I am one of those people. The oral surgeon offered me the option of being put under for an extra $600 for the 45-minute operation. There are probably things I'd pay $800/hr for, but that wasn't one of them. He seemed kinda irritated; that meant he had to give me something like 16 shots to properly numb everything.

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.

I also recently had my wisdom teeth removed without sedation. I took some pills that the dentist prescribed to me that were supposed to really put me out of it, but I was 100% with it until about the time we got in the car to leave the dentists office. I pretty much hate having my teeth worked on. It causes me quite a bit of anxiety when normally I'm not very anxious. Whilst numbing my face, he hit a nerve 2-3 times that sent what felt like a powerful electrical jolt through my body. After that, it was a quite a physical process with the dentist even propping himself against my arm at one point to rip those suckers out. I had put the process off for about 6-8 years, but I am really happy its done and in the past. Now every time I have to get a filling, I wince quite a bit waiting for that poked nerve sensation...

I have always been a champ at the dentist probably because I was used to it growing up with all the orthodontic work. As an adult I had a wisdom tooth removed. At one point he said he had to crack it, brought out an awl-type device and leaned on it with all his weight. A tremendous crack; I saw blood squirt out of my mouth like a jet, and thought it was hilarious.

However, I can't put things into my eye at all. Karmic.

But is it safe?

For me this is one of those things that I would definitely spend $800/hour on! Not to mention that the drugs they use to put you under are amazing.

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.

> the smell of bits of it cooking

Can you explain this part? I'm considering my wisdom teeth pulled out.

I had crown lengthening done once. The procedure is basically cutting away your gum to expose more of the bottom of the tooth (gives more surface area for a crown to attach). The "cutting" with a laser, so it's basically just burning away the gums. I could see actual smoke rising out of my mouth and it distinctly smelled like cooking bacon. It was very surreal because I didn't FEEL anything.

Cauterization of the wound, I'd expect. Stops bleeding via cooking you.

Huh, that's actually pretty accurate.

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'm from Scandinavia, where this is the norm.

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.)

When I got mine done (in the US) they gave me an IV of something that took care of the pain but didn't make me unconscious, and afterwards it gave me amnesia, so I can remember the fact of being aware, but not the details. Kind of like when you wake up from an epic dream, then ten minutes later you can't remember anything but how epic it was.

Yes. I did. Full extraction of upper right #2 molar.

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.

Had two of mine out last year, one impacted, one cracked.

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.

I had to have a cracked tooth pulled a couple years back after it led to an abscess. They did the procedure under local anaesthetic only.

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.)

Reading some of these makes me grateful to have gone to an oral surgeon to have all four wisdom teeth removed at once while under general anesthesia.

Yes it's loud. Since my father is a dentist, and he was keen to encourage my sister to follow in his footsteps, he had her "assist" during the procedure. (She was in high school at the time. She's now a very good dentist.) My clearest memory of the procedure is the comment, "hey let's see if he can get by with less lidocaine than usual."

I did, and even though it wasn't impacted or anything, it was still one of the worst experiences of my life. I hated every second of it. I was especially annoyed because I was 16 or 17 at the time and begged my mom to let them put me under, but she was paranoid about the anesthesia and wouldn't let me. Being a teenager, a gave her crap for a really long time afterwards, and she eventually relented and let all my siblings be put under.

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?

> I sometimes wonder if being put under is really all that much better

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 :)

It amazes some people when I tell them I had my wisdom teeth removed with only the local anesthetic, and managed the pain for the next few days with over the counter painkillers. It actually wasn't that bad. I had more pain from the braces I wore half a decade before.

Of course, my case was totally routine. Your mileage may vary.

I had two wisdom teeth removed in one session and it took the dentist just a couple of minutes, with local anesthesia and I didn't feel that much. Not sure why anyone would want general anesthesia unless it's a complicated case. As always, try to find a good dentist who has a lot of practice pulling teeth.

I have had the same exact experience. I even toughed it out with no pain killers after. It only was bothersome the first night. Needless to say I recommend this dental surgeon to anyone when the subject comes up. He was awesome.

That would be Europe. Sounds awful indeed. Especially if they won't budge and an extra tool is placed under the wisdom-tooth to be used as a lever… Root canal is done with local anesthetics as well by the way...

US as well. I was able to be put under for my most recent extraction, but only after shopping around and strong and continual insistence on my part.

Where I live in Europe dentists are pretty effective, I got 2 wisdom teeth pulled out under local anesthesia and truly did not feel a thing. Was even able to eat a light meal a few hours after.

I had mine taken out while awake (all 4 at once). I was 28 at the time.

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.

I had mine removed and opted out of being put under. I get pretty nauseous coming out of general anesthesia.

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.

I had mine out without general anesthesia, but they were fully erupted and about halfway out into position. The uppers came out in less than a minute (after local anesthesia), but the lowers took a lot of pulling.

I had a heavily impacted wisdom tooth removed from my lower mandible.

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.

> without being put under

Local anesthetic is more than sufficient.