Little background. 36 yo male, been blessed with pretty good teeth and a wide enough mouth that until Friday, my wisdom teeth were all erupted and hadn't needed to be removed. To the point that they actually had crowned my lower right one several years earlier.

But back in February started having some issues with the crown and after some new patient xrays at a new dentist they decided that all 4 should come out due to some cavities they found on all 4 teeth. Mind you, I HATE the dentist and that news sent my anxiety through the roof.

So I finally had the procedure Friday afternoon. Went to an oral surgeon for full sedation, instead of my dentist doing it with a local. Highly recommend if you can afford it to do it that way. Preloaded with a 600mg ibuprofen on Dr's orders. About a 45 min procedure and 20 minutes in recovery. I've had multiple surgeries in the past so anesthesia recovery is minimal

I was more worried about the post op recovery as I'd heard horror stories about people having them removed at an older age. Left the surgeons with a bunch of gauze and still numb. About an hour ride home, drank some water, and ate some yogurt and soup. Changed the gauze every half hour for the next 2 hours or so and by then the bleeding had mostly stopped. Took it easy on food that first evening, sticking to the soft stuff and dying from a lack of caffeine.

Was given the prescription ibuprofen, and 3 dexamethasone pills for pain. Took one dexamethasone before bed that first night and kept up schedule for ibuprofen. Slept okay even using my CPAP machine, and the Doctor had suggested I use it due to the swelling from the procedure.

Yesterday was another dexamethasone in the morning, just as scheduled. Pain didn't really necessitate it, but still, it's what they told me to take. Kept up with the alternating ibuprofen and Tylenol all day. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, which went okay, followed by salt water rinse. Lunch was more fluids and some mashed potatoes and yogurt which was fine. Dinner was buttered noodles just for a change. Couple pieces got lodged in my lower right socket but another salt water rinse dislodged them. Honestly I felt much better than I expected to. By mid afternoon, I'd had hiccups start, which apparently is a side effect of dexamethasone. Those lasted almost all evening until bed. Took the last pain pill before bed last night.

Today has been a little more adventurous. Couldn't take it anymore and made coffee, waited for it to cool halfway down and didn't seem to have any issue with it aggravating the sites. Had some buttered bread today, along with more eggs. Had to gently irrigate the socket in the lower right side again due to food getting stuck, but my wife's been helpful with that. Only other issue was my upper right stitch loosening. I assume it's dissolving more than anything since I didn't taste blood, but I sterilized some scissors and had her cut the excess off.

Swelling has been minimal, and the taste of blood was more or less non existent after the initial couple hours. Jaw is a little sore still upon opening it but they said that was to be expected. Otherwise I feel pretty well all things considered. Just wanted to give a little positive story to any of us slightly older folks that still have theirs and might need them out. I was prepared for a brutal recovery and it's been about as minimal as can be.

Edit: For anyone curious about financials, was right around 2,000. With insurance I paid 860.