Parents sue after teen wisdom teeth surgery death

[PlayTrumpet]

Re: Parents sue after teen wisdom teeth surgery death

Had all 4 pulled under general. All I remember is them putting those sticky things on my ankles and saying they'll try to take them off before I wake up (because I have hairy legs). And then I remember them taking them off while I was waking up but still numbed.

It was my choice to have them taken out because one of them had been pushing on my gum and it was hurting. I didn't want any of them to become infected or cause more discomfort and since my mouth is very small, the dentist and oral surgeon agreed that I should have all four removed.

My experience was probably the most common with luckily very few negative aspects. The first few hours I was home from the surgery were the worst. Changing gauze, wanting the blood to clot. After that I was very careful and lived on a liquid diet for a week - vanilla ensures and chocolate slimfasts. They helped me get my pills down.

I didn't brush with that weird orange paste stuff, or finish even half of my antibiotic regimen, but I didn't get dry socket or any other infection because I was careful and clean. My sister, who got her teeth out a week later, got dry socket, and I laughed quietly in her pain.

[who_cares973]

Re: Parents sue after teen wisdom teeth surgery death

My wisdom teeth are still coming out

[Nyokou]

Re: Parents sue after teen wisdom teeth surgery death

Scary...

I only needed my upper wisdom teeth removed, my dentist didn't pressure me at all to remove any of them though but when I asked about it he said only the upper ones would be ok to pull out.

My brother is getting his pulled out soon... but I think he's one of those rare cases that they in fact do need to be pulled out because his mouth is too small. His teeth have been a problem since he was a kid... he's been going in and out of the dentist/orthodontist for like 10+ years now

[MrGiggles]

Re: Parents sue after teen wisdom teeth surgery death

All 4 removed. I had two partially impacted wisdom teeth on the bottom causing sporadic and minor discomfort, my top teeth were fine but we decided **** it, yank em all anyway.

My wisdom teeth experience was ****ing incredible. I went into the dentists office scared witless, they gave me some nitrous or whatever and then an IV. I woke up shortly after the operation finished and walked myself out of the office to the car, felt nearly no pain or discomfort, didn't take any of the hydrocodone they prescribed (just some regular old OTC motrin), and was eating solid foods before the week was over.

Honestly one of the best dental experiences I've EVER had. Nothing but icecream, milkshakes, and video games.

[dragonmegaXX]

Re: Parents sue after teen wisdom teeth surgery death

I am being completely 100% serious, I had all 4 wisdoms taken out, and it was one of the best times I ever had.
The dentist was such a pro, I never had ANY swelling after, he let me listen to Numb by linken park on my ipod the entire time(Oh the irony), and I had a bet with the assistant that I wouldnt giggle at all from the laughing gas. Oh god was I wrong. Best stuff ever.

I literally after 20 minutes thought I was an assassin in maple story and felt like I was wandering around killing everything.

I would do it again and again.

[Reincarnate]

Re: Parents sue after teen wisdom teeth surgery death

Had four impacted wisdom teeth yanked last April. Hurt like hell for a week, lmfao. Not being able to eat properly due to the swelling was unbearable, and there is nothing quite like being awakened in the middle of the night by pain, which was interesting to me.

The procedure itself though was a snap -- slept right through it. All is great now. The holes are kinda annoying at first (food gets stuck there really easily), but they're only problematic for a month or two.

In all honesty, fear of dry socket scared me a hell of a lot more than fear of anything that could happen during the operation.

[welsh_girl]

Re: Parents sue after teen wisdom teeth surgery death

Never had one, no sign of having one come through.

I think a lot of wisdom pulling out is pointless. All for the moneyyyy.

[Reach]

Re: Parents sue after teen wisdom teeth surgery death

Well, it's oral surgery. It carries risks, although they're seriously minimal compared to pretty much every other type of surgery. If the cause of death in this case was negligence on the part of the dentists, which it probably could of been, than that is sad indeed. I would hardly let this scare you out of getting your wisdom teeth removed though.

It's a preventive surgery for something that happens to 1% of the population, but we are subjected to a preventive surgery.

Go back 100 years and essentially nobody got their wisdom teeth removed, and there weren't horrendous widespread problems.

It's much higher than 1% if you're talking about wisdom teeth that become impacted. As someone in Dental school, I've never seen a figure even remotely close to this.

Any figures I've seen show between 60% and 80% of people that have wisdom teeth will have an impacted wisdom tooth.

And it's a preventative surgery for a reason; there are serious complications that can arise from leaving them in. I don't know what you know about the history of oral disease, but it was actually a serious killer prior to the development of solid dental intervention. Gum disease, bone loss, high susceptibility to abscess and general infection (in which case you'll then need them removed anyway because it's not like you're getting an endo) are some basic ones. This completely excludes the fact that the vast majority of people don't have room in their jaw for their wisdom teeth and even if they do erupt properly they can lead to crowding and malocclusion (which will cost you way more time and effort to fix than a simple extraction...). So, if you're a Dentist and you're looking at some kid's panoramic x-rays and it looks like his wisdoms are going to be impacted or that there will be crowding and other assorted complications if they do erupt, you make the call to have them removed to be on the safe side.


I've been in the oral surgery clinic and have had the pleasure of watching oralmaxillofacial surgery performed on someone that decided it would be a good idea to leave them in despite a Dentist's recommendation against it. They had Ludwig's Angina, which is *fatal* if not surgically treated because the tooth becomes severely infected and the infection spreads into localized submandibular spaces (and eventually into your thorax).

Great.


Sure, they can be left in in some people and you don't always have to do them, but it's hardly a bad idea to get them removed when there's a decent chance of complication. Especially when the complication rate from this surgery is really, really low (try comparing it to complication rates for other surgeries...)

[MrGiggles]

Re: Parents sue after teen wisdom teeth surgery death

That noise you just heard was Reach droppin knowledge on this thread.

[Reincarnate]

Re: Parents sue after teen wisdom teeth surgery death

I don't know much about the specifics of oral history, but I do know that it was a huge killer. Chris Hitchens had once said that a big contributor to short life expectancy was poor oral health, leading to people "dying of their teeth." When you've got all sorts of oral complications (eroded teeth, gum disease, infections, etc), it's pretty hard to life a long, healthy life.

[DotKritic]

Re: Parents sue after teen wisdom teeth surgery death

That noise you just heard was Reach droppin knowledge on this thread.

So much knowledge, you can hear a pin drop.

[Choofers]

Re: Parents sue after teen wisdom teeth surgery death

my wisdom teeth came is perfectly straight (or so the dentist told me) so that's one less way to die I have to worry about

[Ickalanda]

Re: Parents sue after teen wisdom teeth surgery death

It's much higher than 1% if you're talking about wisdom teeth that become impacted. As someone in Dental school, I've never seen a figure even remotely close to this.

Just because they are impacted doesn't mean they have to be removed. One of mine is impacted but it isn't doing anything wrong in my mouth and my dentist has now agreed with me that it does not have to be removed.

Sure you can say it's not a bad idea to have them removed, but my main problem with it is how heavily they were trying to pressure me into doing it, when there wasn't even a threat to me.

They were trying to pressure me into this surgery that costs a significant amount of money and results in a profit for them, when I didn't even need it. That is my main problem with it.

[Reincarnate]

Re: Parents sue after teen wisdom teeth surgery death

Just because they are impacted doesn't mean they have to be removed. One of mine is impacted but it isn't doing anything wrong in my mouth and my dentist has now agreed with me that it does not have to be removed.

Sure you can say it's not a bad idea to have them removed, but my main problem with it is how heavily they were trying to pressure me into doing it, when there wasn't even a threat to me.

They were trying to pressure me into this surgery that costs a significant amount of money and results in a profit for them, when I didn't even need it. That is my main problem with it.

A tooth can be fine now but problematic later

[Reach]

Re: Parents sue after teen wisdom teeth surgery death

Just because they are impacted doesn't mean they have to be removed. One of mine is impacted but it isn't doing anything wrong in my mouth and my dentist has now agreed with me that it does not have to be removed.

Sure you can say it's not a bad idea to have them removed, but my main problem with it is how heavily they were trying to pressure me into doing it, when there wasn't even a threat to me.

They were trying to pressure me into this surgery that costs a significant amount of money and results in a profit for them, when I didn't even need it. That is my main problem with it.

This is true. From studies I've read, only about 20% of impacted teeth *need* to be removed.

And I appreciate your problem. A dentist shouldn't pressure you into anything. A Dentist should give you his professional and educated advice on a matter and let you make a choice.


My main problem with your post was citing false figures. 1% simply isn't true. It's more like, if ~66% of people have impacted wisdom teeth, then we can expect ~13% of the general population to develop serious oral problems because of their wisdom teeth, which is...13x higher than the number you cite. It was misleading.

And as Reincarnate just said, serious problems can develop later if they are left, especially in patients that are not into the Dentist for regular checkups. The problem being, if you play the wait and see game in a situation where problems could arise, and you don't deal with them immediately, they can turn into really big problems. I listed plenty of them in my previous post.