Most of us has either had our wisdom teeth taken out or will eventually have to get them taken out in the future. I just recently had my wisdom teeth taken out on July 26, 2016 and it was not a bad experience like I thought it might be. I am still recovering from it, but I am getting better every day!

I thought that it would be good to give some tips and suggestions about the recovery process and what to expect! I know your doctor will give you instructions after your surgery on what to do, but sometimes it helps to have somebody else tell you about it and what they seem to experience and notice!

1. Do not be nervous the night before or the morning of surgery.

You will have butterflies about it no matter what, but try not to think about it. The surgery is super easy and not stressful at all! The best part is being put to sleep because you do not feel anything!

2. Have your parents record you, because you may do something funny.

Most people do some crazy and funny things when they are coming out of the anesthesia that they give you to put you to sleep for the surgery. You may seem to be aware when you start coming out of it, but for the most part, you will not remember what you said or did at the time. If your parents record you, you can watch it the next day to see what all you said or did.

3. Keep the gauze in your mouth until it stops bleeding.

You want to keep changing the gauze in your mouth until the areas stop bleeding. The doctors recommend you keep the gauze in for at least 30-45 minutes at a time. If it is still bleeding once you take it out, put some more gauze in your mouth for another 30-45 minutes! This time period allows your blood to clot around the surgical areas so it can stop bleeding. It is more than likely going to keep oozing during the day, so do not worry about putting more gauze in your mouth. If you eat some ice cream or something, that should help it to stop bleeding as well if it is still oozing some.

4. Take your pain medication.

I cannot stress this point enough! Once you get home from the surgery and from getting your medication, take the pain medicine that your doctor has prescribed to you! The anesthesia should be wearing off by the time you get home, and you do not want to start feeling pain! Get in a routine of taking it every day at the same times so that way you can remember when to take it while you have the pain medicine available. When you start noticing that you are getting low on your medicine, start trying to slowly take yourself off of it so your body does not react to not having any pain medicine at all once you finish your prescription. Even if you are not in pain a couple of days after your surgery, still take the medication, because if the pain comes back, it will come back worse than what it was before.

5. Ice your face all of the time.

Your doctor will stress to do this all day for the first day. You need to ice your face for 20 minutes every hour. You do not want to keep the ice on your face all day because you do not want your skin to start freezing! The best thing to do is to try to ice your face for every 20 minutes every hour through the third day or until your face is not swelling anymore and the pain has diminished. In fact, I am still icing my face every now and than during the day, and I am currently on day 11 as I write this. It will take a while to figure out a good way for you to ice your face, but once you get used to it or comfortable with it, you should be fine! Any ice pack works. Your doctor may even give you an ice pack if you are lucky!

6. Relax while you are recovering.

After your surgery, you need to take it easy! Once you get home and settled in, take you a nap! The more you sleep the better you are going to feel while your body is trying to heal! When I came home from my surgery, I did not feel like I was tired, so I did not take a nap, which I should have. Instead, I got on my phone and did some things and than I went on my laptop to try to fix my schedule for college because I wanted to try to get that done while I was not in pain. My mother kept telling me to get off of my phone and laptop and take a nap, but I did not do that. Once I got done with my schedule, I than took a nap, which made me feel better!

7. Eat as much ice cream as you want to.

Take advantage of this! Eat ice cream as much as you want to! If feels so good to eat it and plus, it is one of the only things you are going to be able to eat after you get the surgery done. I advise to just eat chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry because there is nothing to worry about chewing. You do not want to buy a flavor that has chewy or hard things in it. Do not feel guilty about eating it whenever you want to! Whatever makes you feel good is the only thing that matters! Oh, and do not worry about gaining weight because you will not be eating a lot to worry about that!

8. Eat soft foods.

Do not start eating hard, crunchy, and chewy foods after your surgery. Your jaw will be sore after the first day, so you will not be able to anyway! In fact, I am still eating soft foods because I want to take it slow and easy! My favorite soft foods that I could eat for the first couple of days were: applesauce, ice cream, chocolate pudding, yogurt, scrambled eggs, squash casserole, mashed potatoes, smashed up peas and carrots, and oatmeal, but I did not stat eating the oatmeal until after the fourth or fifth day after my surgery. Fish is another good food to eat if you can find some cooked to where it just melts in your mouth! My mom bought me a medium frosty from Wendy's while we were waiting on my medication to be filled, so that is what I mostly ate on during the day of my surgery! When you drink something, make sure you drink it out of a cup and not a straw because you do not want a dry socket. Try not to suck on things for the first couple of days as well.

9. Stay elevated.

Whenever you go to bed or take a nap, make sure you are elevated. If you do not elevate your head, you will start feeling a throbbing pain and you mouth will start to be in more pain. You might possibly become light headed if you do not prop up your head with some pillows. I would stay elevated while you sleep for at least the first week after your surgery.

10. Do not rush anything.

Just let time take its course! The healing process is very slow. The pain will be around for a while, but if you start doing things that you do not need to do, you will increase the time of your recovery.

11. Do not exercise your mouth for the first day.

Do not disturb the area you had surgery on. During the first day, your body is starting to react to what changes have been made to it. Do not rinse vigorously or do anything to make your mouth more uncomfortable.

12. You will more than likely look like a chipmunk after a couple of days after your surgery because of the swelling.

This is normal. The swelling just depends on how your body reacts to the surgery. Some people swell a lot and some people barely swell after they get their wisdom teeth taken out. I looked like a chipmunk the third day. That was my new nickname for the week!

13. Use warm salt water to rinse following the day of the surgery.

Try to do this two to three times a day. This will help your mouth heal quicker. You can do around 8 ounces of warm water with a fourth of a teaspoon of salt. It makes your mouth feel refreshed as well!

14. Try to brush your teeth after a day from the surgery.

You are not going to be able to brush as good as you are used to for the first week or so, but as long as you try to brush the front of your mouth, you should be fine. There is honestly not a good way to brush your teeth after you have surgery since your jaw and mouth is sore.

15. Keep your mouth clean as possible.

Try to rinse your mouth out with water or salt water after you eat! Your doctor might give you a little syringe to use to flush out the food in the holes where they had to take the wisdom teeth out. You want to flush your holes out if you do get a syringe after every time you eat so your holes will heal up quickly. You want to keep your mouth as clean as possible so your mouth will heal up quickly. If you make sure your mouth is as clean as possible, the less you have to worry about an infection setting in.

16. The worst days are generally the second and third.

Typically the third day is the worst because of the pain level and discomfort. Some people are different. Just remember, it is going to get worse before it gets better!

17. After a couple of days, use warm compressions on your face.

You can continue to put ice on your face, but you also want to start using some warm compressions to your face to relax the muscles. This will make your muscles become loose and not tight. After you take the warm compressions off, gently message the lower area around your jawline to loosen up those muscles. I just take two washcloths and dampen them with some water and I put them in the microwave for about 40 seconds. After that, just apply them to your face until you feel like the heat as escaped the washcloths. It actually feels good after you do this!

18. Try to get out of the house after a couple of days.

Try to go grocery shopping with a family member or go hangout at a friends house! After being confined to your home for a couple of days, it can get boring and annoying. So, why not do something different than being in the house all day?

19. Follow all of the instructions your doctor gives you to do.

Your doctor should give you instructions on how to take care of your mouth after your wisdom teeth surgery. He might even give you some of these instructions and suggestions that I have given above! As long as you follow your doctors instructions, the recovery process should go smoothly.

20. If you have any questions, call your doctor.

If something look abnormal or you are not for sure about something, do not hesitate to call your doctor to ask his nurse about it! They are there to help you and make sure everything is going well!

I hope these tips and suggestions help whenever you have your wisdom teeth taken out! Everything that I have told you in this article is what I have been doing and I am currently doing during my recovery after my wisdom teeth surgery! Hopefully your recovery will go smoothly if you have to have this surgery! Hope you enjoy all of my pictures from the day of surgery and the following days!