Strange question, I think, but I just got my wisdom teeth out last Tuesday and it got me thinking about top surgery. Pain-wise, how does too surgery compare to wisdom tooth removal? I'm almost 18 so my teeth weren't fully grown, but my teeth have always come early so they were surprisingly developed compared to my friends' teeth. Roots were about the length of the teeth.
I'm curious because I'm extremely sensitive to morphine meds and even though I was given a synthetic codeine med with anti-nausea pills, I ended up stopping it before I should have because i prefered the pain over the nausea. I know that one day I need to get top surgery but I've been trying to prepare myself for how it will feel.

I'm glad to hear that, I was worried that it'd be worse than this. If it's more discomfort than anything, I can handle that. Thinking now though part of what made my wisdom teeth so bad to me was that I was starving but all I could eat was jello and applesauce, and so of course I won't have that problem with top surgery.

**Possible trigger for some**
I haven't had top surgery yet but I've had copious amounts of tooth issues and surgeries, I've given birth and passed a kidney stone. From all of those? Kidney stone was probably the worst inner pain I've ever experienced. Then the tooth aches and then child birth.

I'm with Chipper though on this one. Tooth pain can be horrendous. When you find a surgeon to have top surgery with, talk about the different nausea medications they have at their disposal and see if one might work for you. I also have some adverse effects to strong pain killers and normally always take the nausea med to help counter them.

I don't think they are comparable at all. Any kind of tooth pain is very localized in your mouth and on the site. You have almost no other kind of pain or discomfort, not itching, and so on. Although tooth pain can be very intense. You are very lightly anesthetized. I almost don't think that it is actually anesthesia. You get a shot that probably more makes you less aware fo your surroundings and puts you in a sleep state. There may be some cutting but usually not very much. I don't think you have sutures, but if you did for some reason there wouldn't be very many. You are not bandaged or wrapped. Your range of motion is limited. And you won't feel much like eating.

For top surgery you have full anesthesia that is not just an IV (not a shot) and includes inhaled anesthetics. At least for DI you have two very large incisions and I believe  more than 100 sutures. There are also grafts. Peri involves smaller incisions and suture area. The discomfort you have in top surgery is more general, because it's your chest area. You have also have itching and perhaps a feeling of extreme compression. I would guess it also takes longer. You are wrapped for about a week in constrictive bandaging and your range of motion is limited. Then you may have bandages over the nipple grafts that you take care of and which might be uncomfortable. THe only advantage is if you aren't nauseous you will be hungry.

Can you take it? Of course you can. But it's not very comparable to the wisdom tooth oral surgery thing at all.

BTW, I did not take Vicodin at all, and I know other guys who took under 5 of them. You won't be able to take aspirin or ibuprofen. So if you don't want the Vicodin, or whatever they give you, you're kind of stuck with Tylenol. I don't think it really helps much at all. OTOH, I thought it was more uncomfortable than painful. But a very different experience than oral surgery (I also had a tonsilectomy, I'd compare that more to oral surgery actually.)


--Jay

Top surgery was better, I could eat easily (well after the first day).

Yeah I didn't eat much the day of surgery. But then I wasn't hungry either.
I was kind of a little too doped up to do much but sleep. I think I got up and walked around at about 11 whcih was about 12 hours from when I had surgery.

--Jay

I don't have anything to add other than my experiences with the pain meds.  I took the opiates for about 3 days after my surgery.  I vomited within the first few hours after I woke up from being under, but not sure if it was the anesthesia or the painkillers.  I ended up taking Panadol (Tylenol) over the opiates and didn't have many problems with pain after the first week was over.