h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I had an impacted wisdom tooth out at the age of 21, and I made the mistake of going to the local dental school to get it done for free. Don't ever do that. Firstly it took them three shots of anaesthetic (although not to the bottom of my mouth) before my mouth was fully numb, and like you Kazzikins, it started to wear off, but I managed to persuade them to give me another dose. The student working on my tooth seemed to be doing a pretty good job at first, but by the time he got down to the roots, he started to have some real difficulties, and the professor overseeing the procedure had to take over. That was the easy bit.
They gave me a bottle of paracetemol and told me to rinse my mouth with hot salt water four times a day. The pain lasted for over a week and was agonising. I forget what the recommended dosage was for the painkillers, but I exceeded it every day. I'd take a couple just before going to bed at 11pm, and be woken up 3 hours later with the throbbing ache in my jaw.
I swore blind that no matter how much pain the other three might give me in the future, it would be easier to deal with than having them removed. 25 years down the line I still have them, and occasionally I bite the inside of my cheek with one, but they'll be going with me to my grave.

Wow. I heard more horror stories about botched and bungled wisdom tooth removal before I got mine out a exactly a month ago. I was absolutely petrified going in--in fact I waited years before I had them removed (I'm now 30) and only finally went in due to the painful eruption of one of the teeth. However, the oral surgeon not only gave me laughing gas, but also an anesthetic IV drip, and a local before the surgery. I could hear the surgeon and the nurses talking about a football game, but it sounded like it was coming from a long ways away down a tunnel--other than that I had no consciousness at all. I did once hear this wet popping sound, I suppose a tooth coming out. I only had three wisdom teeth, and two were partially descended so the operation and the recovery took no time at all! I only took two painkillers--the same day of the surgery and they caused me to hallucinate and vomit, but by the next morning I was well on my way to healing. I even ate eggs and toast for breakfast, and other than those initial two painkillers, never had to take any sort of medication. I did the salt-water rinse and the socket flush-out with the plastic syringe (which the author didn't mention!) and those were the most difficult part of the process only because warm saltwater tastes absolutely disgusting.

I guess I was lucky, and I'm glad it's over.

You are quite right, I should have mentioned the salt-water rinse, disgusting isn't it!

Especially when you can't brush your teeth for those first few days, and the only means of cleaning your mouth is the warm saltwater--hence, it's the only taste you have in your mouth. Yuck, yuck, yuck.