Wisdom Teeth Removal
This post will be a bit different from what I usually post. I got my wisdom teeth removed on Friday, January 9, and it’s been a little over a week. Going through the procedure was a unique and uncomfortable experience, so I thought I’d talk about it for a bit.
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I was somewhat nervous going into the procedure, but my plan was to pray that the anesthesia worked. It worked wonderfully. They used IV Sedation by sticking a needle in my right arm to deliver the anesthesia, and the most painful part of the entire operation was the needle in my arm, which only hurt slightly and lasted a few minutes.
Fun fact: teeth are numbered 1-32. The wisdom teeth are numbered 1, 16, 17, and 32, with 1 in the top right, 16 in the top left, 17 in the bottom left, and 32 in the bottom right.
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When I woke up, I couldn’t remember anything. I got home, looked into the mirror, and realized my mouth was bloody, and I realized I was biting down on two pieces of gauze, which I disposed of after a while. My mouth felt numb (local anesthesia?), and my tongue just would not sit comfortably in my mouth. The numbness on the right half of my tongue wore off more quickly, and for hours, that half felt twice as thick as the left half, which was so uncomfortable. I occasionally probed my mouth just to make sure everything was still the right size.
I think the worst thing about wisdom teeth removal is the restriction placed on your diet. On the first day, I could literally only eat yogurt and drink chicken broth. It just sucks.
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After a few days, your diet can be expanded, but I tried to stick to soft foods, like tofu and salmon. I think I was overly careful about what I ate and did, which was pretty stressful, and my energy was low throughout the weekend. The riskiest thing I ate was probably 호떡 (hotteok), which is a type of pancake filled with a sweet red bean paste. I almost got a piece of food stuck near the extraction site, but I was able to get it out. I was invited over to a parent’s friend’s house, and they made a few for me. They even gave me a few Korean children’s books, and I’m currently reading 와니니.
For these first few days, I had to swallow pills of ibuprofen to lessen the pain post-removal. The pain isn’t bad at all; at worst, my mouth was sore and uncomfortable, but it was never painful. Swallowing pills, however, sucks! I nearly threw up once, and each time it takes a solid minute or two of taking gulps of water and trying to swallow. (On Sunday morning, I accidentally took a pill of hydrocodone instead of ibuprofen, but thankfully, nothing bad happened.)
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Slowly, things went back to normal. I tried some more soft foods, but I chewed slowly and only used my incisors and canines to chew (I was really careful! And deathly afraid of a dry socket, which occurs when the blood clot that forms gets removed, exposing the nerves and jaw underneath). I did have to irrigate my wisdom teeth sockets, which is just squirting some saltwater back there to get rid of any food debris. At first it’s uncomfortable, but you get used to it.
Looking back, I was a lot more careful than I probably needed to be, but in the end, it turned out well. I had rice earlier today, which is the first time in over a week of eating the same six foods. I gave applesauce a second chance because I had to, and I was disgusted once again (Why do they turn a crisp, juicy apple into this mush?) The sockets seem mostly healed now, and all I have to do is be careful when I eat and irrigate my sockets every day. Life will return to normal.
This entire post kind of serves as an extended Life Update! so I won’t have one at the end here. But if you’re reading this, I hope your 2026 is going well! Let this serve as a reminder to be kinder to yourself, and to try not to burn out this year.
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