike other people I've talked to, the dentist gave me a choice between laughing gas and just novocaine; I chose the latter, so I had the unique experience of being awake during the operation.

so I had the unique experience of being awake during the operation.

Wait what? How is that unique? Over here the only way you'd get sedated is if they have to operate on your entire jaw or something. Even tooth surgery is just good painkillers combined with local anesthetic, so you're lucid during the operation. Basic wisdom tooth removal that doesn't require surgery is just local anesthetic.

Idk man literally everyone I talked to about my wisdom teeth told me they got knocked out for it. I don't know why I got a choice and they didn't.

That's bizarre. I see no reason why you'd need general anesthesia for removing teeth, unless they've come in horribly wrong and it turns into a complicated surgery. But I've heard that in the US it's not uncommon to get all four wisdom teeth removed at the same time, for some reason. Which is bizarre enough in itself but which could explain the need for being knocked out, perhaps.

I was given three choices: novocaine, laughing gas, and general anesthesia. When I tell foreigners this they usually make some remark about Americans being a bunch of wimps who need to be knocked out to have their teeth pulled. I assume this is downstream of the more widespread overuse of painkillers by doctors at that time.

I was awake for my wisdom teeth removals (yes, plural!) as well. Mine never bothered me, except that a couple got infected over the years so those were removed. They don't bother to knock you out for just one tooth, which was fine with me. The main thing that I found striking was that it's psychologically very weird. There's a part of your brain that recognizes that what's going on should really hurt and is bracing for it, but the pain never kicks in due to the local anesthetic. It's a very bizarre sensation.

I have three that came in fine and one that was growing sideways. Was told by my dentist I should get them removed because a partially emerged wisdom tooth is hard to clean and prone to disease. I procrastinated on that for years, and it eventually fully emerged, though slightly shorter than my other molars. My current dentist thinks they're fine as they are.

Mine came in painfully when I was 18, and the doc said I should get them out, but it was the middle of spring rowing training for Dad Vail so I put it off and lived off protein shakes. After two months the pain went away and I forgot about it. Since then they've gotten painful about once every two years, but it goes away after a week or so.

I probably should have had one removed - it grew in sideways and shattered the roots of the molar in front of it.

If you have insurance and regular appointments, consistent monitoring is probably fine.

I'm pushing 50 and still have mine -- they are... not particularly straight, only partially emerged and conventional dental advice is certainly to remove them.

I haven't got any solid impression of the consequences of not doing so though, and therefore haven't -- seems fine. YMMV.

I haven't got any solid impression of the consequences of not doing so though, and therefore haven't

I mean, it's not uncommon for one of my wisdom teeth to catch on the side of my cheek while I'm chewing, which is always aggravating, but that alone isn't worth the hassle of extraction in my book.

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