Wisdom Teeth

My son had his wisdom teeth taken out with only a local anesthesia (his choice), and it was no big deal.

I can't see how a local anesthesia would harm the baby.

I breastfed my babies after c-sections while taking pain meds. I'd ask your peditrician to make sure. If you do decide not to breastfeed, just ask the dentist how long it takes for the meds to clear your system. I would expect it wouldn't take more than 24 hours and it shouldn't affect your milk production.

I'm sad that you feel like you have to justify your choice. It's too bad that there are people out there that would judge you instead of support you.

As a homeopath, there is a remedy you can take after your wisdom teeth are out to speed up the healing. It is called Arnica. You can find it at the health food store. Because your recovery time will be shorter, you will not have to take the pain meds for as long. There are no side effects, and so it is safe to take while nursing. For more information you can go to the homeopathy website www.nationalcenterforhomeopathy.org

Hi K.,
I think the difficulty of the extraction (and therefore your pain level during and after the procedure) is determined by how far the wisdom teeth have grown in. If you are already experiencing pain from your wisdom teeth, I think you may want to get an opinion from an oral surgeon if you haven't already - who can put you all the way under during the procedure, and who has more training in working around the nerve endings in your mouth than dentists typically do. Honestly, having had all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed, I think the breastfeeding issue is secondary. You can pump and dump for a day or two, but also consider that depending upon how much trauma they have to cause to your existing teeth in order to extract the wisdom teeth... you may need vicodin for a couple of days afterward. When I had my wisdom teeth out it was not a really big deal, but I was put completely under for the surgery, and even so I was in pain that whole day. The next day I woke up and felt ok, but my wisdom teeth had not even started to come in yet when I had the surgery, so it was not a complicated surgery.

So I'm just saying... worry about taking care of yourself first and make the decision based upon what will be best for YOU. Your baby can have pumped milk from before the procedure, or you can give her formula, until you've had a chance to recover from the surgery.

If you have just local anesthesia, you should not have to pump and dump at all. Local is injected directly into the nerve and will not enter your bloodstream or your breastmilk. It is only if you are put under general anesthesia(sedated via IV or completely asleep) that you would have to wait several days until it was metabolized by your body, and in that case you would have to pump and dump.

As far as the pain medication is concerned, there are many safe pain medications to take while breast feeding that will not get into your milk (what do you think women do after c-sections? ). However, make sure you have your wisdom teeth out by an oral surgeon (called an endodontist) - dentists are not really equipped or trained to do wisdom tooth extraction.

I had my wisdom teeth out with only local anesthetic and it was fine. I was sore enough for medicine for two days, but after that, it was just inconvenient achyness, not full on distracting pain. To be on the safe side for your baby, I would ask the pediatrician or your OB about safe pain meds. or the pharmacist when you pick them up. Tylenol is safe, but you may want something stronger the first night or two in case the pain keeps you awake.