So in 2 1/2 weeks, I'm getting my wisdom teeth pulled and am going to be put under. I know sleeping with a binder on is a big no-no, but what do I do? I'm not huge chested or anything, so I could just do a sports bra thing, but I'm really not comfortable like that at all. I also have a super loose-fitting binder from 2 years ago that more so bunches up at my stomach/sides than anything. So what should I do?

i did it and i was fine but i also sleep with my binder on and im fine. i had oral surgery two years ago and i was binding it was no biggy

I had my wisdom teeth removed last year so even though I'm pre-T and can't start binding yet, I might be able to give you some advice.

The whole procedure of removing your wisdom teeth only takes about 30 minutes (45 at the most) so unless your dentist told you that it's going to take longer than that, you shouldn't worry. Since it's such a short amount of time, I wouldn't exactly consider it to be sleeping.

The only problem I can imagine is if your breathing becomes restricted from your binder. Sometimes the dentist will hook you up to an oxygen machine while they're removing your teeth so you wouldn't want anything to interfere with how you're breathing while you're under. I've heard that a good binder shouldn't restrict your breathing at all anyway but I would probably go with the looser one or none at all if you think your breathing may be something to worry about.

I don't think you are exactly under either. You might wear one of your looser binders though.

--Jay

I was allowed to wear my binder while having a partial nephrectomy (kidney surgery).

Also had it on when I had my wisdom teeth cut out but I was awake (I wasn't paying $400 extra to be knocked out so I did it with just the gas). It took less than half an hour to get all four cut out and stitched up.

Wear your binder, you'll be fine. 

You could also just do it without being knocked out! I was visiting home when I got all of mine out and it was more problematic cause they were curved inwards and had to be broken up before removing. However, I was visiting home and didn't want to be groggy or out of it during limited time I had, so I got them out with just a local. The worst part was the local for me. But it's a few seconds and then it really is nothing but pressure and it's out in no time. There's something about N. America and promoting both unnecessary wisdom teeth removal and doing them when folk are under, and that's why I was glad I could get them out in the UK instead. It's really not that big a deal and it seriously is not that painful! The only real pain comes several hours later when you're no longer numb, and even then it's manageable with the pain killers you get. Any pain during the procedure sure beats feeling groggy and sick for the rest of the day, or more! I'd say, unless it's a particularly complex removal and you HAVE to be knocked out, if you want to wear the binder, maybe think about going without a general at all. That way you can stay in a looser binder (there will always be anxiety so you have to watch that) worry free.

Quote from: Matty on March 31, 2013, 03:47:08 PM
There's something about N. America and promoting both unnecessary wisdom teeth removal and doing them when folk are under, and that's why I was glad I could get them out in the UK instead.

Getting your wisdom teeth removed is optional unless they're causing serious problems and every dentist makes that known, even to the so poorly informed N. Americans. (That's sarcasm, obviously.) No one's forcing people to have them unnecessarily removed. And whether or not you go under is always completely optional too. Where you live has nothing to do with it... I would rather have those options so I could choose for myself anyway.


I wouldn't recommend getting a mouthful of needles to numb you and keep you awake for a simple, thirty minute procedure. For most people it's not pleasant to hear the dentist drilling and breaking up your teeth either not to mention the stress of manually trying to keep your mouth open for half an hour unless the dentist uses a device to keep it pried open. Keep your binder on, take a nap and it's over.

Going under just always has more risks and more recovery time.  I just think on a personally level it's not worth it in place of "a mouth full" of needles (it was hardly any) unless it's just not possible to do while awake, and if it's not, it's not and you can't do anything about that.  I studied medicine and I just think if one can avoid going under, one should as there's always a risk.  That's my 2 cents.

What I'm not sure about now though is is this full on general anaesthesia or just knock out gas?  Are you actually going under?  If you are, you have no choice in the matter, you can't wear a binder.  If it's knock out gas, then you may be able to.

However, even with knock out gas, I urge you to tell the anaesthetist that you have a binder and ask if it is okay to wear it.  No medical professional should judge you for this and if they do, you don't want them as an anaesthetist anyway cause they're a prick and never trust a prick with your life!  You should be able to privately talk to them too, so you wouldn't need to disclose to the nurses or dental surgeon.  As much as you might not want to disclose it, if you were to have a reaction or something went wrong, not being able to properly ventilate you or not immediately understand why you're not ventilating effectively could have way worse consequences.  Even though they should check that anyway, it's not worth risking your life in case they take happen to take a few mins to catch on.  At least if they knew off the bat and allowed you to wear it, they would be prepared to immediately cut it off if something went wrong.

I'm not saying people in N America are "forced" to have wisdom teeth taken out, it just feels to me here that the whole optional idea is like taking out an appendix in case you do get appendicitis one day.  It's quite a risky and invasive procedure for a maybe in my opinion.  Here they were REALLY pushing me to get the knock out gas and do it in two stages, and I then started emailing back and forth with my UK dentist, sending him all my X-rays asking if this was really necessary and he assured me it wasn't and put me in touch with a dental surgeon in my home town that told me how he'd be able to remove them in one visit under a local and explained the whole process.  4 different dentists later and I decided to hold off until I went home for Xmas and get the whole thing done there, and I was in and out in less than an hour despite the problems of them being curved under the gum.  So while I absolutely did need the teeth removed, that wasn't optional, I didn't need knocked out at all and I was definitely being pressured into doing that.  Maybe because they'd make more money that way.

Quote from: Matty on March 31, 2013, 05:55:10 PM
Are you actually going under?  If you are, you have no choice in the matter, you can't wear a binder.  If it's knock out gas, then you may be able to.

Not true.

I had an over nine hour operation wearing a binder. It can be done under the discretion of the surgeon.

We're talking about a mild 30 minute procedure. The only reason they even "knock people out" is because of the anxiety a lot of people have over dental procedures.

People love to knock others out if they think there may be some anxiety involved.  I was having an op on my hand a few years ago which was estimated by the surgeon to take 7 minutes (it actually took 9 minutes because there was a nodule on my tendon as well as inflammation and a lack of lubricating fluid) and although we spoke to my GP and had him agree it as unnecessary to use general, and he confirmed with the surgeon it was okay to do it with local the hospital were still prepping me for general up until I was in theatre.  My grandfather had the same procedure done a week before me and as he's sixty years older they assumed he wouldn't freak out and it was done as an outpatient and with no question that he would have local.  His operation, with a different surgeon, took 45 minutes and there was the complication that he's on aspirin.

I agree though, that if you're set on having general then let them know you're binding, or at least wearing a compression vest, and if there is any problems they have your full permission to cut it off.  If you have one of the velco or zipper binders I'd wear that and inform them so they can just unzip you instead.

I'm actually quite surprised anyone would do a general on someone wearing a binder.  I don't know many anesthetists myself who would agree to that at least.  It could be quite difficult to confirm ECG placements and all that jazz if one was wearing a binder, unless it was more sports bra sizing?  Tight clothing over ECG leads can cause issues with shifting or contact points that could give false readings on a monitor and with ventilation expanding the chest wall, this would be a potential worry, but the anaesthetist would absolutely need to know in this case anyway.

Yeah I think people do get anxiety and that's why they push it but just explaining the procedure or talking to people that have had it without and can tell the truth about what happened without this "sting" or "pressure" things some docs/dentists insist on and yet you experience and think "Sting?  Sting my ARSE!" lol.  The needle for the local does absolutely hurt...for 5 seconds.  No worse than a really bad pinch held for 5 seconds.  For some, maybe they want to avoid that entirely.  But for me, it just wasn't worth being knocked out for.  I've had more painful experiences playing sports!  Lol.

I was told I would be put completely under because I'm going to an actual oral surgeon, and 2 of my wisdom teeth are growing in sideways. Luckily I'm on the younger side of the bell curve of average age to get this done. I'm getting like an IV and everything. There was no choice in the matter. Though, not gonna lie, I probably would've chosen to be knocked out anyway.

Why take chances? I think you should definitely tell the doc(s) in advance that you want to wear a compression vest during the procedure.

When I was disrobing for my top surgery, I really really wanted to leave my binder on, no matter how illogical it was.

I was put under for an exploratory procedure. I mean, c'mon, they already shoved tubes through my nose and down my throat at the doctor's office and whatever anesthetic they use there has no effect- I suck it up and deal with it (literally, you have to sniff in to allow the tube to go down more  ). Colonoscopy can be performed without general, endoscopy as well, the anesthesiologist was strongly advised not to put me under but she did anyway. When I woke up from that, my system was very unhappy and I had the lovely experience of violent expulsion of fluids from both ends while already dehydrated. Hospital didn't really care and rushed to discharge me, I went back to sleep and woke up the next morning with horrible chest pain. The GI doctor said to either go to the ER or wait for my pediatrician, we did the former and found that waiting around for my doctor could have killed me because my blood oxygen levels were dangerously low. The nurse kind of did a double-take at my vitals and they kicked a kid out of one of the beds to get me on an IV of fluids just to try and not let me have a heart attack in the middle of a hospital because they didn't have room. The hospital that had done the procedure claims that because it wasn't in my chart that they did nothing wrong- meanwhile they didn't really have my information about allergies or anything because apparently they didn't have an electronic database between the two offices my GI doctor worked at and nobody bothered to send it over. Should probably pursue this, sounds like we'd win a malpractice suit.

My lovely anesthesia story aside, you shouldn't be in there long. If you want to be cautious, wear the looser binder or a sports bra and a snug-fitting tank under your shirt, and you should alert someone that you will be wearing something for compression, just in case. Enjoy the whole root canal thing, I've seen some rather interesting videos of people after that procedure 
Hope everything goes well!

Quote from: TheoLeo on March 31, 2013, 06:59:46 PM
I was told I would be put completely under because I'm going to an actual oral surgeon, and 2 of my wisdom teeth are growing in sideways. Luckily I'm on the younger side of the bell curve of average age to get this done. I'm getting like an IV and everything. There was no choice in the matter. Though, not gonna lie, I probably would've chosen to be knocked out anyway.

Then you must tell the ansesthetist and I would maybe try and tell them sooner rather than later so you know in advance.  To be honest, if it were me, I'd personally go without just for the comfort.  I know that might be the opposite to how you feel because I would struggle myself to go out without a binder, but if you've never had surgery before, it sucks and you're likely to feel yucky, horrible and uncomfortable afterwards.  And if you've not had surgery before, you won't know how you react to anaesthesia.  Personally it makes me really sick and this is fairly common.  With the time of the surgery there's at least a good chance you would be okay, but even during a 20min surgery I was sick as a dog after so it's not guaranteed.  I would hate to be wearing a binder when I was that nauseated and sick.  Compression could be tight and uncomfortable when you're feeling funky.  Maybe the way to decide (if anaesthetists does say it's okay) would be, if you were feeling ill and were home sick (especially if you're feeling nauseated), would you wear a binder?  If so, then you might be okay.  If you'd go without, maybe best to go without for the surgery, or stick to just a sports bra if you're not so huge.

Good luck!