The Day Of Your Wisdom Teeth Removal – Part 1

What happens when you get your wisdom teeth extracted?

What can you expect to happen the day of your wisdom teeth removal? Most of my patients will opt to be sedated during the procedure.

Sedation.

Since it takes 18to 24 hours to get full coordination back after sedation, patients will need to have someone who can focus entirely on getting them home safely.

Patients under the age of 18 will need to have a parent or legal guardian with them to give consent for the procedure itself.

Fasting.

It’s extremely important that patients have an empty stomach on the day of their scheduled wisdom teeth removal surgery; we will have provided strict instructions not to eat or drink anything after midnight the night before.

If a patient needs to take a daily medication, that needs to be discussed in advance.

We must be strict about this because in the process of being sedated, the reflexes that control the airways are reduced, and if for some reason the patient develops nausea and needs to vomit, the contents could enter the airways and cause serious complications.

If a patient shows up and reports that they’ve had anything to eat or drink within the fasting period, the surgery will have to be rescheduled.

Provide Informed Consent.

Once it has been established that the patient has an empty stomach and a ride home, we will go through the process of informed consent. This covers the same information the patient will have received during the evaluation (what the patient can expect before, during and after the procedure, risks associated with the procedure, post-surgery precautions, etc.).

The purpose of obtaining informed consent is to ensure that the patient is well-informed and understands all aspects of the procedure that’s about to be performed. Once the consent documents have been signed, the patient will be taken to a treatment room and made as comfortable as possible.

Start an Intravenous (IV) Line.

An intravenous (IV) line will be started which may lead to discomfort or bruising afterwards; the patient will have a pressure bandage over the site for one hour after the procedure in order to minimize bruising and discomfort.

The patient will be connected to equipment that painlessly monitors their heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation. The heart rate is determined through specific placement of EKG pads, oxygen saturation is determined through a sensor placed on the tip of the finger, and blood pressure is monitored with a cuff.

Next, the patient will be ready for sedation, and we’ll discuss that more in a future blog…

If you’d like to schedule your initial consultation for wisdom teeth removal, please click here.

For more details, see Dr. Babiuk’s book, “What Every Parent Of An Adolescent Needs To Know About Opioids,” available on Amazon.