Care to share your experiences with oral surgery recovery?

I had a wisdom tooth surgery about 3 years ago.
—how long it took you to recover?
I’d say about a week. It was only one tooth though and I was very careful to not get any dry sockets, so your mileage might vary.
—what you ate during the recovery period?
Chow fun for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I never got tired.
—if you tapered off your pain meds slowly, or just waited until you felt all the way better to stop taking them?
I guess the latter. I only took pain meds when I felt like I was in serious pain, which was in the first three days or so.
—what movies or tv are good to watch while zonked out in bed all day?
Gory movies, so you can take your mind off the pain. I’d also recommend some comedy like Monty Python or some documentaries.

Feel better.

Just be careful with the vicodin. That stuff is mean if you get hooked. I just sent you a question I asked about it.

Poor @nikipedia – the swelling in your face is really quite dramatic!

I remember being swollen like that (after having all 4 impacted wisdom teeth pulled) for about 2 days. The recovery took about a week.. and I was eating solid food and not in a lot of pain from about day 3.

I didn’t take the Vicodin. I just took Advil.. I didn’t like how sleepy/zonked out the Vicodin made me feel.

My best advice:
1) Do your best to prevent dry socket (did they mention doing any warm salt-water gargles in your mouth?)
2) Try not to drink anything through a straw for a while (I know this seems counter-intuitive…because milk shakes would be a good “food” while you’re sore…but sucking thru a straw can cause you problems healing)
3) Soft, warm foods are your friends (soups, soft noodle dishes, pudding)
4) Try to walk around your house a bit – and try to keep on a near normal sleep schedule if you can. (moving around and getting up will help you heal faster, too)

Feel better soon!!

I had all my wisdom teeth out at once. I had a very easy experience.

—how long it took you to recover?
I was out of action for maybe three days, another week taking it easy, and pretty much all better within two weeks, as I recall.

—what you ate during the recovery period?
Home-made chicken soup was great. Apple sauce, ice cream, stews, other soups.

—if you tapered off your pain meds slowly, or just waited until you felt all the way better to stop taking them?
I tapered off. It didn’t take much pain med for me to not be suffering.

—what movies or tv are good to watch while zonked out in bed all day?
LOL. Well that’s up to your personal taste. I became a Fred Astaire fan one time when I was zonked on the couch. It’s probably a good time to watch epic series, movie trilogies, etc. Netflix online service would be good to have. If you are feeling dopey, then dummer series might be better than ones that require thought or attention. You could try foreign movies though – maybe your brain would try to learn the language while you sleep.

As a high-school student over forty years ago in preparation for braces, I had 6 permanent teeth removed surgically (in-patient, general anesthesia, one night in the hospital – things were done differently then). I think my recovery from the oral surgery was a matter of a few days and no severe pain. I think I took aspirin for the weekend after the surgery, but I really don’t recall.

As an adult I’ve had a total of three extractions (you would think that I’m a toothless old man, wouldn’t you? but I still have a mouthful of them), each one taken one at a time and separated by years. In each case the recovery time was measured in days. I’ve had no pain to speak of and no need for any painkillers at all.

“Recovery” to me consisted of the time it took to be able to eat solid food again without great consideration for the chewing process. That may have been about a week in each case, tops. During that time I ate a lot of spaghetti, tuna sandwiches and soup, which is not much of a problem for me since I like those things anyway.

If you’re feeling severe pain days after the extraction, then it’s likely that there may be some infection and/or chips of the extracted teeth remaining, especially at the site of the impacted tooth (they often have to be removed in pieces).

I hope you feel better soon.

Poor thing! I probably would have taken bromelain for several days before. Can you eat some fresh pineapple? The Ibuprofen will probably be the best drug in your arsenal for getting the swelling down and the pain under control. also lots of fluids and no straws.

The three days following my oral surgery were a blur. I was in a haze of painkillers. I don’t remember anything about what I ate or how. I assume some member of my family fed me. I have a dim recollection of some meals out of Gerber’s jars. I also slept with towels on my pillow for the blood. After three days I was somewhat able to function. As always with those things, I ditched the pain pills as quickly as possible and went back to OTC remedies. The prospect of chemical dependency is terrifying.

My son wasn’t told until after recovering from wisdom tooth removal that it hurts more if you lie down. He should have been sitting up with pillows behind him as you appear to be.

Don’t smoke. My other son couldn’t or wouldn’t quit for a few days after his wisdom teeth came out, and he got dry sockets, much more painful than the aftermath of the surgery itself.

Not then, but after a different surgery, I lacked the strength to watch anything on TV until recovery was well along. Then I watched a lot of daytime reruns of “Cagney and Lacey” and “Are You Being Served?” I recalled an article by Isaac Asimov in TV Guide about how daytime television helped him recover from surgery because it was so awful that he was really motivated to get away from it. Those were pre-DVD days, though. I’d go for something light and fairly brainless now, like some kind of fantasy-adventure with wizards and dragons.

Aww, poor little chipmunk face. :(

My recovery was awful, because I got the dreaded dry socket (and didn’t know that the hellish pain was not normal… no one had mentioned the possibility to me.) DRY SOCKET IS THE DEVIL. Sorry for shouting, but it’s true! No straws, no smoking. Recovery was probably delayed 3 days or so, since I didn’t get the dry socket taken care of right away. Hopefully, yours will be smoother.

I drank milkshakes (without a straw once I knew better!) Soft foods that were easy to chew. Loads of painkillers, until I was mostly out of pain.

If you have the Gameshow Network, watch old game shows all day. The Newlywed Show is hilarious.

Apparently the reason the swelling was so bad was due to a localized infection. The oral surgeon took one look at me and said he had to put me back under. Looks like I’m in for another couple days of bed rest and begging other people to cover me at work :(

Oh crap!!

I’m glad they caught it quickly, at least. Hope you feel better soon!