Millions of people get their wisdom teeth removed. Here’s my story.

When getting your wisdom teeth removed, you don’t think of the process before and after the procedure. I will gladly tell you what I had to go through and even some facts on why you have to undergo this procedure.

Before I get into facts, I´ll get into my experience first. Getting your wisdom teeth removed is definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I mean, after you get your teeth removed, not only are you less wise, you feel it too. When you just wake up after anesthesia you are tired and confused about what just happened. Next thing you know, you’re in a wheelchair and unable to talk. Everyone may have different experiences with anesthesia, but one thing’s for sure: it’s a weird experience. As they put the IV in, all I thought was just wanting to leave, and I don’t remember when I passed out, but next thing I knew I woke up an hour later. 

Now, unfortunately, there isn’t much to talk about during the procedure, but there is quite a lot about before and after. Starting a couple days before your extraction, you have to start using a prescribed mouthwash to help clear bacteria from your mouth. Wacky Fact: did you know that 6 billion bacteria live in your mouth? WOW, THAT’S WACKY!!! The day of your procedure, you can’t eat or drink anything for 6 hours, and you’re only allowed a little bit of water to take antibiotics before you go. That might be the hardest part of the process other than the healing. 

Once your procedure is done and your wisdom teeth are gone, it’s a weird process afterwards. To take away the pain, they tell you to take pain killers often and use ice packs for the first 24 hours after the procedure to help with swelling. They even give a cute little ¨you did it” care package with a little note telling you what to do after the removal. When you’re recovering, it’s definitely different for everyone. Take me and my brother, for example, having gotten them removed at the same time. While I got a little swelling and a big bruise on one side of my face, my brother William (´25) got nothing. I remember, during the weeks of recovery, he would rub it in my face (literally). Saying ¨does it hurt?¨ while poking the bruise on my face (square-shaped due to the swelling). Looking back at my adventure, I’m lucky I didn’t get it as bad as others, but I definitely can say I survived getting my wisdom teeth removed.