EDIT; I can’t reply to everyone individually but thanks for all the suggestions! Opiates are out of the question, doctors here will only prescribe those in terms of absolutely extreme suffering or end of life care. I also don’t particularly feel interested in developing a hard drug habit. Diclofenac and such are available but also only on separate prescriptions, I’d have to visit another doctor for that. I’m well stocked on paracetamol & ibuprofen, and apart from that, lots of ice cream, pudding & soup :)
Also, since a fair few people seem to doubt the veracity of my story, here’s the 22 extracted teeth (the other 10 were already gone in previous extractions).
Hi. You’ve gotten a lot of comments already. I hope this one is not lost in the pile.
When I was 39 I had all my remaining teeth extracted in one go. There were somewhere between 12 and 18, since many were remnants and not whole teeth.
Due to the fact that previously in my life I had addictions of many kinds, mostly alcohol and meth related, I was not prescribed opiates. When the procedure was done, I was awake and given only a local anesthetic.
After they were removed, I was given Amoxicillin (antibiotic) and Prednisone (steriod). They recommended I take Ibuprofen and to avoid acetaminophen (same as paracetamol i think). The latter due to many over the counter versions of it have caffiene. That brings me to my first advice.
Avoid caffeine at all costs. It will increase your pain, make you edgier and you may grind your gums in your sleep. Check your paracetamol packaging, make sure it does not have caffeine. You might want to avoid it regardless because it can irritate your stomach lining and you’ll be swallowing a lot of blood which increases your chance of vomiting.
If you vomit, you will almost certainly get dry socket.
You do not want dry socket.
Ice cream is painful. Anything too cold or too hot is painful. Soup should be room temperature.
Bouillon cubes aren’t bad, if you can get liquid soup stock or broth, it works better.
Do not eat breads for at least a week or two. It sticks to you clots. That can easily lead to dry socket.
You do not want dry socket.
Same thing with (american) bananas. They might seem perfect but they can cause dry socket potentially from their stickiness.
I have had dry socket. Once from smoking cigarettes. Once from being clumsy with a spoon. It was the worst pain of my life until I had to pass a few kidney stones.
Avoid foods that require cooking. You don’t want to cook.
One a day shakes should be your new best friend. Meal replacement shakes. Here in the states they come in chocolate and vanilla and don’t taste terrible. Brands include Ensure, Boost, Slimfast and a ton of others. They are packed with protein. They often have vitamins in them too. You can just pour the shake right into the back of your gullet. Bypass your gums and tongue entirely.
Another medication to consider is sleeping pills. I’m spelling them wrong but see if you can get Amitryptaline or Tramadol. Sleep as much as you can while your body heals.
Water, water, water.
Drink at least 2 liters a day. Never drink more than 1 liter in an 8 hour period because water poisoning is very uncomfortable. If your pee is clear, you don’t need to drink water for awhile. The better hydrated you are, the faster you will heal. Drink a lot of water after drinking one of those meal replacement shakes if you can find them. Your body will absorb the water better. Same applies to the soup stock.
On that note, shower. If it is too painful, take a bath. Again, this helps you stay hydrated, plus is will improve your mood possibly, which in itself can ease the pain.
Move. Walk around the block if you can. You want to get your heart rate up and keep it up for about 15 minutes, twice a day. Again, this helps your body heal faster. Walking is great unless you are a daily runner, in which case run. Walking is enough for most people.
A perfect routine would be:
- Wake up. Drink some water.
- Drink a protein shake and some water. Take your medications with them.
- Walk around the block. Or if unsafe or to pained, walk in place. Get that heart rate up.
- Shower or bath.
- Go back to sleep.
- Repeat 3-4x per day, depending on how much you can sleep. It gets harder to sleep the more your do it. The exercise helps a lot.
I am not a dentist or medical professional.
I am not a professional of any kind.
This advice is all from personal experience.
Here’s some useless personal information that can be skipped:
December of 2021 when my teeth were all removed. Since then I have gotten dentures. They didn’t fit and hurt to wear and needed adjustments, but the dentist that made them quit the business a week after I got them. Other dentists would not take my insurance or work on them for liability purposes. Sucks being in america. I opted to get implants instead. I’m supposed to have a full set of teeth in about a month, at age 42, for the first time in my entire adult life.
Good luck. May dry socket never happen to you.
Edit after reading a few of the comments here.
Fuck these naysayers that think you’re making this up. Even if you are, fuck 'em. Trying to shit on a person while they are already down. No benefit at all, just cynics, they’re disgusting.
I’m going to add that my teeth were in terrible shape long before I had addiction problems. My dental problems were due to braces getting fucked up and mangled beyond belief by a scammy dentist/ortho.
Medicaid and Medicare can be free healthcare in the states. While I don’t think OP is in the states, it is a thing that the poorest of people can receive and the care is exactly what you pay for. All the questions about speaking to a doctor or the dentist about pain management are laughable, knowing that for the poor in the states, that simply doesn’t happen in many areas.
People saying OP deserved it from not brushing or questions about how one could need a full extraction at age 40 are ignorant and can’t summon even the smallest bit of empathy. These types along with the naysayers can go fuck off back to reddit or 4chan or whereever they came from. They are not adding to the conversation.
If you have read all this, anyone not just OP, I hope you have a nice day.
Thank you for the advice, you’ve made me realize I’m unintentionally given myself a dry socket.
Can not 2nd how much pain I was in, you wish the pain were so intense you’d simply black out. You won’t though
Fantastic writeup!
A teeny tiny correction, taking a bath will in fact dehydrate you (only a small bit, unless you have a Swimmingpool and move, then it’ll dehydrate you much more)
I read all this. God damn, I thought root canal procedure was a pain…
Fantastic advice man, best of luck for your implants
Did you and your doctor not have this conversation!?
Or are you more inclined to listen to the internet over the person who’s job it is to pull all your teeth out of your head?
Answer: Oxy.
Entirely this. Where is your health care provider in this conversation???
You should have been sent home with antibiotics, pain killers, and a ream of after care instructions.
It was probably Aspen Dental.
Your comment made my teeth hurt. IYKYK.
I have no useful advice but much sympathy.
I still don’t understand how a lot of our organs evolved to self repair and generally be so sophisticated but our teeth need so much care to avoid pain and infection.
The human diet changed so quickly and the ability to do things about tooth pain and infection aside from dying means that there isn’t really evolutionary pressure in most of the world for teeth to meet the current “needs”, as it were.
Sugar fucks you up.
Our teeth do much better when we eat a diet that’s more in line with our evolution. Check out pictures of primal tribes. They very often have beautiful smiles.
I was under the impression that people in primal tribes just die before this becomes a massive problem
Not really AFAIK they still get up to 50-60, it’s just the ungodly amount of child deaths that pull down the average to like 30
+1 wondering why someone in their 40s had to have all teeth extracted. I’m really sorry.
I’ve had issues with my teeth almost since birth. My parents both had full dentures by ages 25 or so. It was definitely a combination of genetics and bad oral hygiene. I was actually glad to get them all out now because I’ve suffered from debilitating pain for weeks at least once or twice every single year of my life.
I feel you. I grew up on well water (no fluoride), have a genetic predisposition for terribly crooked teeth, and wasn’t taught basic oral hygiene until I was legally an adult.
I’ve had several extractions but every time it has been either an abscess or an impacted tooth, so just the relief from that pain was almost like a drug itself. About half my teeth are fake at this point and the ones that are left are in pretty good shape because they weren’t too far gone when I actually learned how to properly take care of them.
fluoride in water doesn’t do much to prevent tooth decay.
the fluoride in toothpaste is what does all heavy lifting.
Sorry about that dude! This doesn’t help with the pain right now, but they’ve just started human trials on a new therapy that re-enables your tooth buds, allowing you to grow a new set of adult teeth. Maybe it’ll be available soonish 🤞
https://www.newsnationnow.com/health/tooth-regrow-drug-dental-health/
I hope this becomes available before my teeth start having problems… Now that I think about it, I think I’ll go brush my teeth now.
Did your dentist not give you that advice?
Actually no, I found the entire process to be incredibly rushed and the communication was bad to nonexistent. But that’s “free healthcare” for you. Even in places where medical issues don’t bankrupt you, the only way to get a truly seamless experience is to go to a private clinic and pay everything out of pocket.
Just to say - this has not been my experience of free healthcare. Not all of it has been great, but most of it has.
Hey, you can come here to the states, pay out the ass for it, even with insurance…and still have the same experience. Long waits, lack of communication, and Doctors that are so booked they give you the once over in 10mins after you have waited on them for hours…
Why tf is the OP’s comment to a reasonable question being downvoted so hard?
Because they state that free healthcare is automatically bad healthcare. Which, as a general statement, is just wrong.
Free Healthcare is a broad term for dozens of different policies in dozens of different countries. Just because OP’s specific country has problems, doesn’t mean that every single implementation of free healthcare leads to bad healthcare. Also a similar rhetoric is used as a dog whistle by the far right in the USA.
Additionally they are using a specific question about their situation, to rant about a much broader topic. This soapboxing called behaviour is generally frowned upon.
So the comment in isolation is wrong, attention seeking & looks like written by someone who is something between a manchild, that is unable/unwilling to present a nuanced opinion, and a nazi. All of which are imho criteria for a downvote.
Lol there’s even people accusing me of making it up or going to an illegal dentistry.
If you really want I can post pictures, but I warn you; they really aren’t pretty. I suppose I could also post the two or three pages of “aftercare” I got.
All in all, it seems a case of “This hasn’t ever happened to me, and it’s not my experience, so therefore, it can’t have happened to anyone, ever”. Whatever floats your boat.
Are you from Hungary?
not any more
That’s simply not true, like at all. Classic American
Holy shit… When I got my wisdom teeth out, I literally broke down in tears after being awake for 20 minutes without Percocet
Friend, it’s ok to take opiates sometimes…
Kratom could be an option. You make it into tea, the first cup is a weak stimulant, the second (on an empty stomach) will start to work as a weak opiate. The third or fourth might give you stronger relief. The red strains are supposedly better for pain relief
You can’t OD on it, it’s commonly available in head shops or online. The addiction potential is very low, you’ll make yourself nauseous before getting what you’d get out of normal opiates. It’s most closely related to the coffee plant - the toxicity concerns are all about contamination, the plant itself is pretty innocuous
I can give brewing instructions if anyone wants to go down that path, I drink it for anxiety but others say it helps with pain management
If you can get your hands on some old viox that would help. It was amazing for tooth pain.
Those rocket icecreems Cold pack
Eat stuff you don’t have to shew… So you don t open the wounds again.
2% betadine mouth wash… Not against pain but to keep more pain away.
I love the 1000 paracetamol with codeine alternated with brufen 600.
In a day or 2 it will be beter. Hang on.
I had 6 teeth removed at once. I can remember the pain. I found crushed or blended ice was helpful and doesn’t have risk of getting stuck.
It will be okay. Setting your expectations will help mentally. It’s still really rough. Did they prescribe you anything in terms of pain management?
OTC: Tylenol didn’t touch the pain. Ibuprofen helped some but was still pretty mild.
I don’t have much advice to offer, but I wish you the best
I do have a friend who self medicates with marijuana and CBD products for pain management. They have a number of undiagnosed and late diagnosed health problems they’re working through that cause different kinds of pain. Depending on local legality and availability that could be an option. Just keep dosage extremely low of you’ve never tried it before, as in single digit milligrams low dosage as the side effects of too high of a dose can be unpleasant
I don’t know what your dentist is on (he must be high on something) to agree to remove all your teeth at once.
I had all my wisdom teeth pulled and they did that two per side, as otherwise the sedative would relax the tounge muscle, which might cause you to choke. After that I got sent home with a big stack of painkillers (NSAIDS, no opiates).
I’d look for a different dentist tbh, but thats a bit late now.
OP likely had a disgusting rotting mouth, with deep gingival pockets-of-pus, from never flossing and brushing their fucking teeth.
My friend is a periodontal surgeon and tells me the most horrendously disgusting shit people tolerate (sometimes with photos) and that level of extraction that OP is complaining about sounds close to one of his very gory horrific descriptions of people neglecting simple oral hygiene.
My stepfather has constant, disgusting mouth infections because he eats terribly, never cares for his teeth, and smokes. Bro had a pocket of puss inside his mouth that made him look like he was keeping a golfball in his mouth. He won’t go to a dentist because he claims his mouth can’t be numbed. He says it just doesn’t work. In reality, he’s just scared. Man never goes to a doctor for anything because he’s scared.
OP a lot of people are advising you to COMBINE ibuprofen and acetaminophen.
DO NOT MIX THESE TWO DRUGS; INSTEAD, ALTERNATE THEM
You can alternate them, taking ibuprofen, then later taking acetaminophen.
But don’t mix them. I’m sorry for spamming the allcaps throughout this thread but there is very dangerous medical advice being given.
They sell ibuprofen with acetaminophen at the pharmacy, off the shelf, so that’s not an issue.
It is recommended to alternate between the two so that you are always under the effect of either one and it reduces the pain throughout the day, instead of having big spikes of pain/no-pain.
It’s perfectly safe to take them at the same time and was the exact advice given to me after having my wisdom teeth extracted. You can even buy medication that has both ingredients, like Excedrin. One is metabolized by the kidneys and the other by the liver.
This combination is actually shown to work better than opiates for dental pain
I mean you can combine them, if the pain is expected to be short term, but in OP’s case the pain is likely to be longer term, where alternating may be a better choice. For example Excedrin is a combo of acetaminophen, NSAID (aspirin), and caffeine.
Yeah Combogesic is an example of combined ibuprofen and acetaminophen. Advil also makes a combo of the two as well. The main issue to keep track of what you’re taking and take care that you don’t exceed the daily dose for each. That’s something to watch out for whether you take them separately or in combination with one another.
I had a friend do this. It was utter misery for over a year. Most of his teeth were shattered, so he had to wait for a lot of fragments to expel naturally.
Do not discount pain management that involves opioids. Not saying to use them for weeks nor do I know your personality for bad habits, but if it gets bad please don’t suffer for no reason. Getting ibuprofen or acetaminophen with low dose codine may be a good middle ground and is even available over the counter in some countries. Extended pain is mentally exhausting and isn’t worth the hit on your mental health.
f you are struggling taking pills, get liquid ibuprofen. Sometimes you can get a chemist to make a suspension for you, otherwise get childrens. I do that if my throat gets too infected and I am unable to swallow. Honestly, it works far better than the pills and I needed a lot less.
Best thing is to be honest with your doctors, even if you do not want anything stronger. Be sure to communicate any discomfort due to ill fitting dentures. Ask questions if anything unexpected comes up. My friend’s doctor was super shitty and didn’t even tell him about all of the left over fragments that still had to come out on their own.
