that is hard core. seriously no anaesthetic?
I'm a softie. Completely knocked out and overnight stay in hospital covered by private health cover. Took 14 hours for it to wear off before I felt any pain, but by then it wasn't really pain, more of an annoyance.
Played soccer the next day and was fine.
Novocain is an anaesthetic. Your whole mouth and face is numbed, you don't feel pain. You're conscious, but it doesn't hurt.
True. My sister and DH both had the surgery, and the big cost involved in the surgery is the anesthetic, so if you say you don't want to be fully 'under,' that will also save you some money. My mom has been a dental assistant for 40 years and a family friend is an oral surgeon, so I'm pretty familiar with this stuff.
I have personally had all four wisdom teeth removed, though none were impacted, the first two on the left side of my mouth when I was 20, and then the second two on the right side of my mouth when I was 30, just two years ago. I was just at my regular dentist with nitrous oxide and novocaine, which made the whole thing completely painless, didn't even use my iPod since it was so quick, then I took ibuprofen (Advil) every 4 hours for the first 24 hours. First two days, I was recovering and changing gauze regularly, but on the third day, I had no pain and ate a taco salad. Before the procedure, I mentioned to the dentis fully intact, and now I keep them in a little jar of peroxide in my office at work. :p
My number one tip: do not use a straw for about a week after having the teeth removed, maybe even longer, and avoid really hot or really cold beverages. You do NOT want a dry socket. Just sip liquids and have really soft food on hand (my DH got me a bunch of flavored instant mashed potato packets, which we made kind of runny the first day, and more firm on the second day).