At 9am this morning, my 17 year old son Justin got an IV in his hand, went to sleep, and woke up about 30 minutes later, minus all four of his wisdom teeth. Needless to say, he’s not having the greatest day of his life today. He’s swollen, sore, and thanks to being able to read about all the things that could possibly go wrong (like dry socket) on the Internet, just a little bit worried. In a day or two, I’m sure everything is going to be just fine, but in the mean time, we’re just taking care of him … ice cream, yogurt and pudding will probably be his diet this weekend.
Even with insurance, dad’s credit card took a bit of hit, but compared to what Justin is having to deal with, I can hardly complain about a silly little thing like money. 
I remember when I got my wisdom teeth out, I didn’t have to pay anything. It was my very first dentist appointment after I came in the Air Force. The dentist got my x-rays back, and was rather excited to discover that I still had wisdom teeth. He then told me that they would have to come out. I, of course, asked why. Here’s what I was told: if you don’t take them out, food could get stuck back in there, and it would cause problems. That sounded reasonable to me, so I got em taken out.
… and for about the next year, I had little holes in my mouth where those wisdom teeth used to be. Every time I ate, food would get stuck in there, so I had to take a little syringe filled with water, and flush out the holes.
It just struck me as kind of ironic, that I ended up experiencing exactly the problem that this procedure was supposed to hypothetically prevent in my future.
Hopefully things work out better for Justin.
Ha! I had my wisdom teeth pulled when I was 20, at my second duty station. My wisdom teeth didn’t rise above the gums until a few months prior and they were already rotten (I don’t know how that happened).
The dentist sowed the sockets shut on all four of them and I didn’t have any problems whatsoever. When I recently had all my upper teeth pulled, none were sewed shut and it took three days for the big molar holes to stop bleeding.
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Hi RT … Justins are still bleeding a bit, but he seems to feel a little better today, and he’s actually eating regular food, so I’m hoping it all turns out good.
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April 24, 2010 at 10:14 am | Permalink
Hi Todd, how is Justin doing? I remember that when mine came out many moons ago, they did first one side (Top and bottom teeth at the same time) and a week or ten laters the other side. I looked for nearly a month like a little rabbit that had munched too much grass, so swollen was my face. SY
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Hi Sybil … he’s fine now, we went back for the follow up visit on Thursday, and they gave him the the little syringe to shoot water into holes so food doesn’t get stuck back there. Other than that, I think the biggest challenge is going to be making sure he remembers to finish taking all of the antibiotics that they gave him to start on the day of the surgery