So, both my kids are getting their wisdom teeth out this summer – what has been the typical recovery time for your kid and were there any problems? Trying to figure out timing…
My kid was miserable for a couple of days, and had no complications.
TBH, I say have them done as close together in time as possible so that your misery is over more quickly.
It depends so much on the kid as well as just how far down/impacted the wisdom teeth are – but it was no more than one bad day for each of my kids (plus a couple of additional days of trying to be a bit careful with what they eat). We used a wonderful oral surgeon so that may have helped them both as well.
FWIW my S had his wisdom teeth taken out in the morning and felt good enough to make plans to meet friends that afternoon (we compromised and had his friends come to the house as I was nervous about his going out) while my D took a day to relax and recover.
My kids both recovered pretty quickly but were very careful about following oral surgeob’s instructions to avoid developing painful dry socket, which some of their friends did get.
D was treated to smoothies in a bowl, which she ate with a spoon in her convalescence. I agree that having both kids having their extractions around the same time so they’re convalescing together May be easiest on the household.
Someone on another Wisdom Tooth thread suggested eating lots of pineapple prior to the extraction due to high bromelin content, which aids in healing. My kids didn’t do this but fortunately healed pretty normally.
You cannot predict how anyone is going to do - it varies so widely. My high school boyfriend was in pain for days. I felt fine that night. My daughter was in pretty bad shape for about a week!
I got all 4 of mine out the same day and felt fine that night, IIRC. My D was convalescing on smoothies and soups for about a week. I can’t remember S’s recovery but think it was rather quick (or I’d remember because he tends to be a grouchy patient). Agree it’s tough to know in. advance because partly it depends on how impacted the teeth are, personal pain tolerance and other factors.
The main thing is to pay close attention to instructions so the clit is not dislodged or the patient will get excruciating dry socket. Somehow I was never told about this when I had my extractions decades ago but never had that problem. Some of D’s friends did and were miserable so she was VERY careful.
My DD had her fully erupted wisdom teeth out, no complications, but a month later still noticed effects when playing at high level sports tournaments, her head aches easily with that level of exertion
Make sure to have enough cold packs or ice cubes on hand. They really helped when D2 had her wisdom teeth removed. Also be prepared to be a short-order cook and food retriever for a few days. D2 would tell me that she thought she was ready for X type of soft food and then find out, on first taste, that she wasn’t. So she’d request something else.
My S had his out a few weeks ago- all four. It was really two days on the couch with Netflix, dozing on and off, presumably bc of the pain meds. The surgery was on a Friday morning, and he migrated to ibuprofen by Sunday, and was back to school Monday. He complained a little that week, but then it was almost like it never happened! Good luck.
Only of my kiddos had wisdom teeth that needed removal. She chose to do all 4 at once. She healed quickly – within a week or so – but she looked like a chipmunk for several days. If both of our children needed the procedure I’d plan for at least a couple weeks between them.
S16 just had his removed Tuesday morning, and has recovered quickly. His brother made a potato casserole for him Wednesday, but he’s mostly taken care of himself.
I ordered this for my daughter along with some spare ice packs and she wore it religiously (20 min in and 20 min off cycles) for the first day and a half (not including overnight while sleeping). She was not really ready to go out until 2 days after the procedure. She also religiously used the squirting device they give you at your follow up to clean out the incision holes. In the end she had no problems.
Mine had 4 very impacted wisdom teeth removed 5 weeks ago. Was really miserable for 3 days, and wasn’t able to eat “real food” for nearly 3 weeks… her jaw was very sore, and chewing was difficult. Like others have said, following the oral surgeon’s pre- and post-op instructions to the letter is REALLY important.
My kid also had a reaction to the anesthesia – anesthesia amnesia, we called it. When she woke up, she had absolutely no clue where she was, why she was there, or who these people in surgical masks were. Poor kid was pretty hysterical… the nurse ran into the waiting room to get me. It took me about 20 minutes to calm her down. It was awful. They say it happens sometimes… It must have been terrifying … I guess she woke up and thought she’d been abducted by aliens! An hour later in the car on the way home she texted me “That wasn’t as bad as I expected, Mom!” LOL She had no memory at all of the traumatic episode, happily. She told someone the next day that I had been right there with her when she woke up and there were no complications. Sheesh.
Cold packs are useful.
Expect to have to eat soft food for several days afterward.
Bone healing may be helped by consuming foods with protein, calcium, vitamin C, and vitamin D. (Vitamin D can also be gotten with a little sun exposure on the skin.)
If oral antibiotics were prescribed, live culture yogurt and other fermented foods with live “good” bacteria afterward may be helpful to refill the gut with “good” bacteria to reduce the risk of digestive upset.
Some oral surgeons seem to be overly generous with opioid prescriptions, even though many patients will not need them at all, need far fewer than prescribed, or find that unwanted effects are worse than the desired effects.
^ Agree with @ucbalumnus – I was shocked when they handed me a prescription for 30 OxyContin tabs on the way out the door. We wanted to avoid using that, and she took Tylenol instead, except for the first 2 nights when the pain kept her awake. I will say that it is very important to stay ahead of the pain… the Tylenol was usually sufficient.
I have three kids who all had their wisdom teeth out, and we jumped at the chance to have the younger two (who are 20 months apart) have then out on the same day. They had fun watching movies together while recovering, and it’s not much harder to do ice packs and soft food for two than for one. I second following instructions, but we still ended up with issues: one got dry socket (very painful), and the other two got post-op infections. Hope you have better luck than we did!
Cold packs don’t easily conform to the contours of your face as well as frozen peas do…I recommend that you get a couple of bags of frozen peas (or corn, or ____) and wrap them with an ace bandage. I’ve heard others recommend using a bra to hold ice in place on both sides, but we didn’t try that.
Mine gets all four of hers removed in two weeks. Thanks for posting this! I will make sure to have bags of frozen peas and soft foods ready!
Kid 1: Miserable for a week, and then semi-miserable for another. SHe has low pain tolerance and over the counter pin meds don’t work great on her.
Kid 2: Was out doing things within 5 days. Has much higher pain tolerance.
S17 just had his 2 uppers (lucky kid doesn’t have any lowers) out yesterday - so far, so good. Hasn’t even needed OTC meds. Lots of complaining about his soft food diet!
S15 had all 4 out 2 years ago. One of them was impacted horizontally in his jaw bone. And he has a low pain threshold. Needed all of his prescription pain pills. After 3 days or so, pain was gone, and back to normal activities (but still soft food). Unfortunately, that horizontally-lodged tooth was on his nerve, and the surgeon must have nicked it. 2 years later and he still doesn’t have feeling back in his lower lip. An unfortunate situation for a horn player!