Mr.50, Unit, and PKRWUD are all correct. Impacted just means that the tooth hasn't come in as it should have. Some impactions are angular and some are completely horizontal. Others can be vertical and still not come in correctly.

Each case is different, with some being much more difficult to remove than others. In almost every case, it's easier to do it on a young patient than an older one.

For any difficult cases, it's better to have it done by an oral surgeon. He will usually do all four at once with the patient under I.V. sedation . The patient won't even be aware that the teeth were extracted until after it's already done.

Recovery time varies with the patient and the difficulty of the procedure. In every case, the patient will receive a prescription for pain relievers.

If extraction of 3 rd molars is necessary, my advice is to do it while you're young. It's almost always easier to accomplish and therefore less painful during recovery.

Rev

I didn't get a pain reliever prescription. I took buffered aspirin.

I should have said "In every case the patient should recieve a prescription for pain relievers".

Rev

I had mine pulled in May of 2000 and posted on here about it. I don't smoke, I didn't suck on anything, but I still managed to get two DRY SOCKETS those were a horrible pain. I was floating on percocets for two weeks. Heck, getting my wisdom teeth pulled was much worse than having a posterior shift corrected in my right shoulder with an open surgery this spring! Oh well, 84LX89GT, glad to hear the recovery is going good.