i'm 40 years old and just had ALL my teeth extracted in one go. The pain is excruciating. Any tips for pain relief?
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).
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 🤞
I don't have much advice to offer, but I wish you the best
I do have a friend who self medicates with marijuana and CBD products for pain management. They have a number of undiagnosed and late diagnosed health problems they're working through that cause different kinds of pain. Depending on local legality and availability that could be an option. Just keep dosage extremely low of you've never tried it before, as in single digit milligrams low dosage as the side effects of too high of a dose can be unpleasant
I had an infected tooth and the pain was awful. The dentist told me to take four ibuprofen. When I mentioned the instructions said no more than two at a time he said it was okay for a short period of time.
Ibuprofen (Advil) and acetaminophen/paracetamol (Tylenol). Take max dosage but alternate them. Read the bottle and don't quote me, but it's something like 800mg ibuprofen every 8 hours and 1000mg of paracetamol every 6. So take ibuprofen, 3-4 hours later take paracetamol, then back and forth. Do not exceed 2400/4000 or whatever your bottle says.
That's the method I was taught to get the most/longest pain relief with OTC.
I recently had to deal with a very painful tooth surgery. Unsafe amounts of combined paracetamol, ibuprofen and more did not help. It hurt enough that I considered grabbing pliers and pulling my teeth out.
Eventually I was given opioid medication. I did not remember much of my time on it, but that's better than the pain
Where have you been told this? Are you perhaps confusing acetaminophen for something else? Doctors will tell you that 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 you shouldn't take ibuprofen along with other Non-steroidal anti-i inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like aspirin.
combining these is the instructions we are given in australia by doctors and surgeons. it’s not only okay, it’s RECOMMENDED to avoid needing stronger pain killers
Holy shit... When I got my wisdom teeth out, I literally broke down in tears after being awake for 20 minutes without Percocet
Friend, it's ok to take opiates sometimes...
Kratom could be an option. You make it into tea, the first cup is a weak stimulant, the second (on an empty stomach) will start to work as a weak opiate. The third or fourth might give you stronger relief. The red strains are supposedly better for pain relief
You can't OD on it, it's commonly available in head shops or online. The addiction potential is very low, you'll make yourself nauseous before getting what you'd get out of normal opiates. It's most closely related to the coffee plant - the toxicity concerns are all about contamination, the plant itself is pretty innocuous
I can give brewing instructions if anyone wants to go down that path, I drink it for anxiety but others say it helps with pain management
Not sure what's available where you're at without a prescription, but I recommend Orajel or any equivalent ulcer/tooth ache gel.
In addition to the other things you're already using, you can steep black tea bags in warm water and gently bite on that. The tannins help with bleeding and inflammation.
A mouthwash or spray with Cetylpyridinium Chloride in the ingredients list will help with healing, but don't buy a mouthwash that has alcohol/isopropyl in the ingredients. Dentyl, Oral B Gum detoxify, Parodontax, Biotene Dry Mouth Spray are all good.
I had several teeth removed from my inside my jaw that never came out and had a bone graft placed in the area that had to heal for 6 months before dental implants were placed. The mouthwash definitely helped me heal faster from that surgery than when I had my wisdom teeth out the year before and didn't use any. Just do a gentle rinse dont swish it around hard! You don't want to disturb the blood clots and get dry socket.
I had a friend do this. It was utter misery for over a year. Most of his teeth were shattered, so he had to wait for a lot of fragments to expel naturally.
Do not discount pain management that involves opioids. Not saying to use them for weeks nor do I know your personality for bad habits, but if it gets bad please don't suffer for no reason. Getting ibuprofen or acetaminophen with low dose codine may be a good middle ground and is even available over the counter in some countries. Extended pain is mentally exhausting and isn't worth the hit on your mental health.
f you are struggling taking pills, get liquid ibuprofen. Sometimes you can get a chemist to make a suspension for you, otherwise get childrens. I do that if my throat gets too infected and I am unable to swallow. Honestly, it works far better than the pills and I needed a lot less.
Best thing is to be honest with your doctors, even if you do not want anything stronger. Be sure to communicate any discomfort due to ill fitting dentures. Ask questions if anything unexpected comes up. My friend's doctor was super shitty and didn't even tell him about all of the left over fragments that still had to come out on their own.
Clove oil. You can get it in a tiny vial at the chemist. You pick off small bits of cotton, roll them into little balls, and dip into the clove oil. Wring out most of it against the side of the bottle, then place directly on the site of pain and bite.
In your case you might want to make strips of cotton or something.
It tastes absolutely horrible and will make your whole mouth numb, but it is antiseptic and will give you enough relief to sleep.
Im assuming if op had to get all his teeth removed he also can't afford the meds or the anti-drysocket paste that dentists should use to help with this pain. I could be wrong
oh man sorry i forgot about this (not american) but maybe do a donation page? Having pain, in the head nonthe less, is fucking horrible no one deserves it
I've never gone through this exactly but have had stints of prolonged pain. I really hate painkillers. I try to meditate. I try to remove my self from the pain and see it externally. Not make it disappear, just see it as separate from myself. And I try to focus on the temporary nature of it. It will pass. In time, I won't even remember how intense it was. The memory will be there, but not the detail.
I dont have an answer to your question but I do wanna say that prescription opiates are given at a dose that isn't expected to cause addiction in someone who doesn't already take these drugs. I've been prescribed opiates after every surgery I've had—usually don't take them cause I don't need them but I have done at times when the pain has been bad enough. I understand that your docs won't prescribe them though, and I don't recommend taking them without a prescription if you can't guarantee that you're getting them from a safe source.
Seriously just don’t even say it. Your Poes Law thing requires an active click to see.
OP is a person in pain, whose head is in a new configuration (which is disorienting, reducing their cognitive capacities until the proprioceptive remapping is complete).
Have you contacted your dentist to see if they will prescribe you something for pain? I had a wisdom tooth pulled yesterday (in the United States) and had the ability to request a pain medication if I needed it.
The handout I was given recommended 500 mg of acetaminophen then three hours later 600 mg of ibuprofen, repeating that throughout day. The last dose of the day (before bed?) taking both 500 mg of acetaminophen and 600 mg of ibuprofen and six hours later start alternating again.
You can give this a try but, I am just describing what I was given.
I hope this helps, good luck, and feel better soon.
Just had mine yeeted 3 weeks ago... and the pain was a relief compared to the pain I was in before... I got by the first couple of days with the oxcodone the doc prescribed in addition to 800mg ibuprofen. After 2 days or so I stopped taking the oxy and took the ibuprofen only for the next week until the big pills were gone and then periodically just taking 400mg as needed for pain. 3 weeks later and there's no more pain at all and I have started eating things a little more solid woth the dentures I got...
I don’t know where you are, but if you’re in Europe I’d get my hands on some Novalgin (illegal in the US because it isn’t addictive) other than that there’s some kind of pads for jaw operations that you put in the freezer.
I personally find pain more bearable than the cold, so no ice and a lot of sleep for me
Yeah but we're talking about a single-incident use here, the article seems to analyse reports about clinical stay usage, as in, over longer bouts of time.
Try to get some prescription painkillers, ideally opioids. None of the over-the-counter stuff even comes close. Tramadol helped me manage pain after my surgery.
Weed and ibuprofen is how I got through my tooth extraction. Mind you, it wasn't as severe as yours. But I took a large enough (but still reasonable) dose that I kinda just conked out after
You probably know this and were referring to gummies or something, but it needs to be said that smoking is not advised after a tooth extraction or pretty much any dental work. Not a great idea before hand either as the weed (in any form) can make the drugs that the dentist gives you less effective and coming down from a large dose of those can be a worse pain than the stitches in your mouth.
When my wisdom tooth were pulled the only thing that seemed to help was to double up on some otc painkillers and take them together - acetaminophen and ibuprofen together worked the best. Look into it, I’m not a doctor etc etc
Start with a low dose and work your way up. If you take too much you will puke which would be awful in your current condition.
Take the right dose and it will significantly relieve the pain. I slowly took increased doses until they started to make me feel a little woozy or get cold sweats. Then I knew my personal dose is a little less than that.
I can't stress enough though - take less at first and try a little more each time.
Either eat food with it every time or take on an empty stomach every time, but don't go back and forth unless you know your proper personal dose with and without food. It matters a lot with Kratom.
All that said, do it right and it will bring more relief than anything else I've been able to legally acquire. Absolutely do not allow yourself to take it every day once the pain is manageable. Plenty of people do... But don't do that.
Good luck. No matter what - this is only temporary. You will get through it.
My mom has chronic pain from disabilities and started taking Kratom a few years back. I tried it first to test things out before she started. We misread the instructions, and steeped about 10x more than we should have in orange juice for several hours.
I have never been so sick. OMG. It was 3 days of pure hell.
But here's the kicker, doing that with any other medication would've killed me. This just made me sick. It's a weird way to begin saying you swear by something, but I swear by the stuff. It is genuinely helpful, and it has an upper limit, so it's risk for abuse is low. Stuff is great.
Max dose of acetaminophen and max dose of ibuprofen does a good job with oral pain. Usually with that baby extractions the Dr will write a prescription for some opioid or at least toradol for a few days.
No need. They work on entirely different mechanisms of action and are metabolized differently as well. They actually work synergistically when taken together with no increased risk over taking them separately.
If you do this option, don't smoke, find some edibles. I'm pretty sure smoking right after having teeth pulled is a really bad idea (not 100% sure, but pretty sure)
You are correct. You don’t want to create suction in your mouth for a few days after having a tooth extracted. You’ll end up with something called a dry socket, which is far more excruciating than the initial pain of extraction.
Smoking can cause dry-socket which is also incredibly painful. I smoked anyway after my extraction because I'm a filthy addict, rinsing with saline after every puff and got away with it, but it's a risk yeah
It was much nicer for me then opioids when I had a bicycle colision, planted my face firmly into the pavement and had to have a number of roots canals and 3 hours of buccal surgery.
They sell ibuprofen with acetaminophen at the pharmacy, off the shelf, so that's not an issue.
It is recommended to alternate between the two so that you are always under the effect of either one and it reduces the pain throughout the day, instead of having big spikes of pain/no-pain.
I mean you can combine them, if the pain is expected to be short term, but in OP’s case the pain is likely to be longer term, where alternating may be a better choice. For example Excedrin is a combo of acetaminophen, NSAID (aspirin), and caffeine.
Yeah Combogesic is an example of combined ibuprofen and acetaminophen. Advil also makes a combo of the two as well. The main issue to keep track of what you're taking and take care that you don't exceed the daily dose for each. That's something to watch out for whether you take them separately or in combination with one another.
It's perfectly safe to take them at the same time and was the exact advice given to me after having my wisdom teeth extracted. You can even buy medication that has both ingredients, like Excedrin. One is metabolized by the kidneys and the other by the liver.
This combination is actually shown to work better than opiates for dental pain
most people dont develop an addiction to opiods when taken as directed by your doctor.
speaking of, go to urgent care or your PCP if they can fit you in for a perception.
a dentist is going to be worthless for anything other than the mouth bones.
At the end of your bottle, if you’re taking them as prescribed, which is usually every 4-6hrs? Do that for a week and your body would be addicted. A full bottle + a refill, even two? It’s not about taking them recreationally. Your body and brain get addicted when they’re in your system regularly. I would know, got hit by a car, I think I only had one refill, and I was going through withdrawals at the end. I wasn’t even taking them as often as prescribed, mostly “as needed.” That was still regular enough.
when i had surgery i got a tray of 10 for when the pain became unmanageable, and was told ibuprofen and paracetamol as per instructions otherwise… extremely limited supply is a real help to ensure you understand the “UNMANAGEABLE” part