Any oral surgeon whose postsurgical instructions tell you that “It is important to keep ice packs on the surgical sites continuously for 48 hours after surgery” but also say “It is not necessary to use the ice overnight” is an oral surgeon whose advice I would not trust when it comes to pineapple or anything else.
My prescription is for 1.) homemade chocolate mousse, 2.) ice, ice, baby, 3.) Great British Bakeoff marathon, and 4.) STOOL SOFTENERS (if you use the opioids at all). Lol! This is what got D through her recent extractions like a champ!
Second the homemade chocolate mousse! Applesauce and jello are great, but after a couple days, DD really wanted kraft mac n cheese. If she can stomach scrambled eggs, they will help her get back to full strength rapidly. The other thing we gave DD was mashed baked sweet potatoes - the high natural vitamin content and fiber helped overcome the side effects of the painkillers - and it was easy to re-heat in the microwave. I was able to tease her about how much she LOVED them when she was in her high chair as a baby - and we ended up spending some wonderful time together going through photo albums - many pictures she was in but had never seen.
Make sure she is taking a multivitamin for a couple of weeks ahead of time, and eating, exercising, and resting well - hard to do all of this if she has it scheduled for just after finals. Hydrate a lot for 2-3 days ahead of time - if she is losing blood during the procedure, she will be better prepared to recover.
When my niece went through this, she swore that Gatorade was the master cure-all, so we bought a bottle ahead of DD’s oral surgery. DD said she could not stand it.
I am in favor of letting them have a full day of bed rest, then the following day, if they are up to it, be sure to get them walking.
The fact that you are going to be with her and showering her with love is what will you both feel better.
Is there something you can think of for her roommate - putting up with the inconvenience of you being there? Maybe bring some flowers, but get her a bottle of wine or maybe a gift certificate for a local restaurant for after you leave?
OMG @auntiek - yes on continually checking in on 25 year old as he was napping on day one with gauze in his mouth!
@3puppies, that’s a really nice idea!
I’m writing down all of these suggestions and making all sorts of plans. Thanks everyone!
Update from OP: just returned from my stint as Florence Nightingale, and D2 wanted me to thank all of you for the great advice, especially the pineapple tip and the PM that suggested we purchase a “jaw bra” (which turns out to be a Velcro wrap that holds a cold pack in place very handy!). Everything went well and she recovered very quickly – sadly, no embarrassing video to share.
But we did find this one of a family who convinced the kid that there was a zombie apocalypse happening right after her wisdom tooth removal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hVWEefD5ag
So, thanks CC for all your tips!
Don’t fill the RX or take the mad strong drugs. I think they gave DH 30 days of the sort of drugs they make documentaries about. He was barely conscious when I took him home as it was. Ibuprofen was fine.
I am glad for this thread as my younger son has his extractions of all,4 wisdom teeth scheduled for Friday.
My older son was very uninhibited after his surgery and offered to tell me and the nurse all his secrets! We told him he probably shouldn’t. We stopped at the pharmacy on the way home. I had to lock him in the car. I was a little afraid he might run away. When we got home I asked him to lie down but he started to run around away from me and telling me I wouldn’t be able to catch him! He is normally quite reserved, and not a wild child! I was beside myself what to do, but he calmed down. Then a couple hours later he felt well enough to have friends over to play video games. They ordered from Domino’s. They ordered Stuffed Cheesy Bread, and it had jalapeños in it. My son ate it by mistake. If there is one thing to not eat after wisdom tooth surgery, that would be it! After this adventurous day, there were no complications, in spite of (or maybe because of?) the cheesy bread.
D17 is having her wisdom teeth out tomorrow and I"m glad I starred this thread early in the year-I’m heading out to go get some frozen peas, and her sister’s going to whip up some jello.
Thanks for all the tips-she’s been through tonsil/adenoid surgery as a 6 year old, but this feels nearly as worrisome for me. She’s already made it clear she’s not going to take any opioids, so I hope she can get through recovery with just advil.
What about the pineapple, @MotherOfDragons? 
Hope all goes well tomorrow.
@doschicos she’s out with her friends right now, I just texted her to pick up some frozen peas and fresh pineapple on her way home. She said “gross, not eating that”. I said “pineapple is for eating, peas are for cold”. :-j
No food after midnight, but an early evening snack of pineapple should be ok from what I’ve read on this thread and others…
This is why it’s best to fill the prescriptions in advance if you don’t have a second person to help you. Of course, the oral surgeon may refuse to give you the prescriptions in advance, but it doesn’t hurt to try.
When my son got his wisdom teeth pulled, the oral surgeon refused to give me the prescriptions until just before the procedure. I immediately drove to the pharmacy to fill them. Unfortunately, the line at the pharmacy was long, and my son’s procedure was over before I got back to the oral surgeon’s office. I found my son sitting by himself in the crowded waiting room, high as a kite. He could easily have walked out the door and into the traffic on the busy street outside, and it is unlikely that the receptionist, who was very busy with other patients, would have noticed. When my second kid got her wisdom teeth removed by the same oral surgeon several years later, I raised holy hell about the first experience and got the prescriptions at the evaluation appointment. The oral surgeon reluctantly wrote them for me and dated them for the day before the surgery. It made a huge difference.
Ask the oral surgeon if ibuprofen is OK. It may not be OK for the first day because it can promote bleeding. I would fill the prescription for the opioid. Most likely, the patient will only need it the day of the surgery, and after that, ibuprofen will be enough (and will no longer pose a risk of excessive bleeding). Once you’re sure the patient will no longer need the opioid, it makes sense to throw the rest of the pills away.
Your kid is not going to get addicted to opioids by using them for one day. But without them – especially if ibuprofen is prohibited or is insufficient to control the pain – your kid could be in agony. Some people have very severe pain after wisdom tooth removal.
Most offices don’t let the driver leave during the procedure. My daughter is having hers out next Friday, and there was a big sign that said drivers must stay.
Oldest boy took an oxycodone after the first two but regular OTC stuff after the second two.
20 year old went in with a toothache, had one wisdom tooth pulled and didn’t even take an aspirin.
D, OTOH, may wind up on Youtube if her bf can figure out how to edit the footage. She had 2 teeth out recently. She and bf took the railroad out to the dentist in a nearby town. I drove over with the 2 middle boys to take them back to Brooklyn. H showed up on his motorcycle. When I went into the office, she was done and was in the post-op room, trying to dance with H, who was still on crutches after his double knee replacement (don’t even ask HOW he got the crutches on the bike, that’s another video). When I told her he couldn’t dance, she began to laugh hysterically and ran out to find the doctor because HE would dance with her. I finally got her calmed down enough to where I could dance her out of the office. Apparently, she was loud enough for the entire waiting room to hear. As I waltzed her out, one of the women there very loudly exclaimed “I’ll have what SHE just had!” I got her to the minivan and as she fell in, she looked up and saw her next younger brother and cried out - “X, you came, you came… Oh you love me, you really love me!” We finally started to drive and she went hysterical, crying out for her vanished teeth. She demanded that we go back and get them so that she could make “a necklace of beauteous teeth of wisdom” for her grand-daughter (she has no children!) and when I refused she tried to get out of the car. It took me, her bf and my 2d son to hold her down (3rd son was driving). We pulled over and I got out and put the child lock on - something we hadn’t done in years. She had to be escorted into her apartment by bf, both sons and her 2 male roommates! Bf then locked them in their room until she fell asleep. By the next day, she was fine. Two weeks later, I went to the same dentist. When I walked in, the entire staff looked at me and clapped. Then, they asked how my D was doing. I should have told her not to take Valium, that’s what it does to me as well. She now knows… no valium, ever.
Explain again why wisdom teeth must be removed?
Sometimes, they are impacted and can cause pain or infection. That, apparently, is the most common reason to remove them. As noted above, my oldest child had all 4 removed because he was in pain and they were growing in crooked, my D had two impacted, but has been told that the others are fine, my 22 year old’s aren’t even visible on x-ray, the now 21 year old had one removed and S17 has been told that his are coming in fine and he probably won’t need to have them removed. It’s a surgery that one doesn’t undertake lightly but when it’s necessary…
One reason is so that when you are 85 years old, you won’t need to have your child take you to get one out that was partially erupted and developed a cavity that no dentist would agree to fill.
If there is no room in the mouth for them to come in, they can press against the root of an adjacent tooth and damage it.
We had a dentist when my kids were teens who didn’t suggest removal unless there were problems. D#2 had hers out at 16 when one started coming in. Dentist said they didn’t have to come out, but that they would move her teeth again, and we’d just had years of orthodonture. Out they came. D#1 was very late in everything having to do with teeth (no teeth until 16 months old, didn’t lose teeth until 7+ years) and at 17 didn’t need them out. Now at 21, one is coming in, it’s infected, so they all have to come out. Since she’s now over 21, I get to pay for it. Fun.
I actually had two of mine out at 19, and still have the other two. I didn’t like the dentist who took the first two, and most dentists haven’t seen the need to have the other two out.
Really depends on the case. We stocked up on smoothie stuff (reinforcing no straws for a week), but my D had just one before she was eating normal foods by afternoon. She started with pasta. She was fine with just ibuprofen (3 of her 4 wisdom teeth were exposed, one only partially impacted), and only for 2 days. She never had swelling or dry socket. She did say that salt water rinses were helpful. I remember mine were miserable, but she was totally fine.