I recently had my wisdom teeth removed, and the surgeon explained that removing wisdom teeth only has to happen because evolution hasn’t caught up with our advanced dental care yet. Well, I think that’s pretty dumb. These extra teeth are there because our back molars used to rot out of our heads, and cause all sorts of issues like toothaches and crooked teeth. But removing them is no walk in the park either, and typically people get all four removed at once. Here are 15 things I learned really suck about wisdom teeth removal.
1. The 10-hour fasting period
It’s not even 24 hours, but the fact that you cannot eat or drink (not even water) at least 10 hours before surgery killed me. My stomach is a black hole, and it must be fed constantly.
2. The diet restrictions
Along that same point, you cannot eat solid food for a good few days after the surgery. Maybe even a week, depending on the person. I never realized how much of my diet was crunchy, chewy or required opening my mouth more than half an inch. All I wanted was a burger. Yogurt, Jello, mac and cheese and applesauce get old pretty quickly.
3. Not being able to talk properly
The day of the surgery, I was unable to talk at all due to the gauze in my mouth and my extremely swollen cheeks. Even after the gauze came out, the numb feeling in my lips and cheeks lasted for a couple days, making me lisp and unable to enunciate what mushy food I wanted to eat or whether I wanted ice for my face. Beyond frustrating.
4. Chipmunk cheeks
5. Tight jaw muscles
For about five to seven days after surgery, the jaw muscles are tight and knotted. So even after I could chew and have solid food, I actually couldn’t because my mouth physically would not open. It hurt to force it. Even with applied heat and massaging my face (which looked really awkward), it was a very slow recovery.
6. Dry socket
I didn’t personally get a dry socket, but I was constantly worried about it. You’re not allowed to rinse your mouth vigorously or use a straw, otherwise you dislodge a blood clot and awful pain ensues. I’ve heard it’s a common and terrible experience.
7. Tasting blood
I know some people who actually like the taste of blood, but I’m not one of them. And for a good week, I would randomly taste blood for no reason. I likely swallowed at least a cup of blood, which is gross to even think about.
8. Irrigating the sockets
This is the most disgusting part of aftercare for wisdom teeth removal. They give you a plastic syringe, which looks like the one in every pretend doctor kit for children, and advise you to, after day five, irrigate the holes in your face after every meal with salt water for two weeks. It still makes me squirm to think about. Eating becomes a chore because you have to clean out your sockets afterward.
9. Infections
To warn you against avoiding the syringe, they tell you that trapped food particles will cause infection. Which means a trip back to the office to treat, and it’s not a fun time for anyone. The idea that I could so easily have an infected hole in my face was not pleasant. It made me extra paranoid when rinsing them out after eating.
10. Jaw fractures
This is not something I had trouble with, but one of the risks of the removal surgery is a fractured jaw. This is especially possible with really impacted wisdom teeth, which was true of my bottom teeth. What fun.
11. Headaches and migraines
The tight jaw muscles cause other awesome things like constant headaches and migraines. It’s great when you’re trying to sleep.
12. Waking up at 5 a.m. when you don’t need to
For the first five days or so, I woke up at odd hours because the pain medication wore off and my jaw and mouth hurt like crazy. I liked to keep my medication by my bed so I wasn’t stumbling around crying at five in the morning because my face holes were bleeding and painful.
13. Sinus pressure/swelling and earaches
Your mouth, nose and throat are all connected. So this surgery also messes with your sinuses and ears. I’m prone to inner ear infections, so I had a lot of earaches and swelling in my sinuses. It just added to the misery.
14. Permanent numbness
Again, not a side effect I got, thankfully, but another possible struggle. For most people, the feeling of numbness or swelling goes away completely after a week. Rarely though, this numbness in the bottom lip, cheeks or tongue can be permanent. If the surgeon pinched or damaged a nerve in the lower jaw, this is entirely probable. I can’t imagine being permanently numb.
15. Exhaustion
I had mine taken out over spring break. I wanted to get all this homework done and complete internship applications, but this turned out to be mostly impossible. I didn’t realize how utterly exhausted I would be even days after the surgery. Whether it was the pain meds, the limited calorie consumption (the pain and discomfort made me not hungry) or all the energy put toward healing the face holes, I just could not keep my eyes open for more than a couple hours at a time.
All in all, wisdom teeth removal sucks. But after that week or so of misery, I will never have issues with them again. Doing all four at once was rough, but there’s no way I’d go through that twice. I’m glad it’s over.
