So I had the pleasure of having my wisdom teeth removed this past week. It was a simple procedure that took about 25 minutes to complete. Of course, its not the actual operation that gets everyone worried. We've all heard the horror stories of the several days of recovery afterwards. Let me lay out may story for you...
About a week ago, I started experiencing some irritation on the inside of my cheek. It kinda felt like there was something there that wasn't a day before. I looked in the mirror, thinking it was probably just a piece of food stuck in between my teeth from earlier. Turns out that my upper left wisdom tooth had erupted out my my gum line (by erupted, I mean "grew") and was exposed enough that it was rubbing against the inside of my cheek, causing the irritation. I figured that this wouldn't be a problem and decided to just deal with the suck for a few days, thinking my cheek would get used to the new feeling. Did I get used to it? If you were smart enough to read the title of this post, you probably would have figured out that my good old wisdom teeth continued to rub the shit out of my cheek. It got so bad that even chewing on the left side of my mouth became a pain. So what did I do?.....
Well, I sure as hell didn't want my teeth getting screwed over because of a false sense of pride and wanting to "tough it out" (boys, there are some battles you just can't win). I called up the oral surgery department at my local hospital, told them about my symptoms, and BAM! I got a wisdom teeth extraction scheduled for the next morning, the butt-crack of dawn.
Given the short notice, I used my common sense later on that night (before the surgery) and went out to buy all the non-chewing foods I could get my hands on. Pudding, soup, ice-cream, you name it. I was not gonna take any chances of screwing up my recovery by not eating right. I made preparations for missing classes and having to sit my ass in bed for the next several days.
My good man, my roommate, drove me over to my appointment the next day. As much as I was nervous about the infamous post-surgery suck of wisdom teeth, I wanted these f**kers out of my mouth so badly that I couldn't wait to get in the operating room. By the time I sat down in the chair, it was 0815. Within an hour after I got to the clinic, I was drugged up, sedated, and my molars were yanked.
It was 0840 when I finally came around. The surgery was a success and all my wisdoms were extracted without complications. My roommate had picked up some prescription drugs for my use over the next couple days while I was under. After I was discharged, driven back, and taken up to the room, I passed out on my bed for the next hour.
I woke up around noon to some soreness in my gum line. I remember staggering over to the sink, pulling the bloody gauze pads out my my mouth, and examining my chipmunk-like features. I swear I looked like I had been stampeded by Fat Amy herself. I took a percocet and an ibuprofen and proceeded to gorge myself with three packs of Snack-pack puddings. I didn't realize how hungry I was after fasting since midnight. However, while I was eating I couldn't get a thought out of my head. I wasn't in pain.....
That's right. I admit that I did feel sore after the surgery itself, but at no time in my recovery did I actually feel pain. At the time, I was still numb from the anesthetic so I figured the pain would kick in within 24 hours. I continued to eat as much pudding and ice-cream as my 19 year old body could take. However, I was still able to move and act normally. I had taken the day of from classes, but I was still able to get a lot of homework done. I was even able to call some friends and let them know how I was doing.
After a good night's sleep, I expected to wake up the next morning to agonized pain in my jaw. The anesthetic was worn off by then. I had to feel pain, right?
WRONG! I felt no discomfort. Nothing! I felt as productive and capable as ever. In fact, I was more pissed that I had wasted another day of just having to sit in my room rather that get outside and carry on my with student life.
So I tried to figure out why I wasn't feeling pain. After all, my goal was to get through the recovery without much pain to begin with. I needed to figure out what I was doing, and keep doing it.
In the end, here's the advice I can give anyone who is looking to minimize wisdom tooth pain:
1. Eat right. You can't recover if you're not giving your body something to work with. Whether it be soup, pudding, ice-cream, applesauce, you need to give your body something. A lot of people take their pain meds thinking that the drugs will do all the work. Problem is, drugs need fuel to work off of. That takes me to point #2
2. Take your meds consistantly. If you're gonna take your meds every three hours, then take them EVERY THREE F**KING HOURS! Don't wait fifteens minutes because you have to finish your favorite episode of Psych or because you have to finish talking to your best friend who you haven't seen in ten years. When you take meds consistently, your body will expect them consistently, and hence the pain will be numbed consistently.
3. Work your mouth muscles. Whether that comes from pretending to chew on the ice-cream, to talking on the phone, to reading out loud, you have to work out your mouth muscles. If you don't, its gonna be that much harder to start after a while of not moving your mouth at all.
4. Hydrate, hydrate, HYDRATE! Your mouth will become very dry during the recovery. The best way to combat this is to drink a lot of water. You'd better look forward to pissing clear every half-hour cuz that's the way to recover.
5. Start soft and work to the hard stuff. Start with soft foods first. If your feeling ambitious, add some veggies and meat to your soup. Later on, start chewing on some bread, and then some crackers.
6. Don't worry about the "few". We've all heard the stories about dry-socket and the pain of having bare bone and nerves exposed in your gum line. However, this only happens to 2-4% of the population. As long as you're taking care of yourself, you've got nothing to worry about.
Right now, I'm in day 3 of my recovery. I am still painless and have no complications with recovery. This afternoon, I was able to eat at Subway with my roommate, who's also been a great help in my recovery, and a group of us are going to be going to dinner later on. Follow my tips guys and you'll be able to do the same.
Until next time, it's your man
-Niv
About a week ago, I started experiencing some irritation on the inside of my cheek. It kinda felt like there was something there that wasn't a day before. I looked in the mirror, thinking it was probably just a piece of food stuck in between my teeth from earlier. Turns out that my upper left wisdom tooth had erupted out my my gum line (by erupted, I mean "grew") and was exposed enough that it was rubbing against the inside of my cheek, causing the irritation. I figured that this wouldn't be a problem and decided to just deal with the suck for a few days, thinking my cheek would get used to the new feeling. Did I get used to it? If you were smart enough to read the title of this post, you probably would have figured out that my good old wisdom teeth continued to rub the shit out of my cheek. It got so bad that even chewing on the left side of my mouth became a pain. So what did I do?.....
Well, I sure as hell didn't want my teeth getting screwed over because of a false sense of pride and wanting to "tough it out" (boys, there are some battles you just can't win). I called up the oral surgery department at my local hospital, told them about my symptoms, and BAM! I got a wisdom teeth extraction scheduled for the next morning, the butt-crack of dawn.
Given the short notice, I used my common sense later on that night (before the surgery) and went out to buy all the non-chewing foods I could get my hands on. Pudding, soup, ice-cream, you name it. I was not gonna take any chances of screwing up my recovery by not eating right. I made preparations for missing classes and having to sit my ass in bed for the next several days.
My good man, my roommate, drove me over to my appointment the next day. As much as I was nervous about the infamous post-surgery suck of wisdom teeth, I wanted these f**kers out of my mouth so badly that I couldn't wait to get in the operating room. By the time I sat down in the chair, it was 0815. Within an hour after I got to the clinic, I was drugged up, sedated, and my molars were yanked.
It was 0840 when I finally came around. The surgery was a success and all my wisdoms were extracted without complications. My roommate had picked up some prescription drugs for my use over the next couple days while I was under. After I was discharged, driven back, and taken up to the room, I passed out on my bed for the next hour.
I woke up around noon to some soreness in my gum line. I remember staggering over to the sink, pulling the bloody gauze pads out my my mouth, and examining my chipmunk-like features. I swear I looked like I had been stampeded by Fat Amy herself. I took a percocet and an ibuprofen and proceeded to gorge myself with three packs of Snack-pack puddings. I didn't realize how hungry I was after fasting since midnight. However, while I was eating I couldn't get a thought out of my head. I wasn't in pain.....
That's right. I admit that I did feel sore after the surgery itself, but at no time in my recovery did I actually feel pain. At the time, I was still numb from the anesthetic so I figured the pain would kick in within 24 hours. I continued to eat as much pudding and ice-cream as my 19 year old body could take. However, I was still able to move and act normally. I had taken the day of from classes, but I was still able to get a lot of homework done. I was even able to call some friends and let them know how I was doing.
After a good night's sleep, I expected to wake up the next morning to agonized pain in my jaw. The anesthetic was worn off by then. I had to feel pain, right?
WRONG! I felt no discomfort. Nothing! I felt as productive and capable as ever. In fact, I was more pissed that I had wasted another day of just having to sit in my room rather that get outside and carry on my with student life.
So I tried to figure out why I wasn't feeling pain. After all, my goal was to get through the recovery without much pain to begin with. I needed to figure out what I was doing, and keep doing it.
In the end, here's the advice I can give anyone who is looking to minimize wisdom tooth pain:
1. Eat right. You can't recover if you're not giving your body something to work with. Whether it be soup, pudding, ice-cream, applesauce, you need to give your body something. A lot of people take their pain meds thinking that the drugs will do all the work. Problem is, drugs need fuel to work off of. That takes me to point #2
2. Take your meds consistantly. If you're gonna take your meds every three hours, then take them EVERY THREE F**KING HOURS! Don't wait fifteens minutes because you have to finish your favorite episode of Psych or because you have to finish talking to your best friend who you haven't seen in ten years. When you take meds consistently, your body will expect them consistently, and hence the pain will be numbed consistently.
3. Work your mouth muscles. Whether that comes from pretending to chew on the ice-cream, to talking on the phone, to reading out loud, you have to work out your mouth muscles. If you don't, its gonna be that much harder to start after a while of not moving your mouth at all.
4. Hydrate, hydrate, HYDRATE! Your mouth will become very dry during the recovery. The best way to combat this is to drink a lot of water. You'd better look forward to pissing clear every half-hour cuz that's the way to recover.
5. Start soft and work to the hard stuff. Start with soft foods first. If your feeling ambitious, add some veggies and meat to your soup. Later on, start chewing on some bread, and then some crackers.
6. Don't worry about the "few". We've all heard the stories about dry-socket and the pain of having bare bone and nerves exposed in your gum line. However, this only happens to 2-4% of the population. As long as you're taking care of yourself, you've got nothing to worry about.
Right now, I'm in day 3 of my recovery. I am still painless and have no complications with recovery. This afternoon, I was able to eat at Subway with my roommate, who's also been a great help in my recovery, and a group of us are going to be going to dinner later on. Follow my tips guys and you'll be able to do the same.
Until next time, it's your man
-Niv
