Surviving Wisdom Teeth Removal: Surgery Day

Two days ago, I underwent surgery to have four impacted, horizontally growing wisdom teeth permanently extracted from my mouth. Three of the teeth were bony impacted, and one was impacted with the soft tissue of my cheek, so the oral surgeon and I agreed at our consultation that it would be best for me to receive general anesthesia throughout my surgery so that I would be konked out and oblivious to the pain.

Since my operation was scheduled for two in the afternoon, I awakened at six thirty so that I could have a bowl of cereal seven hours before my surgery to tide me over, as I predicted that I would not wish to consume any food shortly after my operation for fear of nausea and extreme agony in the teeth region. I had a glass of water and a bowl of Fiber One Honey Clusters, believing that it would be healthy, reasonably light, and filling owing to the high fiber content. Then I went back to sleep for a couple of hours to prevent myself from burning a ton of calories and getting hungry. Around twelve-thirty I awakened to get out some last emails because I had no idea how long I would be too insane from painkillers to respond to routine messages. Then, around one-thirty, I started to get a little bit hungry again, but it was time to drive to the oral surgeon, so that was distraction enough from my empty stomach. I would recommend a cereal high in fiber to those with afternoon surgeries, as it was effective in keeping hunger at bay for several hours.

When I arrived at the oral surgeon’s, I, of course, had to complete the ritual of waiting for the doctor to be ready to see me, because doctors are never ready on time, but patients are forced to pay cancelation fees and endure condescending lectures from receptionists if they arrive so much as one second late for an appointment. Once I was admitted into the operating room, the nurse checked my vitals, hooked my arm up to a monitor, and asked me to sign a document acknowledging that I was familiar with the risks of general anesthesia. After examining and signing this paper, I returned it to the nurse, who affixed it to her clipboard, checked that I was not on any medications and had not consumed anything over the past seven hours, and then left the room, assuring me that the surgeon would be in to attend to me in a few moments.

I watched the muted television in the corner for what was, surprisingly, only a moment or two. Then the surgeon came in. He confirmed that I wished to have all four of my wisdom teeth removed and that I was otherwise in good health—a condition where it would be safe for me to receive general anesthesia. Once he had done so, he sprayed cool water on my hand so that I did not feel much of a pinch when he poked the IV into my vein. The IV pumped general anesthesia, an anti-inflammatory, and penicillin directly into my bloodstream, so I would not have to worry about taking any penicillin until around one o’clock in the evening. Your doctor should explain what medicines the IV sends into your vein, but, in case they don’t you or the driver accompanying you should ask this question, so you know what to medicate yourself with and when.

The anesthesia knocked me out practically at once, and I remember neither when I konked out nor anything about the surgery. All I know is that I woke up about an hour later with a numb jaw and gauze jammed in both sides of my mouth, staunching the blood flow from the wounds where my wisdom teeth had been. A nurse escorted me down the hall to a recovery room and brought in my dad, who was the driver who would take me home from surgery. The nurse described again what medicines I had received from the IV, gave me the prescriptions for the medicines that I need to take during my recovery, and described how I should use warm saltwater to rinse out my mouth after twenty-four hours. After about fifteen minutes of regrouping in a lounge chair, my dad guided me out of the office.

We drove back home, and I plopped onto a leather couch in the den with a blanket the instant I got back. Having heard from a friend that swelling was reduced considerably with a regular icing regime, I asked my little sister, who had just returned home from high school, to get me an ice pack from the fridge wrapped in a thin towel. I kept an ice pack on my face for the next five hours until I went to bed, altering the cheek it was on in ten minute intervals, and, the next day, my swelling was nowhere near as bad as it could have been, so I definitely advocate a stringent icing approach.

Every half hour I changed the gauze in my mouth. The bleeding was fairly substantial, requiring four changes before the bleeding finally subsided. While bleeding was in progress, I bit down lightly on the gauze (not strongly enough to produce pain) to create pressure to help seal the cuts. During this time, it was less painful to have gauze in the wounds, and changing the gauze was agonizing and tingling in the area where my wisdom teeth had been. However, this meant that it was a good alert that the bleeding had stopped entirely when removing the gauze did not hurt. Another way to monitor how much the bleeding is slowing is to check how soaked with blood the gauze you are removing from your mouth every half hour appears to be. It is advisable to have a garbage can near your bed or couch for hygienic disposal of these bloody souvenirs of surgery, by the way.

Fortunately, I did not need to make use of the extra gauze I procured from CVS, but I still recommend buying it. It’s better to have it, not need it, and return it unopened than to have to deal with the stress of not having all the material that you need to recover from surgery effectively. You’ll feel calmer and more in control if you are ready to deal with potential problems before they crop up, rather than having to attempt to invent solutions in a heavily drugged state not generally conducive to genius ideas.

Four hours after my return home, I took my first painkiller. Before swallowing the pill, I had an orange cream Danimo smoothie so that the medicine would not be reacting against the lining of my vacant stomach. The texture of the smoothie made it easy to swallow, so I would recommend smoothie as a good transition food on the day of surgery to help you wash down your pills. That being said, the citrus of the orange stung my wounds, so I would suggest that you refrain from anything with orange flavor while you have cuts in your mouth.

At around nine o’clock, before I went to bed, I decided to have a light dinner of a low-fat Yoplait Boston Crème pie yogurt (Yoplait has a lot of tasty fat-free and low-fat flavors, so I love this brand and will plug it obnoxiously) and a fat-free Banana Cream Pie yogurt that was also manufactured by Yoplait. Both of these yogurts went down smoothly and filled me up.

One o’clock in the night saw me waking up to my alarm to take pencilian and painkiller washed down by chocolate pudding, which caused no pain in the back of my mouth and was easy to swallow. I checked off the medicine I had taken on my schedule and drifted back to dreamland.

Overall Tips:

1)      Make sure that you are familiar with any medicine that will be given to you via an IV.

2)      Have a schedule for taking your medicine because in a drugged state your memory may not be the most solid thing in the universe.

3)      If you have any questions you want to ensure that you ask the surgeon, mention those questions to the driver who will be accompanying you to surgery, because, if you are too drugged to remember the question, your driver can ask it for you.

4)      Make sure you have a driver with you if you are getting laughing gas or general anesthesia.

5)      Be hygienic and change the gauze every half hour. Deposit the bloody gauze into a trash can and empty the trash as soon as you are done putting gory souvenirs in it. Don’t leave blood just hanging around in your living room or bedroom. That’s just gross and won’t help you feel better any time soon.

6)      Be honest about any medical problems that you have before you are getting medicine pumped into you by an IV. It’s not safe to get general anesthesia if you aren’t completely open about your medical history with your surgeon.

7)      Ice like crazy. It will reduce swelling and make the next day less of an ordeal.

8)      Drink as much water as you can. It will sting your cuts, but it will prevent you from getting dehydrated.

9)      Try to eat as many liquid foods as you can manage. It will give you the energy you need to fuel your healing.

10)  Don’t take medicine on an empty stomach if you can avoid it. It can damage the lining of your stomach, and you’ve only got one of those.

Safe Foods to Eat at this Stage of Recovery:

1)      Smoothies.

2)      Yogurt.

3)      Pudding.

Be Wary of Eating:

1)      Anything citrus flavored. It will produce much ouch with your wounds.