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<p>Wow, he had a hard time.</p>
<p>One of my kids was able to switch to ibuprofen after about 3 days. The other switched the morning after the procedure (and generally didn’t understand why people fuss about wisdom teeth because the whole thing was a piece of cake).</p>
<p>Your mileage may vary. Greatly.</p>
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<p>Yogurt or kefir is probiotic, has calcium (for bone healing), and has protein (for general healing).</p>
<p>Other soft foods that can be useful include oatmeal or other hot cereal with eggs mixed in for extra protein. The fiber in oatmeal and other whole grain cereals can help with digestion, especially if eating fibrous vegetables is limited by chewing difficulties. Mashed (“refried”) beans can also contribute fiber and protein; add non-chunky salsa to add vegetables.</p>
<p>My daughter - who is lactose intolerant - wanted a shake afterwards. I got it for her and just didn’t let her use a straw. I agree that it was almost a comfort issue.</p>
<p>I remember back when I got mine out I couldn’t open my mouth enough for the pills and had to crush them. I ended up with a two week recovery time because I got an infection, then some weeks later bone fragments started working their way up through my gums and out. It was a rather brutal extraction apparently. I had TMJ for years afterward. Make sure you get a good dr. who doesn’t do that to you. My sister also had problems and had gone to the same dr.</p>
<p>Lactase enzyme tablets can be used for the lactose issue, although yogurt and kefir have lower lactose than plain milk.</p>
<p>Sorry to hijack… Son needs his wisdom teeth extracted, but never seems to have enough down time in his schedule to take a few days off. He has class on Monday and Wednesday nights. If he has the extraction done on a Thursday morning, will he more likely than not be okay to make class the following Monday night? Thanks!</p>
<p>My S had his done this summer. I had friends tell me to prepare for the worst, one friend lost weight, ate nothing but mashed potatoes for a week, etc. </p>
<p>S ate soft foods (they recommend cold) the first day - yogurt, jello, water ice, and then wanted some soup and mashed potatoes for dinner. By the next day he was ready to eat a sandwich. They prescribed Percocet but he never took it, he took an Rx anti inflammatory called Lodine which was just fine.</p>
<p>His friend ate a hamburger on the way home from his extraction! I do think there is a certain amount of “reverse placebo” effect. If you expect to be miserable, you will be. Unless your teeth are really impacted or something.</p>
<p>I had mine out with just a local. Drove myself AND MY KIDS home after that. I don’t remember more than a day or two of tenderness.</p>
<p>westcoastmom, if he can hold off, I’d recommend waiting until one of his school’s breaks.</p>
<p>All good suggestions above. Take it easy, use your frozen peas, keep on top of the pain, don’t overdo.</p>
<p>Here’s why you get your wisdom teeth out as a teen: a good friend, age 41, had a partially impacted 3rd molar. 10 days ago, gum swelled, tooth was severely decayed, norco NOT touching her pain. She came in, massive infection, off to oral surgeon THAT morning. Tooth extracted, area swelled, infection got into her blood stream. She was seeing the OS every day for drainage, heavy doses of oral antibiotics. On post-opday 4, she was hospitalized for a 2 hour surgery under general and stayed 4 days on IV antibiotics. She is healing now and will be okay, but this was terribly scary for her, her family, the oral surgeons, and me.</p>
<p>These are the infections that people can die from. My friend waited 20 years too long. She was afraid, and there was never a “right” time. So parents, don’t wait; make it work.</p>
<p>DS had his done earlier this summer. Unfortunately one of his bottom sockets would not clot properly so he ended up back at the ortho office and they did what they do for a dry socket which was extremely painful. There is no way he would have been able to take his meds on time around the clock by himself. Basically he tried to sleep through those really bad days of pain. Also the original pain meds made him nauseous so it had to be switched. I thought that it would be a relatively easy thing to do because DS is really good with pain and hardly ever sick. But it was awful for him. Some people have an easy time but there are others who it’s not. I would recommend waiting until DS has more time. Just in case he runs into problems.</p>
<p>Also they have lowered the maximum dosage on tylenol. So make sure and check that if you are using it for pain.</p>
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<p>D1 had hers done on December 26 during her freshman year of college. Worked out well, she really didn’t have anyplace she had to be for a couple of weeks. She is kind of a wimpy patient, so I figured she might need some extra recuperation time. But D2, who is my tougher one, had some difficulty too. She had hers out on a Wednesday morning, and had to be back at work on Friday night. Her first couple of nights at work were rough (I drove her, as she was still taking Vicodin). Okay after that.</p>
<p>If you will indulge a story:
A thousand years ago ( or about 1974 ) a boy got his wisdom teeth removed during his Thanksgiving Break freshman year. He suffered enough that his mom actually let the girlfriend into his bedroom sanctum to chat and divert him. That was the last time I was allowed upstairs until we were married.</p>
<p>Don’t know if it was mentioned or not, but scrambled eggs on day 2 worked well as a food for our guys.</p>
<p>Much great advice here so will only add on with duplicate info. Obtaining meds and any needed supplies is advance is key, as the patient can be a little needy for the first couple of hours.</p>
<p>Frozen bagged veggies worked well as ice packs. Sit upright for as much time as can be tolerated. </p>
<p>Surgeon sent us home with a small supply of gauze squares but we could have used a few more, so stock up or ask doctor for extras to staunch bleeding. </p>
<p>I am not sure what a dry socket is but my son had a spot on each side that didn’t close up and was trapping food. He then had to use a little syringe to squirt water to irrigate the wound sites for a few/several weeks. One hole closed sooner than the other but eventually, both healed over. He didn’t suffer extreme pain but clearly was on his way to an infection from the lodged food.</p>
<p>He recovered very quickly. Had surgery on a Friday morning and was completely fine by Sunday morning, but he also bounced back quickly from tonsil and adenoid removal when younger.</p>
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<p>When the presumably partially erupted impacted tooth started to decay, that is when removal should have been indicated if one did not do prophylactic removal. You do not want to wait until the decay gets so bad that it becomes an emergency.</p>
<p>Certainly the best time to remove a wisdom is before it becomes an emergency (whether prophylactically or at the first sign of trouble). However, many young people in their 20s fall behind or put off dental care because their parents are no longer paying for it.</p>
<p>Many people also believe if it doesn’t hurt, it isn’t a problem. There are very few true dental emergencies–most are just neglect.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the advice and stories of your experiences.</p>
<p>My daughter read everything through with care. She hopes she’s one of the ones who recovers quickly.</p>
<p>Her dentist already recommended pre-op pineapple juice and also is having her get her meds ahead of time.</p>
<p>Surgery is in about 10 days, so I’ll let you know how it goes.</p>
<p>One thing I will add is that extraction of impacted wisdom tooth is covered by your health insurance. I would look into to see if you need pre-approval.</p>
<p>Both of our kids recovered very fast by following the doctor’s instruction to the T. They rinsed their mouth with salt water after every meal even when they were no longer in pain. We were lucky with the surgeon we used. He was very good at extraction, he didn’t beat up my kid’s mouth too much, so they didn’t look like chipmunks.</p>
<p>My daughter had three impacted wisdom teeth removed in June. The 4th sits too close to the nerve so they chose to wait with that one. It’s not giving her trouble, but if it ever does they will have to remove it and deal with the nerve issue. She had it done on Monday morning and by Friday night she was out eating dinner with her friends. She had some swelling but nothing terrible. The first 3 days were awful- lots of crying and pain. I should have gotten the meds before the surgery. After day three there was a huge improvement. It was shocking to me how she went from pain and misery to being perfectly fine within 5 days. On the first day I never believed it would happen. She also rinsed with salt water and had food lodging in the hole.</p>
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<p>This varies by insurance plan and company. In our case for D1, the health insurance company rejected the pre-approval sent by the surgeon’s office. We had dental insurance that covered a little less than half of it, then the rest was paid out of pocket. But the surgeon’s office submitted the remaining amount to the health insurance company anyway, and presto – they paid! So we got our out of pocket payment back.</p>
<p>For D2 they also rejected the pre-approval. We had to pay a large portion again, but I asked them to submit to the health ins company to see what happens. Nothing yet…</p>
<p>But there is no legal obligation for a health insurance plan to cover wisdom tooth removal, and I believe covereage varies from plan to plan.</p>
<p>Health insurance plan is obligated to pay what’s clearly spelled out in their coverage plan. If the plan says impacted tooth extraction is covered then it is covered. Most plans do cover it. We had to pay for very little for both of kids’ surgeries and they were done 5 years apart with different insurance policies.</p>