People still get their wisdom teeth taken out without being put under. I heard one person describe the process inside your mouth sounding like a tree trunk being snapped in half.
Personally, I didn't mind it. It was an interesting experience. I knew I was made of meat, but the smell of bits of it cooking really brought it home. And as you say, the sound was kinda freaky. But it was a good opportunity to practice keeping the mind centered and following the breath. Plus now I can joke that I learned to transcend dental medication.
However, I can't put things into my eye at all. Karmic.
Ironically I had my 4 wisdom teeth pulled without it - wasn't even offered to me at the time. I only had the anesthesia once for a minor dental procedure.
Can you explain this part? I'm considering my wisdom teeth pulled out.
In fact, 'normal' molars sound the same.
In a former life, a nice American chap yanked one of mine out whilst in Kandahar and it sounded like that - only he also broke a part off the jaw too, so that could have been some part of the sound.
He informed me with a slightly embarrassed: "I'm sorry but I think I just broke your jaw bone."
In a later development, the bone began to be rejected by my gum and was pushed up and out. Broken bone is surprisingly sharp and rather than carry around the little calcium razor one of my Corporals kindly volunteered to pull it out with a pair of needle nose pliers.
Happy to say the latter operation was a complete success.
I've had 4 wisdom teeth removed with local anaesthetic. I felt absolutely nothing during the procedures, though the sound of my teeth being hammered into pieces (two were lodged horizontally and had to be manhandled) was certainly unnerving.
After it was done I got up and got home, no side effects. I have no idea why it's apparently so common for a general anaesthetic in the US. (On the other hand, without it we wouldn't have hundreds of YouTube videos featuring hilariously rambling, drugged-up teens.)
They did topical numbing, then 4 shots in numbed area. The extractor device is 2 prongs on one side, and 1 on the other. It mates with your tooth's root. There's also a gum separator so they don't cause tissue damage.
The actual extract, if the tooth doesn't break, is about 2 minutes. And yep, it sounds like wet wood snapping, like that tree sound/feel described. If it breaks, it's called a "surgical extraction". Then they drill and pull the pieces as they come out. That can add a few minutes. Mine was in 2 pieces. They drilled for 3 seconds, and used a tweezers or something like that size. Little noticeable sound on that.
After that, you put gauze in your mouth so the area stays moist. Simple, crude, and effective.
I was in a great deal of pain with that tooth, as I had infection/cavity down to the root. I was glad to part with it, given the extensive damage.
Both under local, first came out in <20 minutes and was entirely routine, 2nd took 40 odd minutes and was on the upper limit of the torque the dentist could apply, it fought her every step of the way - after it was done she asked if she could put it in bleach and send it to the Uni as it was (her words) the largest wisdom tooth I've ever seen.
Neither was fun but the dentist was lovely and the local worked well, I took her a box of chocolates and a card a few days later to say thank you for taking care of me.
Oh my god, did it hurt. I have a pretty high tolerance for pain and even I was praying for it to be over as soon as possible. I can only imagine what people who are more sensitive go through.
(I would have happily taken general anaesthetic instead, but they didn't even offer me the option.)
I sometimes wonder if being put under is really all that much better, since it seems a large component of the experience is the amnesia drug they give you. I had some weird experiences after an oral surgery after I was awake but the amnesia stuff hadn't quite worn off yet. My sister had a similar experience after an orthoscopic surgery. It's a weird idea—can a somewhat traumatic surgery affect you if you can't remember it?
For me, it was fantastic. My wisdom teeth had to be pulled just as they started to surface, because letting them grow out all the way would have just wrecked years of brace work. So they had to cut into the gums to fish them out. And apparently the guy said one shattered in the process and they -really- had to dig that one out.
From what I remember, I counted from 100 to around 90-80, and the next thing I knew, "okay we're done." Was a bit out of it for a while, but very little pain. Kept on the pain medication for the next few days; worked great.
Aside from the mandatory cleaning you have to do after having wisdom teeth removed, I didn't really experience much pain at all. And I'm the kind of person that's extremely on-edge even about simple cleanings (very low pain tolerance.)
I would wholly recommend the general anesthesia. I don't even care if I ended up being awake for the whole thing but just don't remember it. Ignorance is bliss :)
Of course, my case was totally routine. Your mileage may vary.
Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad of an experience. I was back at work briefly the next day and then fairly normal within 48 hours.
Personally the idea of going under seemed like an unnecessary risk given that being awake was an option. Price didn't have much to do with.
Local anesthesia and very loud Flogging Molly did the trick for me (and a lot of patience, it took awhile). Didn't really feel anything.
Local anesthetic only, was a lot of work and as the surgeon got his leg up to get leverage I could feel my front teeth moving a little from the pressure.
Local anesthetic is more than sufficient.