Care tips for after wisdom teeth extraction

No drinking through straws.

My oldest has a high pain tolerance, I practically had to force feed him pain pills like you would a dog because he didn't expect he'd need it. He was glad on day two that I made him take them.

NO STRAWS

Home-made pudding in different flavors was a good food (soft, not too cold, and has eggs in it so they were getting some protein). It became a tradition to make for their friends when they got theirs out.

Ice and more ice! My daughter actually slept upright for two nights, kind of propped up in the corner of our sectional. It made it easy to keep ice packs in place and I felt really helped keep swelling to a minimum.

Follow the oral surgeon directions exactly.

Have your recorder ready for the first few hours. 😉

Two of my kids just had theirs extracted and they weren't hungry for a while. They just needed a lot of ice and to sit up. Because they were still feeling the effects of the drugs, the rides home were ... Entertaining. 

I just had mine out in May.

No straws!
No crunchy foods for some time! (Popcorn, chips, etc..)

I ate a lot of applesauce and pudding the first two days. Plus drank a lot of juice and water. (Juice to help with blood sugar as I kept feeling really woozy)
Honestly, I mostly just slept the day of and day after. The third and fourth days I tried to stay awake a little more, but still slept a lot. So small things to eat were best because I couldn't stay awake long enough.
Once I was up to it, scrambled eggs were a nice change in food. And for about a week after I ate mostly soups (started with mostly broth soups and slowly moved to one's with more veggies). When I tried having normal food the week after it was very small bites of everything. (Fries, pizza, etc...) because I had to chew with the front of my mouth.

The salt water rinse after eating (after the first 24 hours) is good.

I also used ice packs to help with swelling. And I had barely any swelling overall.

I was told to keep my head elevated. So for about five or so days I slept with a wedge pillow + two normal pillows on the bed.

The most helpful thing was staying on top of the pain meds. I took my first dose as soon as I got home and then set alarms to take them every 6 hours (what it said on the prescription bottle). And for the first 24 hours I doubled up with ibuprofen and the prescription pain meds because I had some pain even with the prescription and my surgeon told me too if that happened. Then by the middle of the third day I switched to just ibuprofen rather than prescription pain meds (except at night).

Here's the best way to ice both sides of the face without your hands going numb, or the ice packs slipping. As others have shared, icing really helps keep the swelling down.

*Have four ice packs ready so you can keep rotating them.

*Place an ice pack on either side of face and use a clean large cotton drying towel to wrap under the chin and tie on top of head (or loosely wrap with gauze or an ace bandage). Looks silly, but really helps when one wants to sleep.

It's been many years since I've had my wisdom teeth out. I cracked my 2nd molar in 3 places, so I just had that extracted last week. I never eat mac & cheese, but it was a great choice when all you can have is soft food. SO bought me a couple of lobster mac & cheese dishes

No straws, no crunchy foods for a while, no spicy foods. I think no smoking goes without saying, but that was on the list too Also, no carbonated beverages for the first 24 hours. That by far was the worst part of recovery since I'm somewhat of a diet coke addict!

^^^^^^THIS.

Wow, I didn't realize what an easy time I had with my wisdom teeth. I didn't have mine out until I was in my mid-twenties. I had them out late one afternoon, went home and slept (not sitting up). I went to work the next day and remember taking off a little early as I took a percocet later in the afternoon and learned they make me utterly crazy. It was just motrin after that. I don't remember much pain or issues eating at all - although I was a vegetarian in those days so steak wouldn't have been on the menu. I hope he has as easy a time as I did.

My granddaughter had hers out on Tuesday and did very well. She used her sweatshirt hoodie to keep the frozen peas in place...that way she had two hands to text or use computer. She always had something to eat before taking her pain pills, never was nauseated.

A friend of mine suggested the following for holding ice packs to the face:

DIY ice packs - snack-size sandwich bags filled with liquid dish soap. (Double bag in case of leaks.) This remains pliable when frozen. Peas would also work well as others suggested.

Take two long socks (knee-length tube or soccer socks work well), overlap the toes of the two socks about an inch and stitch them together or use a couple of large safety pins to hold them together. Put an ice pack in the foot of each sock. The sewn-together toes go under the chin and the open ends of the socks tie together on the top of the head. The ice packs will rest on the cheeks.

Worked great for my DS.