Removing my wisdom

More stories from Emme Longman

I got all four of my wisdom teeth removed recently, and it surely was an experience. I was terrified of my gums not healing correctly, so I took tons of precautions and made sure to follow all of the directions the doctor gave me.

“I did not feel any pain until after the surgery,” said Nyjia Thompson, 12. “I really felt pain when I got dry sockets.”

Day one. I got my wisdom teeth pulled out at 9 in the morning, and then I was sent home to rest. I was absolutely loopy, and I was so out of it. Although I was bloody and swollen, I was not in that much pain because of the numbing and the anesthetic. I laid around and slept all day. I just had to deal with a lot of bleeding.

My savior on the first day was the ice pack I was supplied with. I kept it on at all times and only took it off to re-freeze it.

Day two. It was the worst day by far. My teeth were still bleeding and I was on strong pain medicine. The hardest part about this day was the fact that the numbing medicine and anesthetic had worn off, and I did not have the luxury being in no pain. I eventually stopped bleeding, but I was miserable all day. I tried to sleep the pain off.

I also had to start doing salt rinses on this day. The salt and the warm water burned a bit but allowed me to heal faster.

Day three. I felt better this day, but I was still in a lot of pain. It hurt to open my mouth and swallow, but both are really important to eating. I went out for dinner that night, and I was able to eat slowly. I was in a lot of pain that day after dinner.

Day four. This was the Super Bowl day. I was still in pain, but I did not want to seem like a downer. I went to two parties, and I was exhausted the whole time. I also was late on my medicine, so I was hurting pretty bad.

Now, I am feeling sore, but well enough to get back into the groove of things. My day will go on, just with sore teeth.

The worst pain overall was when I woke up from sleeping at night. I constantly woke up at 5 or 6 a.m. because my pain medicine had worn off. This was the most horrible pain I had to go through. Once I took my pain medicine, I began to feel better and could go back to sleep.

Getting my wisdom teeth out is not as bad as I thought it would be, but it was still painful. I’m glad I got them removed while I was still at home in the care of my family.