Metal Mouth Message Board

I apologize if this question has already been asked numerous times and I know that results will vary from individual from individual, but prior to my dual jaw surgery in a few months time my orthodontist told me that I need to have all four of my wisdom teeth removed. My job involves a lot of face-to-face interaction with clients as well as a considerable amount of talking, so I'm trying to figure out how many days I should allot to be off from work in order to have this procedure done.

I'm not so much concerned about the pain as I'm sure I can tough that out after the first day, but I'm wondering how long it takes for the facial swelling subside and for facial features to return back to normal. I'm just trying to avoid going back to work with my face considerably swollen/bruised as this can be disconcerting for some of the people I may be interacting with.

In my case, 24 hours after my wisdom teeth removal, there was no significant swelling. However, in my case, the 4 wisdom teeth were all erupted or almost (2 of them completely, 2 of them) so I don't think my case will apply to you.

For the record, I had worse swelling in the first week after they put my braces.

Swelling peaked at day 3 for my extractions, but my wisdom teeth were horizontally impacted, so consider that a worst case scenario.

I looked like a chipmunk for about a week, but the swelling wasn't terrible. I think the difficulty eating was more annoying for me than the swelling. I was in high school when I had all of mine surgically removed (impacted) and I think I only missed a few days.

Also, I don't recall any bruising with my wisdom teeth being extracted, just the swelling and discomfort.

Hi! I realize this is a wee bit old, but I thought I would chime in

I had all four of my wisdom teeth extracted earlier this year. One or two were simple extractions, and the rest were surgically removed/cut out of the bone.

I was super swollen, like I had water balloons in my cheeks for at least 4 days. I could literally see my cheeks jiggle when I moved or talked. Then it started to go down very slowly, and by the end of the second week after surgery almost all of the swelling was gone. I felt it had gone down enough by the fifth or sixth day to leave the house to go out for a walk, but I still didn't want to be out for very long.

I had some yellow bruising along my jawline. That took maybe 5 days to completely go away, but wasn't super noticeable anyway.

Seems like some people swell a LOT and others barely swell at all. I hear sleeping upright helps, but I couldn't sleep at all fully upright, so maybe that's why I got so swollen. Who knows?

Hope that helps!

P.S. If you feel nauseated right after general anesthesia, it might be from the anesthesia. But, if you continue to feel nauseated/ are vomiting several hours or the next day after surgery, it might be from the pain medication. I had to stop taking the vicodin they prescribed for me (which wasn't cheep either!) because it was making me throw up . Simple Ibuprofen was enough to dull the pain though so it was fine.