Does It Hurt to Have Your Wisdom Teeth Removed?
Key takeaways:
Wisdom teeth removal is a procedure in which the dentist takes out one or more of your wisdom teeth. These are the last set of molars at the back of your mouth.
These teeth often cause problems, such as pain, infection, or crowding, because there isn’t enough space for them to grow properly.
Adults who have had their wisdom teeth removed describe some swelling and discomfort, but usually for just a few days.
Dental work is something that people rarely look forward to. Sometimes, it can become unavoidable because of the direction your teeth are growing.
As an adult, your third molars — known as your wisdom teeth — can become problematic. They come in last and often make their presence known.
Not everyone has wisdom teeth, and others live with them without issue. But adults often get their wisdom teeth removed because of overcrowding, tooth decay, or pain. Sometimes it is done to prevent other dental problems.
Here’s how three people describe what it feels like — and how much it hurts — to have your wisdom teeth removed.
Dealing with unbearable pain
For Krista Gugliotti, a 39-year-old publicist in Connecticut, getting wisdom teeth out was part of growing up. “It’s one of those things that nobody looks forward to, but it’s part of life,” she says.
Even though her friends had had the procedure, Krista avoided it. When she was around 26 years old, she started to have swelling around her left bottom back molar.
The pain was annoying, but Krista didn’t think much of it. She saw a dentist, who said the wisdom tooth was infected and needed to come out. The X-rays showed that the tooth was impacted.
Krista got the tooth removed. But her dentist grazed a nerve, which resulted in tremendous pain.
“It wasn’t like an acute soreness,” she says. “It was a very broad, dull pounding ache.”
For 5 days, she was in constant pain. She had trouble sleeping, and the only relief was holding an ice pack on her cheek all day. The dentist then gave Krista a shot of Toradol (ketorolac), a non-narcotic anti-inflammatory medication, for the excruciating pain.
That injection provided instant relief, but only for a short while, Krista says. It took about 3 ½ weeks for her pain to finally subside from getting one wisdom tooth removed.
Krista says it taught her the importance of researching complications and trusting your doctor.
“I thought it was gonna be a simple in and out, a week of a little bit of discomfort,” she says. “And it ended up being really treacherous and [was] one of the worst recoveries I’ve ever had.”
How long does it take to recover from having your wisdom teeth removed? Experts say about 2 weeks.
How much does it cost to have your wisdom teeth removed? Expect to pay $200 to $1,100 per tooth.
Does Medicaid cover dental care? That varies from state to state.
Keeping the area clean
Dan Collins, 61, a senior director of media relations for Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, got all four wisdom teeth removed in the 1990s.
There was no pain that necessitated it, but he knew he had to get them out. He recalls being awake during the procedure and having a local anesthetic to numb the area of his molars.
“It was clear that it was different than anything I had experienced before because there were a lot of crunching noises and whatnot as they were trying to pull these things out,” he says.
But the worst part came a week later, when he noticed something strange.
“Driving home from work one night, I felt like it was swelling again,” he says. He called his dentist to see if his face reswelling was normal. The dentist told him to come in the next day.
When the dentist examined Dan’s mouth, he said Dan had something called “garbage can syndrome.” Bacteria had gotten into the open holes and created an infection. The dentist flushed the area and prescribed antibiotics.
Dan wasn’t aware that was a potential side effect of wisdom teeth removal. Looking back, he says, “You’ve got these spaces open in your head. Anything gets stuck down in there, and you could have some real problems.”
Fortunately, Dan says, his dentist knew exactly what to do, and the swelling went down. Dan’s advice to others is to “be cognizant of it and do whatever the doctor tells you to keep the area clean.”
The importance of your health history
Khristee Rich, a 50-year-old entrepreneur in Ridgefield, Connecticut, has always been scared by the idea of teeth extraction.
As a teenager, she had teeth removed for braces, and she says it felt like a near-death experience. Her body did not respond well to laughing gas, and the procedure was incredibly painful.
That bad ordeal made Khristee put off getting her wisdom tooth removed. Going through another surgical experience felt risky.
After many years, she got X-rays at the dentist. It showed that her impacted wisdom tooth on the bottom left was decaying. Her dentist said it would be hard to clean and could cause decay on her other teeth.
She saw an oral surgeon, but she says she didn’t feel that he was listening when she explained her previous bad experience. Khristee says she is also sensitive to medication and was “very afraid to have the surgery because I was like, ‘I don’t know the side effects I’m going to have.’”
In October 2023, Khristee had her wisdom tooth removed by a different surgeon, recommended by her dad. “I expressed all my fears, [and the new surgeon] was compassionate and understanding,” she says.
The medical staff played meditative music and sedated Khristee before the surgery. “Then, all of a sudden, I woke up very quickly. And I was like, ‘OK, are you guys gonna start now?’ And they said, ‘We’re all finished.’”
It was a very different experience from the first time, and Khristee says she felt relieved. Being in the right mindset and expressing her concerns made a difference.
“Find someone who you can trust and feel comfortable with and who will listen to you and your health history,” she says.
Khristee took antibiotics and Advil (ibuprofen) during her recovery. She returned to work after 2 days.
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“I was a little tired, so I did allow myself to nap over the weekend and take it easy, but [there was] no pain at all,” she says.
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