Eric Valenti
A&E Editor
On January 4, at 9 am sharp I had four teeth brutally ripped from my face.
Okay, It sounds harsher then what happened. But if you ’re planning to get your wisdom teeth out soon, might I recommend a few things?
Delete Instagram and Snapchat
Yes I know, I can’t go a day without at least swiping through Instagram at least once either but trust me on this one. If you enjoy making posts and even recording the occasional live video, this is a danger zone. Not even after fifteen minutes of getting my teeth removed, I was brought to the CVS parking lot where my Dad picked up my medication and left me alone in the car. Big mistake. I filmed a ten-minute live video which consisted of me trying to read comments and explain what it felt like to get my wisdom teeth removed. I was drooling and laughing, too high to realize where I even was. I was forced to remember, though, when I read the comments from my friends later: “How ya doin buddy? and “Are you a little high?”
Pain and Medication
Moving on. A big warning: the pain is unbearable for the first forty-eight hours. When I originally got home I was mostly numb and talking about a bunch of crazy stuff because of the drugs they administered during the surgery. But when I was done resting and forcing myself to eat mashed potatoes and other flavorless mushy foods, I began to feel a small pain on both sides of my face. I knew that the pain was inevitable but I wasn’t expecting to feel like two drills were digging their way through my tooth scars. What I’m trying to say is, make sure you get your medication as soon as you can — and get ready to scream from the pain anyway.
Get your food together and get used to eating mush
For the first days after the surgery, my food options were limited. You can’t chew anything or suck on any straws. Chewing can open your stitches and so can sucking. My food for the first five days consisted of mashed potatoes, smoothies, lentil soup, smaller sized pasta, and rice. Get used to never really feeling like your filled and wanting so many other things to eat besides what’s in front of you. Now that I’m healed, I never realized how much I missed seasoning and being able to chew my food. One thing that was fun to eat, though, was ice cream. Whenever I wanted just a bit of flavor, I would grab my phone and ten dollars from my Christmas money, order a pint of cookie dough from Grubhub, more specifically the restaurant Millie’s, answer the door in boxers and with blood in my mouth (no judgements when your dying) and just enjoy what I could.
Let yourself rest and don’t worry about what you can’t do
At the time of my surgery, I still had projects and other miscellaneous homework. I tried to push myself to get my work done and inevitably failed because of how horrible the pain was. So this advice is a little bit shorter but all I have to say is: just let yourself rest. It ’s hard to restrain yourself and letting yourself fail but you have to do it. If you push yourself too much after critical surgery you could be in bed way longer than you want to be. I tried to get my work done as well as trying to talk to my family… and I ended up making my mouth bleed two hours longer than it’s supposed to.
Get used to your new temporary lumps and bruises
By day three of my recovery, I was finally lucid and had enough strength to leave the house. I hadn’t even looked in the mirror for those two days but all I expected was a bruise or two. WRONG!!! It looked like I had two watermelons in my mouth, that’s how swelled up I was. These lumps were complimented by two huge yellow bruises on my cheeks and the lack of sunlight from those two days made me look like some sort of chubby yellow ghost. Only suggestion for this is trying to sleep with an ice pack on your face and pray that your lumps go away. Luckily, I only had to go to school for one day with my new lumps and was able to hide it by sitting with my hand on my face so no one noticed, by which I mean everyone noticed.
Cleaning Mouth Routine
My final piece of preparation advice is the cleanest piece of advice. When brushing your teeth, go extremely slow when close to your wisdom teeth holes. If you brush too hard you could make them bleed. So be careful. Your new friend is known as salt water rinse. Step one get a teaspoon of salt. Step two, get a cup of water. Step three, combine the two together in the cup. Finally, drink up and swish the water around your mouth and spit. Voilá, your mouth is pure. Enjoy doing this after every meal for one month!
It’s been ten days since my wisdom teeth were removed, and I actually feel pretty great. It honestly does feel like some sort of weight was removed from my gums or something. I’m back to eating normal food and back to my weird awkward self. When it’s your turn, just follow this guide and things should be fine. Remember: Take your meds, clean your mouth properly enjoy the mushy food and for heaven’s sake don’t film an Instagram live video. You’ll regret it!
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