When I had my 4 impacted teeth out at 19 I asked my surgeon about doing it with local and he laughed at me and said no way did I want to be awake for this. I had sedation, not general. I did wake up at one point but they got me back out. Recovery was awful. He really should have given me a few days worth of real pain medication. I was miserable.

My mom had this. She’s 75 and still talks about the hammer they used to break her teeth apart.

I recently I had non-erupted wisdom teeth removed with local anesthesia, and I did not have any issues or discomfort. The key is to find an older dentist. My best friend is a dentist and referred me to a very experienced dentist for the extraction. My friend me that most younger dentists are not very good at extracting teeth anymore, because they are trained to save teeth. Obviously, dentist know how to extract teeth, but many younger dentist don't do it often. The dentist that pulled my wisdom teeth was in his 70s, and removed my teeth with little pressure by using a slight wrist twist, so I had minimal bleeding or trauma.

Go to an oral surgeon, and find out from them if they are willing to dig out 4 impacted wisdom teeth under local. My bet is not. Impacted wisdom teeth are completely in the gum, that is surgery, not just a normal tooth extraction. They may be willing to do twilight or nitrous in combination with local, but if not? It's surgery, so just let the surgeon and anesthesiologist know about your child's previous reaction to general sedation... separately, you can express concerns about poor family history, because there's a huge difference between personal and family medical history.

I’ve never heard of a dentist taking wisdom teeth out— isn’t it always an oral surgeon?

If you do general anaesthesia, make sure there's another oral surgeon or very highly trained professional there. Seriously consider not doing it at the dentist's. If there's a problem in any way with anesthesia, even the most terrific of dental staff members won't be trained to intervene. With 4 wisdom teeth to remove, it should be at an oral surgeon's with backup around. This is per my child's highly experienced oral surgeon who has heard of some troubling outcomes when there aren't trained people to step in if needed.

Anonymous wrote:When you say "full sedation" do you mean general anesthesia? For bad impaction, sometimes the local isn't enough because the surgery can be pretty complex. I had a very bad case as a teen and general was the only option. Granted that was a long time ago, but there are meds they can give in the IV if they react poorly to anesthesia.

Any idea what meds?

When you say "full sedation" do you mean general anesthesia? For bad impaction, sometimes the local isn't enough because the surgery can be pretty complex. I had a very bad case as a teen and general was the only option. Granted that was a long time ago, but there are meds they can give in the IV if they react poorly to anesthesia.

My son had some numbing "seeds" put in the wound - cost $250 extra dollars or so, Tricare covers it BCBS does not.

I don't know exactly what they were, but the point was they were non-narcotic.

Worth the money.

I have to say I fully enjoyed the goofy boy who woke up from the anesthetic. Obviously didn't last but he was a riot during the initial wake-up.

My 16 year old had four taken out with nitrous oxide. She felt bad with the nitrous ... made her cry for some reason. Said she wished she just used the anesthetic for numbing only. There was pressure but no pain. She was glad not to have Iv sedation.

Anonymous wrote:I had one side done each way, although not impacted. The knocked out version was probably less stressful, but the numbed up only version was painless. It was just a little vigorous. They have to use some force and feeling them doing the work can be disconcerting.

This, plus the sound of teeth cracking is very weird. I was 21, had all four done with local. The second one shattered and they had to dig it out, so by the time they had moved on, the injection had worn off on the other side. You can believe I yelled. They shot me up some more and finished. I was not traumatized by it; but you have to be willing to say no, it really hurts, I'm not just being nervous about it. Even the one they had to dig out was painless while it was happening.

I had one side done each way, although not impacted. The knocked out version was probably less stressful, but the numbed up only version was painless. It was just a little vigorous. They have to use some force and feeling them doing the work can be disconcerting.

I wasn’t a teen, but I got my 4 wisdom teeth extracted al 23 with local anesthesia. It hurt for a while (maybe half day) when the anesthesia effect wore down. But it was generally fine. Good luck!

I had 4 impacted wisdoms removed in my 20s and they used twilight sedation. I was really nervous before the procedure but I ended up being completely relaxed. I think I drifted in and out of sleep.

Please share your teens experience with local or anything else that was not full sedation. We have family history of reacting poorly to meds used for full sedation. TIA!!