Wisdom Teeth Surgery

Hanicombs

Hiya guys, I'm getting all of my wisdom teeth out on the 4th and I'm really concerned that with my diet pretaining liquids for a while, and the pain, will I be able to still try and stick to my diet/exercise plan? I pulled a muscle in my back a few days ago so exercise is already difficult with that pain, I was just wondering how bad it'd be while my mouth is healing.

CoffeeNCardio

I had my wisdom teeth out a couple of years ago. The pain was actually not all that bad. Granted, they had grown in, so they only had to be pulled, not surgically removed, so your experience may differ. I was only on liquids and soft foods for a few days before I was able to eat normally again.

By way of your weight loss, you can either choose not to worry about it, or you can choose to worry about it. You cannot change the healing process and you can only marginally control your pain level and ability to exercise during that time. So maybe focus on what you CAN control. You can control how many calories you eat. You can free yourself of the burden of guilt, because after all, these are circumstances outside your control. Roll with it. Healing up well, rather than trying to white-knuckle through this with some vague hope you'll gain something from doing that, is probably the better idea wouldn't you say? You can rest and heal for a week or you can fight hard for three weeks and get basically the same results. It's okay to take a break.

RodaRose

The pain meds will help you in the beginning. Take it easy on the exercise for a few days.

cafeaulait7

If they all get cut out like mine were, you aren't supposed to exercise for 2-3 days or something like that with the stitches. Your whole jaw feels too crappy to want a lot of blood throbbing to that region anyway, imho. That's not to say that it's incredibly painful --just sore. But the kind of sore you don't like aggravating, if that makes sense.

Use ice packs, btw. I didn't get much swelling at all with using ice frequently, and I even wanted pizza the night I got them done Nobody would give me any, but I swear I felt up to it I had some either the next day or one more, so pretty darned soon, lol. Good luck!

vespiquenn

I had mine surgically removed, and the pain isn't horrible. I remember being in bad pain for a day, but you get some pretty hefty pain meds, so exercise isn't recommended anyways for a few days after. I was told a week, but they didn't want anything happening to the stitches or getting dry socket.. And I've heard that having that happen is 3x more painful than the procedure.

As the above user said, use ice packs as much as possible. I ended up with killer bruising around my cheeks that eventually faded to yellowish. As an artist, I was ready to start smacking every person that asked if I had paint on my face (I was an angsty 17 year old hah).

farmerpam1

Mine were impacted. I slept a lot. Don't plan on doing much. I do know others who breezed through the whole thing. I was not one of them. Ditto on the ice packs, I had bruises and swollen cheeks. Look on the bright side, it will be a perfect time to take it easy on your sore back and you'll probably lose a few pounds from sleeping so much and not wanting to eat. Good luck.

amusedmonkey

Pain-wise, it's a walk in the park with the right pain meds. My gums are very tough so when I was kid all my teeth needed "help" to break through. My wisdom teeth never actually showed up until I got a major infection in my lower right side and I let it get to a point where it spread to the bone before I decided to do something about it. Even after an extensive surgery the healing was not as bad as I imagined it to be. You feel a bit of pain for the first couple of days, then it just feels "weird" and you feel kind of "protective" of it, but that's about it. Protective, in the sense that you pay attention to things that you usually don't, like you are aware of it when you happen to swallow your saliva and are very careful not to disturb it for example. You pay attention when you drink your food that it's the right temperature and that you don't suck it in too fast fearing you would disturb the surgical site, you are careful to avoid actions that causes the site to throb... etc. Mostly stuff in your head.

Exercise, I wasn't allowed to for the first two weeks, but your doctors may have different specifications for your particular case. I ate at maintenance during that time (except for the first couple of days where I was still groggy and did not feel like eating) so I did not feel like not exercising left me with too few calories. Liquid foods are not as satisfying as solid foods so the extra calories were welcome. Plus I knew I needed good nutrition to heal properly.

What was hard is that I had a very long healing time because the surgery was pretty involved and I got really bored of eating a liquid diet. In your case it may not be as bad. On the plus side, I have discovered some of the best soft foods I never knew I liked.

RodaRose

My dentist had me eating vanilla ice cream and frozen yogurt (no "pieces") for the first 24 hours to help with swelling and avoiding dry socket.

Lounmoun

Hanicombs wrote: »

Hiya guys, I'm getting all of my wisdom teeth out on the 4th and I'm really concerned that with my diet pretaining liquids for a while, and the pain, will I be able to still try and stick to my diet/exercise plan? I pulled a muscle in my back a few days ago so exercise is already difficult with that pain, I was just wondering how bad it'd be while my mouth is healing.

I had mine done a long time ago. I remember vomiting when I came home and going to sleep. I don't remember the pain being bad after the first couple of days. I had something to take for the pain.
It was challenging for food because my family were jerks about purposefully eating my favorite foods in front of me. I couldn't chew without pain so I didn't really want to eat them but it was mentally a bit negative. I don't remember being on a total liquid diet after the first day but I had to eat soft things that I didn't have to chew for awhile.
I wasn't exercising regularly at the time but was pretty much able to do my normal life after a couple of days.
http://www.acosinc.com/surgical-instructions/diet-after-wisdom-teeth-surgery/
http://www.omsanc.com/surgical-instructions/wisdom-tooth-removal.html
http://www.theoralsurgerycenter.com/surgical-instructions/wisdom-tooth-removal/

I wouldn't worry about diet or exercise for a couple of weeks until you are healed.

klund13

You won't want to do much of anything. Take it easy for a few days and follow their instructions.

emmycantbemeeko

No exercise at first- you don't want to raise your blood pressure and increase the risk of bleeding and dry socket. And it's pretty unlikely you're going to feel like it. Accept that going forward so you don't feel like a failure. It also takes most people a day or two to be completely over the side effects of anesthesia.

Mine were all impacted, enough so that they damaged an adjacent tooth taking one of them out, and while the pain wasn't terrible, just kind of achy, I did feel just plain run-down and tired for about a week, which isn't helped by the fact that your diet is so limited. After a couple of days on all-liquids and with little appetite from the pain meds you're probably not going to be feeling up to much but sitting in a recliner and staring at the tv.

Your body is trying to heal, so I would caution against restricting calories, too, especially if your typical deficit is very large. It's okay to take a short break on losing to ensure a quick and complete recovery from surgery. Doesn't mean you should stop paying attention to your intake- I suppose it's theoretically possible to go over your maintenance calories on an all-liquid diet, although I don't think I ever got close, and I was sick to death of jello and soup by the time I was done. But don't stress if you have to put losing on temporary hold over a real health problem.

Veryana

Get big straws from shop in case your jaw hurts, that way you won't have to open your mouth wide for eating. Food is pretty easy to do, a lot of smoothies taste great and you can add calories by adding ice cream or yoghurt to them. I'm having similar problem atm with septoplasty, I'm not allowed to eat hot or warm stuff this week. So far I survived just fine with smoothies which had fruits/berries, yoghurt and something to make it thin enough to drink it with straw. Also prepare a lot of ice cubes you can put in your mouth and keep there, it helps with swelling and bleeding. Also ice packs to press against cheek

And don't do exercises for few days. Spend the time doing something else like light stretching instead. Dealing with a lot of bleeding is nasty and it might be difficult to stop without help. Few days without exercises isn't going to do any harm to you.

robot_potato

Every experience is different. Mine were impacted badly. I slept through the pain for 5 days, which about when I could manage soft food. I looked and felt like I had gone a few rounds with Mike Tyson for a few weeks afterward.i wouldn't have dreamed of exercising then.
I have friends who have gone to work the next day, so you could be just fine. Won't know til you get there. Either way you should probably take it easy for a few days, you don't want to cause any bleeding and slow down your healing time.

Francl27

I only had two but they were very impacted. I really wasn't in that much pain, but it took over 2 weeks for me to be able to even eat soft broccoli. It sucked! And I looked like a hamster with bruised cheeks.

I don't think you're supposed to exercise anyway. All I did was walk more during that time.

For food, there are actually a bunch of options - protein shakes (you can thicken them with ricotta or Greek yogurt), soup (not tomato, and room temperature), pancakes, sausage, yogurt, I made a bunch of protein cheesecake at that time too, mashed potatoes, mashed carrots, ground meat (after a couple days), soft cheese (brie etc), applesauce, scrambled eggs, room temperature oatmeal (or overnight oats I guess), pasta...

You're not supposed to use a straw though! The sucking motion can give you dry socket...

VeryKatie

Honestly... you're probably going to be on pain medication which will make you sleep a lot. Give yourself a break. You'll heal fast enough.

When I got mine out I slept for 2 days straight and kept throwing up anything I did eat (which of course made them infected ick hahah).

Lucy1752

My experience was pretty anticlimactic. Lots of warnings and sympathy.
The doc cut them out, I slept for about 15 hours straight and two days later was Thanksgiving and I ate like nothing had happened.
Good luck and don't worry about it all too much. There will always be obstacles - that's just the fun of this thing called life.

emmycantbemeeko

Veryana wrote: »

Get big straws from shop in case your jaw hurts, that way you won't have to open your mouth wide for eating. Food is pretty easy to do, a lot of smoothies taste great and you can add calories by adding ice cream or yoghurt to them. I'm having similar problem atm with septoplasty, I'm not allowed to eat hot or warm stuff this week. So far I survived just fine with smoothies which had fruits/berries, yoghurt and something to make it thin enough to drink it with straw. Also prepare a lot of ice cubes you can put in your mouth and keep there, it helps with swelling and bleeding. Also ice packs to press against cheek

And don't do exercises for few days. Spend the time doing something else like light stretching instead. Dealing with a lot of bleeding is nasty and it might be difficult to stop without help. Few days without exercises isn't going to do any harm to you.

Straws are generally not recommended after tooth extractions (no smoking, either) as the suction runs the risk of dislodging a clot and causing bleeding or dry socket.

MondayJune22nd2015

Other than your foods being liquefied, you also shouldn't have then hot (soup)/cold (ice cream). I consumed everything room temperature. Since everyone heals differently, I'd recommend not exercising & consuming solid foods, for a full week. Back when I had it done, Ensure didn't exist, so I drank Slim Fast (even though, I wasn't dieting). I also ate baby food & yogurt. I suffered the 1st few hours because since I had a fear of choking on pills, they prescribed me Tylenol with Codeine; I quickly decided that choking'd be better. I am a sissy when it comes to physical pain, which is why I don't even have a tattoo but after I took the pills there wasn't pain, just soreness & my teeth, hadn't grown yet; so they were surgically removed. I did have lockjaw/dry socket but it was just annoying/discomforting, nothing painful. Even though I felt like I could consume solid foods sooner, I didn't. It's best to be safe, than sorry.

LORI35pittsburgh

my 16 yo daughter had 4 of hers removed on Thursday....you will be on soft foods/liquids for 5 days.. ice packs first 2 days then moist heat after that... each persons experience is going to be different and pain tolerance levels. but you should not exercise till oral surgeon gives you the okay....good luck to you and dont worry till you finish healing to resume diet and exercise your health and healing is priority...

SeptemberFeyre

Exercising too early can make the blood clots come loose and you can get the dreaded dry socket. My daughter had all four of hers out a few months ago and we were super careful and all went well. Whatever you do, don't slurp/suck in food or drink out of a straw. Also, don't spit. Good luck for an easy recovery

successgal1

I had mine pulled, I think I drank liquid meals for a day, and only because my face was numb and I didn't want to bite my cheek. The pain was worse at the follow up visit for stitch removal. I couldn't figure out why one spot hurt so bad and the rest didn't. The doc that removed my stitches said that the surgeon had accidentally stitched my cheek to my gum. One little snip later I was fine.

kellykneppergrundy

I went home after having mine removed and ate a hot pocket and then went to my Irish dance class that night. You maybe fine!

Heartisalonelyhunter

I had 4 pulled and couldn't really eat for a week. I lost a ton of weight!

Chieflrg

Not bad at all. I played a hardball game the same night as catcher. Took a foul ball off the mask that bothered me for a minute. It's really not that bad though other than wanting to lick the stitches...lol.

DanSTL82

Don't exercise for a week or so. As far as the eating part, there are plenty of ways to get the calories you need in liquid/smoothie form.

stealthq

Yes, you'll be able to stay on-plan. You won't exercise for a couple of days, but the first day you'll probably sleep enough what with the pain meds that you'll have no trouble keeping calories in check. And when you're awake, you probably won't feel hungry with the anaesthetic + pain meds making you foggy.

Personal experience having all four of mine out in my late 20's: the surgery was nothing. I slept most of the rest of the day and used bags of frozen baby peas as ice packs - they're perfect for this because they conform to your face. Took one pain pill and that was it. Didn't know even need the one, to be honest. I had so little bruising even people who knew I'd had surgery had to look closely to see it. My jaw was stiff for a couple of days, but I was already eating soft but textured foods like stewed apples the next day and anything other than really tough or chewy foods by the end of the week. I followed all after care instructions to the letter, and did not develop dry socket or have a single complication.

The worst thing for me after the surgery was fighting to keep from messing with the sockets, the feeling of the loose ends of the stitches, and the faint taste of blood that didn't go away until after the stitches were out and everything finally closed up for good.