Preparedness: Wisdom Teeth Extraction

Originally, I was going to call this post "what to expect when getting your wisdom teeth extracted". However, I don't think I could do that topic justice, since the oral surgeon called it "an easy" case.

What exactly is an "easy" case?

• 3 teeth (2 from the top, 1 from the bottom)

• Only local anesthesia (no IV, not even gas - but about a million shots)

• Less than 5 minutes total "in the mouth" time

Thus, I decided to simply give you heads up about things that I did not expect. Since this type of procedure can be very complicated, it is important to be adequately prepared to properly handle the situation.

Overall, it was pretty much the same deal as with dental graft.

• No drinking through a straw

• No spitting or sucking on the surgery site(s)

• No smoking
• No alcohol
• No foods with seeds (such as strawberries)

What to do before going under the knife

• Stock up on soft  foods (yogurt, tomato soup, applesauce, cottage cheese, ice cream, etc.)
• You will not be able to chew normally for a least a couple of days.

• Be ready to visit a pharmacy after leaving the office to fill your prescriptions.
• You have to take antibiotics and horse-strength ibuprofen (quadruple dose? Seriously?) for 7 days and rinse your mouth with a special rinse.

• Make sure you have plenty of gauze in your first aid kit.
• What you leave with in the post-extraction kit is not enough, if you are having more than one tooth extracted or if your wounds continue bleeding for more than a couple of hours.

• Do not expect to keep your teeth.
• The dentist would not allow me to keep mine. *Sigh* Huge disappointment, actually. I mean they took my teeth AND made me pay for it. Where is justice in that?

• Expect to take tedious care of your mouth for the next week or until your follow up appointment.
• You have to rinse after every meal with salt water. You have to time your pills. You have to chew very carefully, not to bother the extraction site. You have to make sure that nothing gets stuck in the holes in your jaw. You have to keep the area very clean, but you have to brush very carefully.

Even the surgeon was surprised how well I did throughout the procedure. The only thing that went wrong was the fact that he forgot to sign the prescription. So I was running around town like a chipmunk, not to mention looking like one with all that gauze stuffed in my cheeks.

The best thing to it was that when I finally made it home in the middle of an afternoon having the next day off, I decided that there was no better time for a "Sex and the City" marathon.