What to expect when your wisdom teeth get pulled

You’ll have a few days of unpleasantness, but there’s a lot you can do to make life better and get better quicker.

Needing to get your wisdom teeth pulled can happen to anyone — especially those in their late teens or early 20s. It may seem a little scary, but it doesn’t have to be.

Here’s what to expect — and what to do — when it’s time to say goodbye to your wisdom teeth.

Removing the teeth

First off, there are two kinds of tooth extractions:

1. A simple extraction. You can actually see the tooth. A little anesthesia and a little bit of loosening, and the tooth is pulled out. Sometimes a general dentist will do this one, but often they will refer extractions to oral surgeons, who have specific training and expertise.
2. A surgical extraction. This happens when the tooth is broken off at the gum line, if it hasn’t broken through the gums yet, or if it’s impacted (teeth that have grown or shifted into the wrong position). An oral surgeon has years of experience to make sure that even the most difficult tooth will get taken out safely and quickly.

Wisdom teeth are the most common instance of surgical extraction, since they are nearly always removed before they have broken through the gums.

During a surgical extraction, you will get some stronger anesthesia and sleep through the procedure, since these take a bit more digging. Surgeons have to cut away gum and bone tissue that’s covering the teeth before yanking them out. They may even have to take them out in pieces.

After the surgery

The good news is the mouth usually takes care of itself.

You’ll probably awaken with gauze in your mouth. It’s there to help the bleeding completely stop. In the worst case scenario, you may end up with a couple of stitches.

You’ll have a few days of unpleasantness, but there’s a lot you can do to make life better and get better quicker. For example:

• Simple and/or obvious as it may sound, take you pain meds as prescribed. Don’t skip doses.
• Apply an ice bag to the affected area immediately after the procedure to keep down swelling. Apply ice for 10 minutes at a time.
• Don’t rinse or spit forcefully for 24 hours, and even though you might want to sip some juice or water, do not drink from a straw.
• Keep your mouth as free from bacteria as possible by continuing to brush and floss your teeth, and brush your tongue as well. There’s a lot of bacteria there.

And here’s the big one:

RELAX

Don’t try to get back on your feet for at least 24 hours.

Grab a nice big book or prepare to binge watch Netflix for that first day, and keep taking it easy for the next couple of days. And while you’re curled up on the couch, be sure you have a hefty supply of soup, pudding, yogurt, applesauce, etc.

Give yourself that couple of days of lounging, painkiller- and pudding-filled bliss, and you’ll come out of this with a mouth that can suddenly enjoy the simple things in life, like biting an apple, smiling, drinking beverages of different temperatures and — most importantly — not being in constant pain.