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occ's avatar

Has anyone had their top wisdom teeth removed (that were not impacted)?

Asked by occ (4179points) October 24th, 2007

I got my bottom wisdom teeth removed 10 years ago. At the time they didn’t remove the top ones, because they were not impacted. But now the top ones are causing problems because they’re pushing my other teeth together and they are impossible to clean because they are so far back…so I’m getting cavities. The oral surgeon says that removing top wisdom teeth is easier than bottom teeth, and, because they have already come into my mouth it is just pulling a tooth, not getting into the bone…he says it will be less painful than when I had the bottom ones removed, with a much quicker recovery. True? Untrue? Anything else I should know? I’m just getting a local anaesthesia, not a general.

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8 Answers

gailcalled's avatar

joli is our tooth maven.

I had all four removed years ago because my jaw wasn’t big enough. No impaction and no memory of any distress.

sjg102379's avatar

I had non-impacted top teeth removed under a local anesthesia. Easy as pie. Definitely took less time to pull them out than the bottom ones.

robhaya's avatar

I had my top wisdom tooth and the tooth next to it pulled because I busted it and I did not care for the pressure associated with the pulling of my teeth under local anesthesia. When I had my remaining wisdom teeth pulled, I had them done under general anesthesia, so I didn’t have to feel the pressure of the pulling. I have to say I preferred general over local anesthesia. In terms of post extraction pain, I didn’t have any and the recovery time was the same for both scenarios (just some minor swelling in my cheeks, which is normal). Pain and recovery varies from individual and everyone responds differently.

I hope this helps.

R

GD_Kimble's avatar

I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed at the same time. The bottom 2 were impacted, the top 2 were not. I was put under, and was out for about an hour.
There were no problems, and aside from a bit of minor soreness in my gums, I was back to normal by that evening.

christybird's avatar

My dentist pulled out my top two after I’d had them for a couple years, in large part because one already had a cavity (too hard to clean way back there!). Just local anesthesia, and they healed really fast – it was cool, one of them had 3 roots! (Normally they just have 1.) I kept that one.

joli's avatar

The uppers are 1/2 to 1/3 the struggle for the dentist to ease them out. I work in an oral surgery office and I can estimate the duration of the surgery by looking at the x-ray and/or knowing if it’s an upper tooth. Upper wisdom teeth usually have roots fused into one so there’s less change of breakage, another reason the Dentist can move more quickly with them. They could come out in a matter of seconds! Healing is easier also. No sutures, and less chance of food getting into the socket. As for the anesthetic, you’ll probably need just a single dose at the site of each tooth. No drama. I wouldn’t waste my money on IV sedation for your surgery.

occ's avatar

UPDATE: thank you all for your tips & advice—it was reassuring! I got my top wisdom teeth out Friday and it was very easy. Much, much easier than when I had the bottom ones out 10 years ago, since the top ones were not impacted. To my surprise, it only took about 2 minutes. As soon as the novacaine wore off, I just took some ibuprofen and was out and about by the next day!

Palindrome's avatar

Well this is my 2nd day of having all four of mine removed.
Before he started the surgery,i asked my dentist which were the hardest to take out and he said the bottom two because there was a risk of damaging the nerve line right under the bottom of your bottom teeth!
Now in my case…the top two were the hardest to take out, my dentist really had to push hard into taking both of them out cause they were so far up. & now with it being the second day, the top two hurt the most!

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