DS had his wisdom teeth out last week, and his recovery was relatively uncomplicated. But today he had awful constipation, complete with impacted stool, and he has had a miserable day. This has never happened to him, but it is probably the result of the soft diet - vegan jello, yogurt, ice cream, applesauce. I did give him pureed soup but apparently it wasn’t enough fiber. He also was not doing his usual daily runs. And he was taking the painkiller for a couple of days. He wishes now that he had stopped the painkiller earlier and I am kicking myself for not getting more fiber into his diet. I offered to blend a salad one day but he said it sounded disgusting.
He is fine now after two calls to the doctor today, glycerine suppositories which didn’t work, and a saline enema which did.
If oral antibiotics were used, that can also cause constipation due to disruption of gut flora. Of course, lower fiber diet, less exercise, and opioid drugs can also contribute.
Oatmeal and other whole grain hot cereals can get fiber into a soft diet.
I thought antibiotics had the opposite effect. Pain killers can stop you up----there is an opioid now that is supposed to not do that with a name like Move-antic.
I would have suggested Milk of Magnesia, it is like bowel dynamite.
The prednisone is usually done before the surgery, right?
So with a patient who’s away at college, it may be necessary to get the prescription from the oral surgeon in advance and mail it to her so she can get it filled in her college town.
Re constipation: It was probably the result of the opioid painkiller, which a lot of people don’t like anyhow because it makes them feel draggy and stupid. It’s good to ask the oral surgeon when it would be OK to switch to ibuprofen – maybe at a prescription-level dose. The oral surgeon might not want the patient to take ibuprofen the first day because it promotes bleeding, but it could be a good switch for the second day. Even my son, who had a more difficult time than average with his wisdom teeth, wanted to take ibuprofen by the second day so he could play online games – and he was right. The online games were an excellent distraction from whatever pain the ibuprofen couldn’t handle.
Opioids are probably overprescribed. Indeed, with the risks of addiction and other unpleasant effects, patients of wisdom tooth removal may want to forego them.