Your surgery should take 45 minutes or less.
Your doctor will use one of these types of anesthesia so you don’t feel anything during the surgery:
Local: Your doctor will numb your mouth with a shot of Novocaine in your gums.You may also breathe nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, to relax or even doze during surgery. You should feel alert again shortly afterward.
IV sedation: The doctor will numb your mouth and also give you drugs through a vein in your arm to make you drowsy. You might sleep the whole time.
General: You’ll either get drugs through a vein or breathe gas in through a mask. You’ll sleep through the whole surgery -- and maybe even for an hour or more afterward.
If the surgeon has to cut your gums or bone to pull the teeth out, he’ll close the wound with a few stitches. These dissolve after a few days. He may also stuff gauze pads in your mouth to soak up some of the blood.