<p>Son is home on break this week, flies back to school on Saturday. Will be having three impacted wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow.
I’m concerned this doesn’t give him much recovery time, but oral surgeon thinks he’ll be okay. I certainly hope so-don’t like what I read about dry socket.
Any suggestions for food other than applesauce and yogurt? Any advice would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Banana milkshake (or anything that doesn’t have chunks or pieces), chocolate pudding, scrambled eggs. Be VERY vigilant about keeping ice packs on him; you’ll have to do it for him for most of the first day. Usually the doc tells you to switch sides every 30 minutes or so, and since he’ll be doing a lot of sleeping, you’ll have to keep up with this yourself.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>BE vigilant with the ice packs. Get bags of peas for extra contour. This ice packs and giving the pain med (Motrin) around the clock worked for of my kiddies.</p>
<p>We asked a doctor about flying after the wisdom teeth removal. He said not to worry about it. And it was fine. S had 4 removed on a Wednesday, and flew with us to Indonesia on the following Saturday. I know that everyone is different, but I wanted to pass on a good result.</p>
<p>Pudding, milkshake with a spoon (NO straw). Purreed Soup. Ice Cream. Mashed potatoes or sweet potatos. When D does hers, I’m going to try making her carrot souffle…</p>
<p>There were only three really bad things I can remember from when I got mine pulled:</p>
<ol>
<li>Waking up the next day with a mouth full of blood (kind of scary! but not disastrous)</li>
<li>Oral ulceration (see below)</li>
<li>The taste of the novocaine (it’s pretty nasty tasting, when the oral surgeon has to use a lot)</li>
</ol>
<p>(a lot of people complain about the noise, but I didn’t think it was a big deal. It was loud enough that it was a waste to bring my ipod, though)</p>
<p>Just be careful with trying to go too fast with things, it’s ok to subsist on liquid food for a while. It took me a couple days to get back to chewing anything at all.</p>
<p>And great if just motrin works, but if there’s still pain, there’s no harm in using the vicodin (or whatever is rxed) the first couple of days. There’s no sense in hurting unnecessarily, it’s what it’s there for.</p>
<p>And I wish my oral surgeon had told me about the ulceration. It’s a natural reaction for the gums in your mouth to react to trauma by making tiny, white, very very painful spots all over (in fact, they were far more painful than the actual wisdom teeth sites) </p>
<p>These are EASY to fix. The generic Rx is called “triamcinolone acetonide”, it will make the painful spots go away in hours. If you get these, call your surgeon and ask if this is avaliable/safe (or if he/she has their own preferred Rx)</p>
<p>And IRRIGATE regularly. Your surgeon should give you a plastic irrigator. Don’t use alcohol mouthwash (burns horribly) or hydrogen peroxide (dissolves the stitches)</p>
<p>My S had his removed last summer before starting school. He was completely back to normal withing a few days. He had all sorts of rinses, irrigation syringes, etc to use. He had some swelling for a few days, but nothing too bad. It was really quite uneventful. He barely used an pain medicine after the first day.</p>
<p>I have done this three times for three kids. Our oral surgeon says everything already posted except that BOYS do better than girls. He claims it is because nothing will stop boys from eating and chewing is beneficial. He says the jaw action of chewing makes recovery faster and advises anything except the obvious hard foods (like Doritos, raw carrots, etc.). Good oral cleaning is needed to clear the sockets afterward, being very careful to be gentle.</p>
<p>It seems to have worked for us. My son recovered more quickly than either of his sisters. A long weekend was good enough for all three but he felt and looked the best after three days.</p>
<p>Really, do nothing for the 3 days afterward (except TV, movies, etc) </p>
<p>Even if you’re recovering fast, only do things that you really feel like doing. Otherwise, that’s energy that should be used for healing.</p>
<p>yes, girls are more likely to have problems, and it can be tied into the phase of their menstrual cycle when the surgery ia performed: so you son doesn’t have to worry about that! Another good food suggestion… cottage cheese.</p>
<p>My son had three of his wisdom teeth pulled over the winter break and only needed one day of laying around with ice packs and soft foods. He took one motrin right after we got back from the surgery (he did it under a general anesthesia) and that was all. No swelling or complications. I was happily surprised.</p>
<p>It depends a bit also on whether they’re impacted or not. If they’ve come out on their own, the extraction is usually simple and doesn’t really require much healing at all (it almost hardly qualifies as surgery)</p>
<p>If they’re impacted and the surgeon needs to (for lack of a better description, sorry) smash them into pieces, that’s a bit more invasive and might take some extra time healing.</p>
<p>My D1 had all 4 impacted wisdoms out over a Thanksgiving break. She was very good at rinsing and taking care of icing. She had them out on Wed, I think she may even had some turkey on Thursday.</p>
<p>Because her teeth were impacted we were able to submit her bill to medical and dental insurance. We had to pay very little out of pocket. Just to make sure you get the medical part pre-approved.</p>
<p>Get a few cans of Ensure just in case if he really couldn’t eat. Ensure has enough protein to be a substitue as a meal. You probably could make a shake out of it.</p>
<p>D had 4 pulled over a long weekend. Little swelling or bruising, but Oxycontin did not touch the pain, so she went off after 4 days. Irrigate, Irrigate, Irrigate despite discomfort (your may need to watch to make sure that they do) 4 days after end of antibiotics, major infection exploded, which she is still fighting.</p>
<p>Both APChem and APCalc Teachers noticed the even 5 or 6 days, even a week after surgery she could not access information quickly. Both said it was a hoot to watch. She would stare blankly, then look a bit pained as the wheels turned, and then poof, the information arrived. Pain meds or infections - something definitely affected brain function for up to a week. </p>
<p>The upside is that D reported loudly to her friends the ineffectiveness of Oxycontin. The perception alteration is like a migraine without the pain. And it does zero for Menstrual cramps. Hopefully this negative press will put others off Oxy adventures of their own.</p>
<p>Just did this with younger D – she did great. Don’t let all the bad stories scare you. As others have said, keep up the ice and pain meds and don’t worry about a little bleeding.<br>
We bought little Jellos and puddings, yogurt, and ice cream. Got her a shake one day, a smoothie the next. Then went on to Cheerios that had been sitting in milk for awhile, soup, and soft buttered noodles.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences and advice. I’m off to get frozen peas, pudding, etc. I’ll be sure to be on top of the icing and irrigation. Thanks for the reassurance about flying, caution about mouth ulcers and insurance.<br>
Son loves oatmeal, I may try making that in the rice cooker-it comes out creamy.
Carrot souffle sounds good with or without tooth extraction!</p>
<p>Haven’t read all the posts carefully enough to see if this was mentioned…pasta (elbows, not spaghetti…no slurping allowed) that is cooked a little beyond al dente is also good to serve. With any cooked food, however, be careful it’s not too hot.</p>
<p>My kids really liked ices/sorbets after the procedure.</p>
<p>My favorite thing when I had mine out was Bob Evans mashed potatoes from the refrigerator section at the grocery store- they’re a good comfort food, plus something more savory tasted good after all the sweet yogurt, pudding, sorbet, Carnation instant shakes, etc.</p>
<p>One of our family favorites for wisdom teeth extraction recovery has been homemade smoothies using frozen strawberry daiquiri mix combined with fruit juices (no alcohol, lol!). And as others have said, no straws. </p>
<p>I also want to second the recommendations about being on top of your kid using irrigation to keep everything clean and healthy. My kids were good about it and had no problems. My nephew went to a different oral surgeon, was not given an irrigation syringe or similar, and developed an abscess from entrapped food about a month or so later. I thought irrigation was standard care so you might want to ask about it if it is not covered in the post-op instructions.</p>
<p>Just saw the post above about mashed potatoes. Instant mashed potatoes were a big hit with my boys, too.</p>
<p>NO STRAWS!!!
A multivitamin a day for a few days before the surgery (if he doesn’t regularly take vitamins), may help prevent or less the mouth ulcer issue. I’m very susceptible to ulcers, I got a big one several months ago from the cotton pledget used during a simple filling replacement, my mucosa does not like to be dried out or pressed against.
Ask if you can get the antibiotics in liquid form. My D had 4 cut out, and she had difficulty taking her antibiotics and pain meds because of prolonged numbness, they just poured out of her mouth. We gave her liquid Tylenol, and that ended up being sufficient for the pain, but the other pills were a pain.</p>