These past two weeks have been long, boring and painful. Why exactly? Because I finally got my wisdom teeth removed. A majority of people go through it, and it had to happen, but frankly, the recovery was much more difficult than I predicted. I learned a few things about how to stay comfortable during those difficult weeks, and hopefully, some of my experience can help with yours as well.

While everyone’s experience can be different with pain levels, mine was pretty intense in comparison to my brother’s pain (since we did have our removal the same day it’s easy to compare our experiences). I had to get all four of my teeth removed, whereas some people only need two or three removed. Mine also happened to be impacted, meaning that hadn’t broken through the gum yet so the surgeon had to dig a bit to get them out.

The first thing is definitely make sure you have movies and television shows ready to watch. For the first two days, I didn’t really watch so much TV, but instead slept all the time. It was ridiculous how much I slept. I would take a three hour nap and then wake up for an hour, only to take another three hour nap. Once you’re finally able to stay awake for an extended amount of time though, you’ll definitely be wanting some good movies and shows to watch since you really can’t do much of anything else.

Additionally, make sure you have a ton of soft foods ready. My doctor told me soft food was only a necessity for the first day of recovery, but I found myself sticking to soft foods for at least a week or so after the surgery. Even if you turn out to be fine with eating a bag of chips and a sandwich the next day, it’s nice to have soft foods around for when you’re feeling particularly sore.

Since we’re talking about food, I should also mention to make sure you’re actually getting enough to eat and taking your medicine when you’re eating. While my brother just needed Ibuprofen to feel better, I needed the heavy duty medicine. All the pills I had to take made me extremely nauseous the first few days after my surgery. I can promise you that recovering from your surgery is bad enough without feeling like you’re going to barf at any moment.

This applies more to when you’ve had a few days recovery, but try to give yourself something to do while you recover. For the last week, I’ve done nothing but watch television because it was too painful to do anything simple like reading or hanging out with friends. However, if you’re feeling up for it, then go do something relaxed with a friend or start that book you’ve been thinking about for so long.

Lastly, make sure you keep the holes in your mouth clean. I know it’s gross, but this is an absolute necessity. I actually got an infection in one of my tooth holes because I didn’t know how to properly rinse it and my face swelled to three times its size. Besides, it’s pretty gross having food gather in the holes anyways to rinsing should come naturally.

Good luck anyone preparing for this annoying, but unavoidable procedure!