I must have had the easiest wisdom tooth removal op ever - I had all four out at once in hospital, no real pain, only a little aching in the jaw from being opened wide, the stitches in my gums tickled (all four were impacted below the gumline) and that was it. I was eating within 2 hours of waking up from the anaesthetic and I had no bruising, no swelling, no nothing. I did have to wait 3.5 years on the urgent list to get them out, though. On the other hand, my experiences with dentists have been pretty much nightmarish - either not enough anaesthetic, too much (so I couldn't swallow) or simply mangling my teeth so badly that I ended up having to have them pulled after the moron filled two teeth next to each other and just smeared the filling material between the two teeth as one. I also grind my teeth very badly, so I keep on breaking them one by one and I suspect I'm going to end up toothless within a few years because root canals just don't hold up to my night time gnawing (even with a mouthguard). Oh and I second the Oragel Plus (available from all good supermarket pharmacy counters for a fiver) - amazing stuff, even when you have half a tooth missing, but you do tend to go numb in your lip for a short while after using it, much like the anaesthetic injections. Feel better soon, Tom, and I hope you're not hurting too much now the anaesthetic's worn off.