Questions & Answers
From Lin:
I've read that it's more painful for people over 30 & at that most women suffer from "dry socket". Did you have an occurrence of dry socket with your extractions? Also, did you have all 3 teeth removed during 1 office visit / surgery?
First of all, I hope Lin checks this site again because when I tried to respond to her email I got a message saying she wasn't receiving email from my account. So I thought I'd create this page because I didn't want her questions to go unanswered.
About the pain, I wouldn't be surprised if some percentage of those people over thirty keep themselves underdosed on pain medication because they're on their own and need to be able to drive drive or get grocery shopping done, etc., whereas a teenager would have her mom dosing her up every time. Of course, there are other issues, such as deteriorating gum health, etc., that could be more of an issue as you get older and could possibly cause more pain.
I didn't experience "dry socket" and my dental surgeon didn't mention it to me, so I'd never heard of it until your email. I did some browsing online and one site said that medicated dressings can be placed in the mouth to avoid this and my surgeon used dressings so that may be why I didn't experience it (and maybe why he said I wouldn't feel much pain until he removed them?). Or, perhaps the pain I experienced after my dressings were removed was due to dry socket (see What I remember). It's hard to know since all that construction at work really did not help matters.
I can't emphasize this enough: if you're concerned, talk to your doctor about dry socket, and about the pain. I recently read an article in the NY Times about pain treatment, and while they were mostly referring to people with cancer, all the medical staff interviewed said they were surprised how many people accept pain unnecessarily--they just think it's supposed to hurt. Although if you have any addictive patterns, discuss that with your dentist as well.
As for your last question: I did have all three teeth out in one visit, but I think some of my friends who had four teeth taken out had them two at a time, but wisdom teeth extraction seems to vary widely from surgeon to surgeon. Another thing that varies from surgeon to surgeon is whether they give you a plastic syringe to flush out behind your teeth after you're back on solid foods. I got mine after the dressings were removed. Not to be gross, but I was surprised how much gets back there!
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