TL;DR: it's interesting to me that most of what I heard was extremely negative prior to this thread. My own experience was basically nothing.
It's funny - I did a lot of worrying, researching, and reading about wisdom teeth and the story was almost invariably a convalescent period of at least significant discomfort and often middling pain. Thanks to all of this, it took several months of very intermittent dizzying pain for me to finally have a bad tooth looked at, and the whole experience left me feeling pretty silly.
Two weeks ago I had the problem tooth - the upper left wisdom tooth - removed. No gas or IV anesthesia, just a couple of shots in the mouth (which was no more than a pinch in the upper palate and unnoticeable in my lower mouth). It was apparently a moderately difficult extraction because the tooth was decayed and had to be broken up, but compared to what I was lead to believe it was a cakewalk. Really just a matter of lying back and thinking of England so to speak.
The recovery period was almost nothing for me - I chalked this at least partially up to the fact I had 1/4 of the normal amount of teeth removed. I guess I clotted properly while still in the office because they removed the gauze there, gave me the rundown on how to avoid dry socket (no bubbly drinks, no straws, no spitting, etc.) and sent me on my way. The local anesthesia took over three hours to wear off and I pre-emptively popped the Tylenol-3 I had been prescribed around this time (the pharmacy was super slow). I was on my feet the whole time and honestly, I was more affected by the fact I hadn't eaten in four days or so (as that was what triggered the pain in the now-removed problem tooth). The worst I had from the actual extraction site was tenderness. I was eating soft foods effortlessly the next day, and two days out I was fine with careful chewing of just about anything so long as I didn't open my mouth too wide.
JUST today I had the upper right wisdom tooth removed alongside the 2nd molar on that side, which was badly decayed and the only cavity in my mouth. This was an even easier extraction and apart from the fact I obviously bled twice as much, it's been about the same. In fact, I'm more bothered by an ulcer-like sore from where I suspect the dentist accidentally struck the roof of my (then-numb) mouth.
The only thing troubling me at this point is I've always had a big head with a commensurately large jaw and my wisdom teeth came in pretty much normally. I didn't want to get them removed prophylactically precisely because they were functional, but I was lax enough in my oral hygiene that the above happened.