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).
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.
Yeah first thing I thought, too. “Have you tried asking somebody who does this professionally? Like, oh I don’t know, THE SURGEON?!”
It was probably Aspen Dental.
Your comment made my teeth hurt. IYKYK.
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
I read all this. God damn, I thought root canal procedure was a pain…
Fantastic advice man, best of luck for your implants
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 was not aware of bathing causing dehydration but I can see how it makes sense. Thanks for the correction!
I have no useful advice but much sympathy.
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…
Dental eugenol, it’s a fairly powerful local analgesic made from clove oil. Some people have adverse reactions to it and so it isn’t used as frequently as it used to. So I would recommend applying it in a small test area before applying it more liberally.
You can buy it online fairly cheaply.
Are you from Hungary?
not any more
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.
That’s simply not true, like at all. Classic American
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idk man, that’s been my experience in Finland between the public and private healthcare. The public one is completely free, yes, but it’s also sometimes rather shit in some things. It’s usually pretty good for most things, and free cancer care and whatnot. But psychiatry, dentistry, eh… not as great.
Buut… the difference between a public and a private dentist is night and day. I have gotten good care in the public system as well, but I’ve never got bad care from private, whereas I’ve had horrible experiences in the public system. A few good ones, but mostly bad.
I have free healthcare, but I still dropped a grand on dentistry. For one because the public healthcare wouldn’t fix cosmetic issues, and I had a bit of dental calculus in a tooth so it looked like I always had a small piece of oregano stuck on a teeth or something. I was comfortable with money at the time so I payed for laughing gas and to all cavities and whatnot. Good service, pretty expensive. But before that I had avoided the dentist for a few years because of an extremely painful experience with the last public dentist I went to.
+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.
Similar issues (no floride as a kid, natually crooked). I floated the idea of getting mine replaced all together with my dentist a couple months ago. She advised against it, said it would change the sense of taste / food taste. I dunno if that’s accurate, but it put me off the idea for a bit.
My brother had his removed a few years ago (he spent years dipping tobacco). He looked like he’d been in a car wreck with serious bruising under his eyes. I don’t know how long he had that look as I was visiting and didn’t see the full recovery.
I just replaced mine as they were abscessed or impacted and I didn’t notice a change, but that was over several years. I would have died in the middle ages.
If you can afford it I recommend getting the worst of them replaced with implants. If you can’t then get some partial dentures to replace whatever you’ve lost. It will help both your confidence and quality of life.
fluoride in water doesn’t do much to prevent tooth decay.
the fluoride in toothpaste is what does all heavy lifting.
Fluoride in water can help if you’re not taught proper care and feeding of teeth, but you are right. The fluoride in toothpaste is what should be doing the heavy lifting.
Thanks for sharing - I’m glad to know this is an improvement for you in spite of everything. I hope the pain eases soon!
I’m in a similar situation. Have tried to get where you’re at, but have been quoted in the $30,000 price range. There is no insurance that covers any of that cost, and they all want payment up front.
Any suggestions?
It was definitely a combination of genetics and bad oral hygiene.
I’m in the same boat. 35 and half of them are already gone, my mum had them all removed when she was 40. My dentist is not crazy enough to take them out all at once though, that sounds insanely painful. I hope you’ll get through it soon.
I’m so sorry to hear about the pain. Doctors don’t take oral pain seriously enough.
Don’t forget you can ice it too. Alternating ibuprofen/acetominophen thing is your best bet outside of more serious pain meds, but ice is effective for numbing pain.
Are you doing “all on 4”?
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.
fyi tylenol is a brand name drug of paracetamol (or in the US i believe acetaminophen)
i believe it and ibuprofen relieve different causes of pain, and in australia we’re advised that both paracetamol/acetaminophen and ibuprofen work well in conjunction
… also ibuprofen and caffeine are acrually a great combo for pain relief! so much so they they sell the combination as a product
I had 8 teeth pulled at once, many years ago. I couldn’t take Tylenol 3s as they made me sick. I did my best with ibuprofen and acetaminophen (one Motrin, one Tylenol extra strength). My father kept me distracted as much as possible. His advice was to keep your mind distracted as it can help with the pain.
Yeah this is a good option - too much ibuprofen is harmful, as is too much acetaminophen. But you can take both together and get double the pain relief.
NO DO NOT TAKE THEM TOGETHER.
You need to alternate them. Taking them together creates negatively synergistic effects which ruins your health.
FOR ANYONE READING DO NOT MIX IBUPROFEN AND ACETAMINOPHEN
As I said lower down, you can take ibuprofen and acetaminophen (paracetamol) together . It’s advised you wait an hour after you take one type before you take the other to see if the first medication works well enough. There are even medications sold as a combination of both. What detrimental “synergistic effects” are you talking about?
that’s SO wrong… in australia our doctors and surgeons FREQEUENTLY tell us to take both ibuprofen and paracetamol (which is what most of the world calls acetaminophen) together
perhaps you’re thinking of taking <brand name> and <other brand name or generic form of>
ie do not take tylenol and paracetamol/acetaminophen, since they’re the same and you’re double dosing
to add:
too much paracetamol/acetaminophen causes liver damage
too much ibuprofen effects your stomach, intestines, and kidneys
their overdose effects are different
0Further down this user realized they didn’t really remember the name of which meds to not mix and may have been thinking of aspirin/ibuprofen …lol
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Bad teeth since my early youth - mostly genetic coupled with insufficient oral hygiene.
I’m not getting veneers or implants since I can’t afford those (I was quoted 34K €, which is just slightly below my annual salary). Once my gums heal, it’ll be the cheapest dentures I can find since nothing is covered until age 50.
sorry to hear man. I hope getting them removed ends up being better for you overall.
34k?!, not sure where in EU you are but maybe consider looking at price to have it done in a cheaper country, somewhere in eastern or southern Europe?
Do what I did as a kid getting my wisdom teeth removed. Have your mother steal the prescription meds and then suffer for two weeks with Tylenol.
Whenever i think i had a bad childhood, i’ll think back to that very comment.
I could tell you about the drunken screaming too if it’ll help lol
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
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.
he claims his mouth can’t be numbed
This is a thing. My wife has to get lots of extra shots of the gum numbing stuff. Her first dentist as a kid didn’t believe her that she could still feel and it caused her huge trauma.
I’m guessing your wife might be a redhead and/or has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome as both groups are resistant to certain types of local anesthesia. I have the latter and novocaine does next to nothing for me without using massive volumes.
Assuming I’m vaguely correct, if she hasn’t done so already, consider trying articaine, bupivacaine, or mepivacaine. I explained my situation to my dentist and he allowed me to trial each before jumping into dental work. Articaine was the first we tried and it works great for me.
Here’s the article I provided as evidence I’m not just crazy: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6834718/
We have found a bunch of sedation dentists for my stepfather and he always cancels appointments last minute. His mouth is literally rotting. I can’t comprehend how he can be okay with his mouth being in that state. It could kill him so easy
Alternating the paracetamol and ibuprofen on a schedule is the best recommendation I can give. Severe pain, especially post-operative pain, is best managed by taking the pain meds before the pain sets in. The ibuprofen is also an NSAID and the swelling and inflammation are big contributors to pain.
The schedule that I always recommend is:
- 0800: 650-1000mg paracetamol (acetaminophen)
- 1200: 600-800mg ibuprofen
- 1600: 650-1000mg paracetamol (acetaminophen)
- 2000: 600-800mg ibuprofen
- (and in the first day or two after surgery, set alarms to wake up and take pain meds at 0000 and 0400 on the same pattern if the pain is really bad.)
This pattern keeps you covered on pain control, and you can shorten the intervals to every 3 hours if this isn’t enough without exceeding daily dose limits on either medication. If you are an American reading this and you’re also taking something like Norco, make sure to account for the acetaminophen/tylenol/paracetamol that’s in those because exceeding the recommended dose on that one is bad news for your liver.
Like some other folks have said, warm saline (salt water) rinses and soft or liquid foods are going to help as well.
to add to this, i’ve been told by doctors in the past that caffeine helps the effectiveness of ibuprofen - i’d guess though same usual rules with caffeine as always; it’ll keep you awake, so don’t take it too late
i’m no doctor though - just my memory of what doctors and nurses here in australia have said
Yeah, caffeine is a good vasoconstrictor, so it can help with headaches that are not from something like high blood pressure. Paracetamol/acetaminophen is really good for headaches on its own because it gets into the brain better.
ooooh that makes a whole lot of sense! thanks!
Omigod you poor thing.
Weed
Terrible advice unless it’s with edibles. Smoking weed (or anything else) will lead to dry socket most likely and should be avoided at all costs.
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.
