So my wife, at the age of 37, is about to have her wisdom teeth surgically removed. One of them is impacted and literally cracking and falling apart, and she has another impacted one so she’s just going to have all four removed at once to get it over with. I was talking with a client in our business about it and he said not to take this lightly, that it is trauma to the jaw and she’ll need a few days to recover. We work physically in our cleaning business every day, so we don’t have an office job or anything where she can take it easier physically. As such, the goal is to get an appointment maybe on late Thursday for the procedure so we can take one day off, Friday, and then the weekend, so that hopefully she will be ready to go back on Monday to limit the impact of this financially to some degree.
I want to make this as pleasant an experience for her as possible once we get home. I’m sure that there are people here that have undergone this procedure before. What made it better for you, or would have made it better? This is honestly our first time ever going through anything like this together. We’ve always been pretty healthy. I’m a very squeamish person myself but my wife is a trooper, she’s had issues with teeth when she was younger and has had teeth pulled and such before. So let me know what you think would be good to have on hand, something that might make it easier for her to recuperate and deal, what helped you.
Thanks so much. I’m all about making the best of whatever comes along in life, and hopefully can learn some best practices from those that have been through this already.
I had all four taken out under general anesthesia. Because the teeth hadn’t emerged and weren’t ever going to, they had to cut my gums open and sew them closed again. Things I remember:
Once she wakes up from anesthesia on the day of, she will feel like a million bucks. The relief of having it over will get her high. She won’t want to use ice packs on her face because she feels so good. MAKE HER USE THE ICE PACKS, because…
The soreness and swelling hit the next day. That will be the worst one. Get her through that and she’ll feel much, much better.
Take the dry socket thing seriously. Don’t let her suck stuff through straws. Do pick up as many milkshakes as she wants, but make her eat them with a spoon.
I think with three full days to recover, she’ll be a-okay on Monday.
I was off work for a week when I had mine removed. Your idea of having the operation before a weekend is a good one as she will initially require extra care, but is your financial situation really so parlous that a few more days off will hurt?
Make her use the ice packs. This is critical. My dad ended up with swelling and bruising so bad that he stayed inside for a few weeks. Get some of the gel packs that can be re-used, and rotate them. You can put two back in the fridge to re-chill, while she’s using a few.
Have her take her painkiller that first day before the numbing and such wears off. I didn’t take mine until I started hurting and that was a mistake. The first night was horrid. After that, she should be fine, but stay ahead of the pain that first day.
As Sattua says, take dry socket seriously. No sucking on straws and follow all instructions very carefully. I had a dry socket and it was one of the most miserable weeks of my life.
Unless she ends up with really serious bruising, she should be good to go by Monday.
@sattua - Love the milkshake recommendation. I had read things like applesauce and yogurt too. She is all over that whole dry socket thing and will take it very seriously, though I’ll do my part to make sure that gets followed through on.
@quartz - Yes, if needed, we can allow for more time off, but being self-employed we have no paid days off so we would lose hundreds of dollars per day in gross revenue. If at a point she needs time to recuperate I can go out and work alone, though obviously I can’t keep up with our schedule by myself. If we were to take a week off of work we could double the price of the surgery itself. All of this is out of pocket, though we have savings. Still, if it isn’t necessary, she’ll be back at work as soon as she can be.
@sunny daze - Gel packs, got it! Great input on the pain med situation too. We would have learned that lesson the hard way. My wife is a bruiser, my goodness she’ll have bruises on her legs and such from where she’ll walk into something or bump up against something all the time, so I expect there to be significant bruising. We’ll see how that goes.
Never had experience with them. We don’t take meds or drugs of any kind or even drink. She’s the type that can take half of the dose of something and be fine, so we’ll ask the docs about how to handle the opiates if that’s what she’s prescribed.
I am having 2 wisdom teeth pulled out son too and I am 70 yo . OUCH ! I brought tomatoes soup and veggies broth b/c I can’t eats sweets any more . I also so have yogurt and unsweetened applesauce. I had to answer a lot of health questions and one was I bruise easy , and I marked ‘yes’. Did your wife have to answer a lot health questions too? I was told to wear comfortable clothes and a short sleeves top b/c I am going under general anesthesia too.
I had a wisdom pulled out a few years ago and had to wear short sleeves so the blood pressure cuff would fix better and to put the IV in easier . I wish your wife best of luck and a speedy recovery . I was thinking of taking pain meds before I have my teeth pulled b/c I have TMJ , I hope your wife doesn’t have this too.
@purplehearingaid - Whew, those wisdom teeth made it longer than most. Sorry you had to deal with it at that age. I hope your procedure and recovery goes well too.
My wife will likely have to answer those questions. She goes in this Thursday for the consultation. The dentist told her it was time to get them out, and she’s had two weeks between the dentist and the consultation, so I have no clue how long it will take for them to actually schedule to get this done. I’ve seen it mentioned online that one should wear loose fitting comfortable clothes. My wife actually does have some jaw issues, not sure if they qualify as TMJ (I have battled TMJ and been to specialists), but we’re going to address that with them at the consultation.
One thing to know about opiates is that they work a lot better for some people than others. Even after a c-section, I far and away preferred 600mg of ibuprofen to the Vicodin they wanted to give me. If your wife hasn’t taken opiates before, and she doesn’t feel they’re doing the job, it’s fine to switch to something that does.
Yes, I came to say ice packs. Keeping the swelling down really helps control the pain. Also, make sure she stays on top of the pain, meds won’t do any good once she’s ready to cry from the hurt.
Unless she is like me and reacts badly to the anesthesia. After I had my wisdom teeth out (all four/general) and I came around, I was crying hysterically and could not be comforted for some time.
In my experience, it really depends on how she reacts to the sedation. I came out of it halfway home in the car and was totally fine thereafter, in full possession of my faculties and able to keep track of timing for the ice packs and painkillers myself and monitor how I was feeling. My mother barely had to do anything, except make a food run when I decided I absolutely had to have KFC mashed potatoes right then and nothing else would do.
My brother, on the other hand, was a mess. Somebody had to have eyes on him at all times for several hours because he was too loopy and dizzy to stand up properly, only he couldn’t remember this. So we had to supervise closely to avoid him falling and hurting himself. I put on an episode of The Simpsons for him and he got frustrated with it because he couldn’t follow the plot (to the extent that the Simpsons has one) and kept forgetting what had happened minutes earlier. He eventually fell asleep and woke up in much better condition once the drugs were out of his system, but for those first few hours, it was very much babysitting. Then he was up at 3am scrambling eggs.
Keep the painkillers on a strict schedule, including setting alarms if you have to. It’s much easier to keep ahead of the pain rather than chase it once it’s started getting bad. If you are combining prescription with OTC, be careful about stacking too much acetaminophen. Don’t let her do too much physical activity even if she feels okay–I made that mistake and it knocked my stomach for a loop the next day.
Good words there Chizzuk. I won’t let her do a thing for days if I can avoid it. I posted this because I want to be good at taking care of her and this has given me some good ideas of what to expect. Of course, I’ll see what comes out of the consultation as well. My wife has been reading and reading all night herself. I’ve linked her to this thread as well so that she can read what people here say too. I’ll babysit for sure, and if she says funny things I have been given direction to record her so she can see it later, lol.
The idea to use a schedule for the meds is a very good one. If you can alternate Advil with the prescribed painkillers it should really help. Make sure you ask the Dr. if this will be allowed (it should be, but ask). Sometimes there are restrictions due to concerns about bleeding.
Kudos to you for being an awesome spouse and researching all of this.
Start the ibuprofen as soon as she can swallow. (Liquid formulation) Remember, ibuprofen and asprin aren’t just pain-killers, they are a specific treatment for swelling and inflammation.
Less inflamation - back to work sooner
And be prepared for grumpiness. Jaw surgery made me grumpy. Past the first day, it didn’t make me tired, and it didn’t make me immobile, so the grumpiness was more of an issue than it would have been if I was stuck in bed.
In my case the one that got removed was OMGwhydidn’ttheydothissooner!
It had been pretty much rotten for ages; all that was left was the root, one wall and the surface. But for some reason dentists kept trying to save it, until I finally met one who said “you know what, unless you’re really fond of that one I think it’s time for me to get the old-fasioned tools out and rip it.”
Not only did it solve the pain caused directly by it, but the rest of the teeth on the upper mandible suddenly got room to slide into better alignment. I had had this low-level background pain for so long I didn’t even realize I had it: gone. Places that had been impossible to clean? Now they’re easy to reach.
And other than 2-3 days of being careful not to chew with that end (much more difficult when both sides are affected), recovery was lightning quick.
