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Wisdom teeth advice?
Dunxco
Should get a suitNever skips breakfastRegistered User regular
Should get a suitNever skips breakfastRegistered User regular
Recently my jaw's been aching off and on since just before the weekend (Thursday or Friday night, I believe). I chalked it up to some arbitrary bash I might have accidentally taken at a house party during the week. Now, after having a look in the mirror while flossing, I've reason to believe the ache has been due to a wisdom tooth coming through (it's on the top set, left side at the back. On the right there's an "empty" space of gum at the end of the row. The same space on the left side is filled with a tooth).
Now, like I said, I've been having jaw aches. It's been clicking a little sometimes when opening and closing my mouth, and today there were times of difficulty eating dinner - nothing earth-shatteringly difficult, more just a slight hinderance, and the jaw aches aren't that bad at all. It feels stiff.
But, if this thing's here to stay (or not as the case may be), I've got some general questions:
1) Do most people keep their wisdom teeth?
2) How long does it take for any discomfort caused by a wisdom tooth to subside?
3) What do I have to look forward to after the surgery (what sort of foods I can eat, extra maintenance of the wounds, etc.)
I'll probably book an appointment with the dentist soon - it's been nearly 6 months since my last check-up, but can anyone who's been through the emergence of wisdom teeth give me any advice?
Now, like I said, I've been having jaw aches. It's been clicking a little sometimes when opening and closing my mouth, and today there were times of difficulty eating dinner - nothing earth-shatteringly difficult, more just a slight hinderance, and the jaw aches aren't that bad at all. It feels stiff.
But, if this thing's here to stay (or not as the case may be), I've got some general questions:
1) Do most people keep their wisdom teeth?
2) How long does it take for any discomfort caused by a wisdom tooth to subside?
3) What do I have to look forward to after the surgery (what sort of foods I can eat, extra maintenance of the wounds, etc.)
I'll probably book an appointment with the dentist soon - it's been nearly 6 months since my last check-up, but can anyone who's been through the emergence of wisdom teeth give me any advice?
Dunxco on
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To be honest, I've had it for years, and done nothing about it. My jaw cracks and pops like it's going out of style, and on bad days (5 times a year, maybe?), I can't open my mouth wide enough to take a bite out of things.
My gums were numbed with Novocaine then the dentist did his thing. They extraction took less than a minute, literally. However, I presented almost ideal pulling conditions. The stitching took about a minute and then I was fine. That day I was a little dizzy after everything but the Novocaine lasted a good 4 hours before lessening so even that night I had only slight aching. The next day I was aching something bad and definitely need the Vicodin. Never having any pain medication aside from Advil I was pretty loopy and had issues standing up so most of the next 3 days were spent in bed while the aching improved. I stuck with liquid and yogurt for the first day, but within 48 hours I was able to eat regular food, carefully.
This isn’t really a terrible surgery. The anesthesia is light, so you will either wake up feeling groggy and pleasantly stoned or just a little icky, depending on how you react. Afterwards the pain is generally more of a localized ache. If you take the pain meds and steroids the doctor supplies you’ll get through it fine.
The worst part for me was having to clean out the holes while they healed. It doesn’t hurt, it just feels gross to jam something down into the holes and flush water through them.
Your mouth will be pretty numb after the surgery so you can't feel anything at all, well I accidently stabbed the stitches with my spoon. After spitting out a mouth full of blood for a few minutes I was alright. It was hard to sleep at night because I can't fall asleep unless my head is laying down on the pillow facing the right. That is very difficult to do after getting your teeth taken out.
Most important thing to do is remember to clean your mouth with salt water after you eat, you should get quite a bit of food chunks out. Never pick at it though, you will probably try picking the scab out, don't do it. About 6 months after I was still getting food stuck back there, I still do not (about two years later) but it is not bad at all. Just a little bit of water gets rids of it.
I'd agree with this. I would hazard a guess that what you have, OP, is temporary, though...if you haven't experienced this before, and have only started experiencing this after coming back from a party, you could've just strained your jaw in one way or another.
A friend of mine had temporary TMJ due to clenching her teeth a lot over the course of a week or two, when she was really stressed.
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If your gums/jaw/teeth-areas are bothering you, that'd be more along the lines of the type of pain I'd think you'd get from wisdom teeth. Some people can keep theirs in, other people can't. I think one of the reasons, in part, is whether your jaw has enough space to accommodate the new wisdom teeth or not.
You won't feel anything as far as pain goes, for the most part, and they should give you some intense painkillers. Do not be afraid to take them, regularly. Regardless of what you do, though, your jaw is going to swell up. For the first three or four days, it'll get worse. Not the pain, necessarily, but the swelling. Each one might not swell equally, though, so your face might be asymmetrical for a while, causing you to look ridiculous. After the fourth day, though, it starts going down if you heat/ice it appropriately.
Eating for me was a little difficult for a while. For the first and second day, you're going to want to eat extremely soft things that are about room temperature and confine them to your tongue, and swallow. Good things are scrambled eggs, pudding, applesauce, warmish tomato soup, mashed potatoes. Something to avoid is rice, because while it is soft, it is likely to get tiny grains stuck back there and that is awful. After a bit, though, you can eat things like soft toast and butter or things that you can chew awkwardly with your canine and front teeth. You will not be able to use a straw for any of this, though, so keep that in mind. You'll also need to brush your teeth after every meal, as well as rinse your mouth with warm salt water to prevent infection.
After about a week, though, you'll be pretty much in good shape again. You won't need pain medication, and your sockets will be healed enough to handle normal chewing. Today I ate normal things like chicken wings and salsa and chips without issues, but I'm still careful about it. I can't open my mouth all the way yet, but I am well enough to sing/perform at renaissance faires again.
tl;dr: Hell for a week, pretty okay after.
That said, you may need to have your wisdom teeth out someday, anyway. Mine had to come out because they'd frigged up all the neighboring molars (three of which ended up also having to come out). The roots hadn't come in right, and they were about 3/4ths of an inch long on each wisdom tooth. (Stuff like this is why you want your dentist to do an x-ray.)
I didn't have too much swelling or pain, although I did have some sinus pain and my jaws would ache a little for the first couple days. There was a lot of blood for the first 24 hours each time; I found I could just drool it into a cup (gross, I know) and it didn't disturb my clots the way spitting probably would have, and it didn't make a big mess--I just had to wipe the corner of my mouth with a wet tissue. I also made sure to have my pillows wrapped in a couple of old towels for the first night after each set of extractions. Otherwise you're likely to get blood and nasty crap all over them.
Make sure your dentist knows what you need to keep you comfortable, if that includes pain meds for after, and how numb you need to be. I have a pretty high pain threshold, but even so, my mouth is pretty sensitive, so I ended up having five shots of novocaine each time. This was good, because I didn't get to be put under, which is what he'd said he'd do when I set everything up with him... he didn't think it was necessary. It was not as bad as I thought, although I don't think I'd want to do it for fun....
If you're worried about keeping your diet at least relatively nutritious, try some Ensure shakes. I tried them on the advice of H/A and they worked really well for me. I thought the chocolate ones (milk chocolate and dark chocolate) were the least-vitamin-tasting, and actually tasted pretty decent, while the strawberry and cream ones were the worst (pretty gross). YMMV. Otherwise, I ate pretty much the same diet as ZeitgeistHeist for the first three or four days.
Good luck.
It was actually kind of fun and there is something of a funny feeling having a big bad hole in your mouth
But I have an infection and have to go back to get rid of it