<p>Both my young adults had all 4 wisdom teeth out this past summer.
Follow the oral surgeon’s directions regarding rinsing, no straws etc.
Keep a written record/chart/list of which meds you have given at what time, as they will probably have pain meds, antibiotics and a prescription strength anti-inflammatory.
Do give the pain meds on a schedule at least the first 2-3 days, even if they feel like they don’t need it at the moment. This includes waking them up at night/early a.m. if necessary. It’s much harder to catch up than stay ahead of the pain- and it will hurt like heck!
For icing- get a couple bags of frozen peas, wrap in a dish towel. Use an ace bandage to secure one bag to each side of the face. Leave on for 20-30 minutes. Repeat every hour to hour and a half. It looks and sounds weird, but gets both sides done at once, leaves the hands free and worked like a charm- neither kid had any significant swelling. This hint came from my Nursing background, not the oral surgeon! Just don’t forget to refreeze the peas! Both kids had very sore jaws for at least a week, and after a few days they used a heating pad intermittently.
Don’t be surprised if they don’t want to eat much, and don’t push it, except for fluids. Good time for milkshakes, pudding, jello, gatorade, applesauce, yogurt, ice cream. Then you can slowly progress to scrambled eggs and soup!
My kids both had more pain and longer lasting soreness/stiffness than I would have expected, but no complications. Good thing neither had to go right back to work or school, do try to plan some extra time “off”! And good luck!</p>
<p>Yes it’s definitely a slower process than we expected! My daughter wants to avoid dry sockets if she can,</p>
<p>What a timely thread! My D is scheduled to have all 4 of hers removed tomorrow. She’s a nervous wreck. I had never heard of dry socket and now I’m nervous as well. I had no idea that she wouldn’t be able to eat solid foods for so long. I guess I’ll need to head back to the grocery store to get more soft foods. I did stock up on yogurt and ice cream this morning. I’m hoping she’ll be able to eat salmon by Sunday or else I’ll have to replan our Mother’s Day brunch!</p>
<p>Getting mine removed tomorrow morning so this thread couldn’t have come at a better time!</p>
<p>Kvillemom, was flying a problem? I’m having mine removed tomorrow (Fri) and my flight to GA doesn’t leave until Tuesday but I was kind of worried about flying and having complications while on vacation, or on the plane, etc.</p>
<p>Megpmom,I wouldn’t think she would be eating much by then. My d started with broth, then applesauce and baby food. If she was awake.</p>
<p>Staying on soft foods for longer than typically recommended (they often suggest that you can eat normal foods the second day) can help, but the soft food diet should be nutritious. A good amount of protein and probably calcium and vitamin D may help healing. Yogurt is good in this respect (and get some sunlight for the vitamin D to be able to use the calcium). Fish, tofu, poached eggs, eggs mixed into hot cereal, and well cooked other meats are soft enough and have protein.</p>
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<p>Antibiotics do tend to be overused in oral surgery. (Note also that they are often given in a single dose before the surgery, rather than multiple doses afterward.)</p>
<p>[Evidence-Based</a> Dentistry - No benefit from prophylactic antibiotics in third molar surgery](<a href=“http://www.nature.com/ebd/journal/v6/n1/full/6400307a.html]Evidence-Based”>No benefit from prophylactic antibiotics in third molar surgery | Evidence-Based Dentistry)
[Dental</a> antibiotic prophylaxis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_antibiotic_prophylaxis]Dental”>Dental antibiotic prophylaxis - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Antibiotics can cause digestive system upset by disturbing the gut flora that the patient’s gut is accustomed to. In some cases, the killing off of most of the gut flora allows bothersome strains to take up residence in the gut (these would otherwise be crowded out by the normal strains that are killed off by the antibiotics).</p>
<p>Writer1992> Flying was no problem at all (we checked with doctor beforehand). Just take pain meds and maybe one of those sports ice packs that you squeeze to activate just in case you are still sore. My D was fine except for some slight swelling. </p>
<p>One thing the doctor told us was to get my D something to eat as soon as we got home before the numbness wore off. What a joke! I tried spaghetti O’s and it was pretty funny. She could hardly find her mouth with the spoon and when she did the food just ran out because she was still a little loopy and way too numb.</p>
<p>Also, she didn’t use the prescription pain meds. They upset her stomach even when we tried 1/4 pill every 30 min like the nurse suggested. She did fine alternating Tylenol and ibuprofen every 3 hours (or maybe it was 2, the doctor can tell you). Just keep up with the pain meds and ice. Take the meds even if you feel ok. It’s better to keep a steady supply in your system than to try to play catch up. Also, we used rolled up tea towels to hold the ice packs in place and rotated 2 sets of ice packs at a time.<br>
Good Luck.</p>
<p>I had mine out 9 years ago and got dry socket. It was so painful that they changed me from vicodin to something stronger… but I was fine after they inserted the medicated gauze (that stayed in until they removed it). Stuck with the rest of my vicodin rather than the stronger stuff.</p>
<p>Long story short, I get menstrual cramps to the point of vomiting from the pain. My period started the day after I had the surgery and, unfortunately for me, my dad was taking care of me (retired at the time and mom was working) and he never gave me my pain meds on time (refused to unless I ate enough to satisfy him that I had enough to take the meds). Not having the vicodin on time (my usual meds for cramps anyways at the time) allowed pain through from cramps, I vomited, and I ripped open the clots.</p>
<p>Definitely do not vomit :(. Seems obvious, but it’s really something to be careful of.</p>
<p>My son had his removed a few months ago. He was scared to death of dry socket. The oral surgeon told him to only bite on the gauze for a few hours until the coagulation started. He still had blood in his mouth until the next morning and he was told a small amount for 24 hours or so was normal. He was also told not to suck or spit for a couple days and to let the toothpaste flow out of his mouth, and rinse with water or mouth rinse but no spitting. He was able to put his retainers in the first night (his didn’t go anywhere near the wisdom teeth area.) He ate soft food and smoothies (no straw) for about 3 days. He went to lacrosse practice on day three and I told him to tell everyone not to hit him hard! His favorite was mashed potatoes and chicken soup. He had stitches in the two lower sockets that bothered him more than anything and didn’t start dissolving until about a week. Food would get caught in those. He took Vicodin for about a day and a half and then switched to Advil. He had jaw pain on the bottom for about 6 days - enough to use Advil. The oral surgeon told him that would lat a week and magically on day 7 the jaw pain disappeared. No antibiotics were given but we were told to call immediately 24/7 if fever or any indication of infection. The thing that freaked my son out was the sockets turned gray and he kept thinking it was food, so we called the oral surgeon and they said that color was normal. Yes don’t vomit, don’t spit (let toothpaste, rinse, water etc. run out of your mouth) and don’t suck on straws. Good luck to all of you getting this soon. According to my son it’s not fun but not too bad.</p>
<p>Ubcalumnus brought up a good point about antibiotics.
Since they can wipe out healthy as well as unhealthy bacteria, it can help to supplement them by taking probiotics & eating good yogurt.</p>
<p>It may also help upset stomach caused by the medications, which could lessen nausea & vomiting.
Mint tea helps too - with the nausea.</p>
<p>Staying hydrated will help a great deal with healing. Even if you don’t feel like getting up to use the bathroom, try and drink a full glass of water when you take your meds.</p>
<p>Thank you kvillemom! Very helpful.</p>
<p>My D will have to have antibiotics due to a heart condition, but she eats active culture yogurt and typically doesn’t have stomach issues. Not sure if she’ll be able to tolerate the pain meds, though, as she’s never been on them. Well, we’re off to the oral surgeon in a couple hours. Fingers crossed!</p>
<p>Pain meds can mess with the stomach. I was given tolynal with codine and i kept it down (thankfully). But it was touch and go for a while there.</p>
<p>I feel kind of stupid now…I had two of my wisdom teeth removed today, the ones on the right side because they were bothering me the most. The dentist asked me which side I wanted done and I said right when I should have said both! LOL Now I have to go back in a few weeks to get the others removed. Oh well. Not as bad as I thought it was going to be - I’m still numb though. I was awake for the whole thing and only felt a little bit of pain on the bottom one, as it was impacted. I didn’t taste any blood or anything like that though - thank God. </p>
<p>The whole thing only took thirty minutes! Now I’m icing my face and I just took some Tylenol.</p>
<p>For me, the first day was the easiest. The third and fourth were the worst. It would have all been fairly mild had I woken for pain meds during the night, it was the mornings that were awful.</p>
<p>Personally, I’d put more than a few weeks in between the two if I could and if I had to split them at all. By the end of the week my stomach was all screwed up from taking pain meds for so many days and from my diet being so screwed up. Id had to take two weeks off from physical activity, and it was a month before I could return fully to my old routine. I’d have been a MESS if I’d done them back to back.</p>
<p>So far so good. D isn’t experiencing any pain yet (still 1st day) and is eating hot and sour soup and yogurt. We are using the Ace bandage trick to keep ice packs in place. Hope it continues to go well. Thanks to everyone for the suggestions!</p>
<p>You’ll look like a chipmunk for a few days, but it is soooo worth it in the end.</p>
<p>my D also used a hoodie (hood up) to keep the ice packs in place after the 1st day, rolled up tea towels for the first day and night. </p>
<p>I can’t stress enough to keep the pain meds going and ice every 30 minutes, especially the first 48 hours. It makes such a difference. </p>
<p>Writer1992> so glad to be able to help.</p>