It has become a rite of passage for teens to get their wisdom teeth removed.
Third molars are generally referred to as wisdom teeth and they are the four molars in the very back of the mouth and they generally come in around ages 16-18.
Wisdom teeth aren’t necessary and are most often removed because there isn’t enough room in the mouth for them to properly come in. Dr. Jill Jenkins of Jenkins Dentistry recommends getting them removed as soon as they start to appear.
“If wisdom teeth aren’t removed when necessary, the tooth could be restricted to
only grow in partially where it becomes a trap for food and bacteria and can lead to infections. If the tooth is stuck in the bone then it has a higher chance of developing a cyst or other complications,” Jenkins said.
The operation left junior Liberty Bouskill feeling very tired afterward.
“It did kind of suck, especially because I got them removed the day before Thanksgiving,” Bouskill said. “I just ate mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving, and I felt groggy and gross.”
Another impact of the surgery is the feeling of numbness after. For senior Jada Winfrey, this was one of the strangest things.
“The weirdest feeling for me is that when you wake up, your face is still numb, and your tongue is still numb for several hours after, and it feels weird,” Winfrey said. “You can’t feel it unless you’re actually touching it with your hands.”
The recovery process can be intimidating for many but Bouskill found it to be better than she was expecting.
“I really think it’s not as bad as people make it seem,” Bouskill said. “It was probably a week where I was down for the count. But I just read books and watched movies. I couldn’t really eat anything, so I just ate fudgsicles, bone broth and mashed potatoes.”
However the recovery process has its unique challenges. One being that afterward people cannot drink out of straws because it can cause dry sockets which is when a blood clot does not form around the extraction site. Senior Maggie Wieland thought this was the hardest part about the recovery.
“My biggest challenge was that I couldn’t use straws for 10 days after,” Wieland said. “That was a problem. If I wanted a coffee, I couldn’t sip it out of a straw. I couldn’t drink water out of my Stanley [water bottle] because I couldn’t drink out of straw. It was treacherous.”
While the entire experience can be uncomfortable, Bouskill found that drinking pineapple juice beforehand helped.
“I did the whole drink pineapple juice thing before, and I really do think it made a difference, because I don’t remember my face being super swollen or anything,” Bouskill said.
