Got 4 of my wisdom teeth extracted by Dr. Cavaretta last month and I can't be happier! Two of my bottoms were impacted and I've been holding this procedure off for say, over 10 years!
Office: Very nice and clean with professional staff- and its Bee Caves so I'd hold them to a higher standard. I really liked Page (?) in the front, she's super sweet and really took the time to talk me through all my nerves and she has a smoothing aura to her; it shows that she truly cares for the patients (even the neurotic-scared-of-everything-dental ones such as myself).
Surgery: I arrived around noon, they gave me a nice soft t-shirt to change in to. Once I was taken back they hooked me up to some monitors and also took my blood pressure. I requested for nitrous gas to calm my nerves before I was given an IV as I've never gotten one before. My nurse was super sweet also, always made eye contact to make sure I wasn't too freaked out, followed with many reassuring words. Dr. C came in, gave me the gas, set up the IV, my boyfriend was able to come back and kiss me goodnight, then bam, I woke up in a recovery room with my boyfriend aside me. I don't know if it was still my nerves or something but right when I woke up I felt a little throbbing pain on the right side of my jaw and requested more numbing injections. Looking back, it was probably all in my head since I know I was already given very strong numbing shots during the procedure. But he came nonetheless, gave me more injections on the right side and even ordered an x-ray right away to make sure all was ok- and it was. =) I left the office with two small gauges in the back of my mouth and an ice pack to cool off my cheeks.
Recovery: 2 hours after surgery I was home on the couch eating porridge and watching TV. Make sure you eat; don't take the pain meds on an empty stomach. After I ate, I very very gently rinse my mouth with salt water then I put 2 new moisten gauges back over the wound and firmly bit down. About 4 hours later (around 7pm, Friday) when I tried to replace the gauges, there was a small blood clot that came out with one of my gauges. I immediately freaked out thinking I'd get dry socket since a clot was dislodge!! (dramatic, I know) I called the office- it was after hours so the machine gave me an emergency number to call. Dr. Perkins answered and said for me to not use the gauge anymore and I should be fine. He was very nice and kind. 5 minutes later, Dr. C called to check up on me! Not sure if they have some caller ID system at the office or what but he did mention that he would call on the first night to check up. So that was very nice of him and he told me the same thing Dr. P had. For the next week, I just ate very soft foods such as mash potatoes, La Madeline potato soup with soggy bread, ice cream, rice soup with spam- yes spam! I cut it into small pieces after frying it and just swallowed the pieces whole; lots of flavor and no chewing necessary. The following week I came in for a 30min check-up. A nurse showed me how to flush my sockets out with a syringe and then Dr. C came in to check the wounds.
Overall: I would say the whole experience was at most, unpleasant. Never did I have excruciating pain, or even moderate pain. For the first 2-3 days I was just very sore, heavy-headed and nauseous. The nausea was mainly due to the pain killers but I was very adamant about taking them so it was a burden I was ready to bear. Some say not to take the pain meds until you feel pain, but common, why would you wait to feel pain!? I just slowly decreased the amount of the pain meds every day but continued to take the Ibuprofen and anti-biotics.
Hope my experience helps anyone who's hesitant about getting their wisdom teeth extracted. Being that I'm almost 30 and it was my first time ever having any type of surgery I was very pleasantly surprised. It's so worth it in the long run =) I was also given my extracted teeth!!!!! There's two top teeth and the two bottom teeth split into 4 pieces in a sealed plastic bag; it looks so gnarly! I show it to all my guest. LOL read more