I don't know if you're expressing a common misconception here, but a lot of Americans also think general anaesthetic is widely used for wisdom teeth removal, and it isn't. What is widely used is deep sedation, a combination of ketamine and benzos which keeps the patient calm and, the nice part, prevents any memories of the event from forming. It's maybe an extra hour of recovery, same-day procedure in either case.

Post-care is a few day's worth of entry-level painkillers unless the patient gets a dry socket. We use acetaminophen for post-treatment rather than paracetamol, since it's better (never understood the British obsession with that stuff, it's nasty business).

Anywhere else I would walk away from a terrible joke like that, but this is HN. I'm joking.

You really got me there, was halfway through writing an angry reply when I read the last sentence.

I don't see the joke -- is this entire post untrue then?

Ah no. It hinges on paracetamol and acetaminophen being two names for the same analgesic. Everything but that sentence was perfectly serious.

It's also a rare joke where explaining it won't reduce the effect: by the time a Brit hits the end of the offending sentence, it's too late.

It depends on the situation. I had all of mine out this past weekend (in the US) and, because they were fully grown in, all they had to do was some local anaesthetic (about 8 shots around various parts of the mouth), wait 15 minutes, and loosen/pull them all. Total procedure was less than 30 minute and no painkillers prescribed after the fact.