Hi catra,
My first question is... why did you have both sides of your mouth done at the same time? Was it your decision or the dentist recommendation? What and how are you eating?
It's different to have 4 wisdom teeth removed because they are way in the back and eating is difficult but can be done more easily than what you must be experiencing.
The pain you are having on the left side can be due to any number of things. Yes, it can be more painful post operative when you have 2 teeth side by side removed at the same time. But I'm wondering if your getting food trapped in some of these areas. Also, it has to be difficult to brush your teeth properly with all these open wounds. Which means that you may be building up plaque around adjacent teeth which could cause throbbing pain and inflammation. You also could be developing dry socket(s)... especially in the area where the 2 teeth were extracted.
With regard to the pain meds...... if you are not accustom to taking these meds, then you have not built up a tolerance to them. Therefore, you really may not need all of that. Someone who routinely takes pain meds.... advil, motrin, tylenol .. etc.... builds up a tolerance that would require them to take more to achieve pain control. But others like yourself, can usually get away with half of the recommended dosage with no problem. This way you could always increase the dosage if necessary. I really dislike when dentists prescribe such large amounts of meds... they really need to ask the patient what their OTC habits are before prescribing.
With regard to rinsing.... warm salt water 3-4 times a day until all of the wounds have closed over. No mouthwash what so ever because they ingredients in them can actually disturb the healing and cause problems.
If you are still in throbbing pain (or you feel you have food trapped in any of the wounds) by tomorrow, Monday, go see the dentist to rule out dry socket. Did you have these done by an oral surgeon or a general dentist? Also, if you were icing the areas.... definitely stop. That is only recommended for the first 24 hours and can be a hindrance if done longer than that.
Let us know how you're doing.....
Bryanna
Quote:
Originally Posted by catra121
Hi everyone. This is my first time posting here in the dentistry forum (regular member on the RSD forum).
On Monday I had 4 teeth pulled, two on the lower left side, one on the lower right, and one on the upper left. The dentist told me to take 2 Tylenol and 2 Advil every 4 hours for pain. How long is the pain typically this bad? I'm sure it's normal to still be hurting but at what point should I become concerned. I thought by now I could at least cut back on the pills (I don't take any pain meds for my RSD so my tolerance is pretty high for pain generally). But I find that at the 4 hour mark my mouth (the left side mostly) is just pure agony and I HAVE to take something for it...and even then it sometimes takes a while for the relief to kick in.
I really don't like taking so much medicine...been there done that with the RSD and it concerns me. I don't think a week will kill me or anything but I guess I just want to make sure this is normal for having teeth pulled. When I had my 4 impacted wisdom teeth out (years ago...when I was a teenager) I was feeling normal about 2 days later. I'm guessing it's worse because the two on my lower left side where it hurts the most were side by side plus the one on the top over there too. The right side really isn't bothering me at all...but that left side is just a killer.
Thanks for any advice or assurances about this. I'm not scheduled to go back to the dentist until Feb 21st to follow up on the work they did Monday...but if I need to call sooner than that then I will.
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