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this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
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Asklemmy
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The profound nothingness is almost hard to believe. I’m not talking an empty sleep—I mean it feels like someone cut a segment out of the film strip of your life.
The first time I was fully knocked out like that was for tooth surgery, and I thought the doctor was messing with me when he said they were done already—from my perspective I had barely closed my eyes for a moment. Sure enough, there was gauze in my mouth and the sun was setting outside. It had been over 90 minutes, and I didn’t even feel like I’d slept.
Same for me. I remember starting to count down from 10 and feeling intensely sleepy, and then waking up on the bed asking when they were going to start the surgery and the nurse was like, lol, that happened a while ago mate. So weird.
Wisdoms? Same experience for me. My partner was in the room with a nurse asking me about my pain level. At first I was confused, what pain? Then as consciousness properly barrelled in I managed to sob an '8' through the gauze. I preferred oblivion at that point - they had to take a big chunk of bone and boy did I know it at that moment
I'm kind of sad that I never got to experience that, to be honest. I only had two wisdom teeth- 1 on the top left and 1 on the bottom right. The right was set to be impacted, but apparently it hadn't grown any roots, yet (I was 17 or 18) so they decided it just get it out with a local. It was... unpleasant. The top left one has never come through, either, so I may well not have bothered 😓
Haha don't have FOMO for surgery, mate. A life lived without it is a good one.
They can still wreak havoc on your teeth even if they don't come down. They tend to migrate and move and that can mess up your bite. So not likely now presuming you're older but it's a chance when you're younger and still growing etc.
Yeah I'm 30, now. I presume they're just chilling, lol. Has anyone's come down after that point, do you think?
Not that I saw when I worked there. My impacted wisdoms only became an issue in my 30s though, so who knows?!
It's so weird to me that you're all put under for wisdom teeth. I've had three out with local and nobody even suggested I might need a general.
It can depend on how complicated your impaction is. Sometimes they look at you and go, "Yeah I can work that out no issues," other times they'll be like, "Nah fuck that, this is going to be a major surgery." The last thing you want is for them to realise it's the latter and not the former when they're halfway through the procedure 😅
I've heard of that happening, actually; the dentist ended up driving the patient around themselves trying to find an available surgeon to finish the job, and eventually gave up and just dropped them off at the emergency department.
Usually it's not that wild, but I feel safe in assuming that many dentists choose to book a general out of an abundance of caution, 'cause I'm sure that scenario features in their nightmares as much as it does the patient's.
It probably has something to do with licensing and costs for anaesthetists, too, come to think. Most dentists are qualified to give locals but not generals; verrryyy different ballgame, you can imagine.
Oh yeah, and finally, people's jaws are getting smaller. Seriously, though. The smaller the jaws, the more complicated dental surgeries are becoming, so there you go.
Was a dental nurse once upon a time. Assisted with many an extraction. Yes if conditions are good (the jaw is large, the tooth is straight, there's no tangling or bone issues) then not a problem. But I did not enjoy putting some people with poor neck strength in headlocks. Or the post extraction vomiting. Or the way the patient cringed as they heard the tooth snap in their skull. Or the complete look of trauma on their face after.
Just because they couldn't feel pain didn't mean the experience wasn't harrowing. I needed to go under because all 4 were badly impacted. But having insider knowledge on the process, I would've chosen to be knocked out regardless.