Gum Graft Recovery Woes

I had a "free gingival graft"--meaning tissue was collected from my upper palate to graft onto the receded gums, but you probably already know that if you are reading these experiences--to repair 3 areas surrounding teeth on my lower mid/left portion of my mouth. One tooth, a canine, had severe recession due to an uninteresting gum injury, and partially to aggrevated brushing while having braces so many years ago. 2 teeth right next door were experiencing gum loss solely from brushing too hard with braces.

Anywho, on to the procedure.

Firstly, I had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what kind of ordeal this was gonna be. My dentist told me about my situation and referred me to a periodontist who basically diagnosed the whole thing and worked up a surgical outline for me. I didn't ask many questions, as I'm just the kinda guy who says "okay, okay...alright, sounds good." I didn't know how the procedure would be carried out, how long I'd experience pain and swelling, or what to expect during recovery.

So, I went through the surgery without being sedated (which I'd recommend to EVERYONE...I have a high threshold for pain, but this pushed my limits) and was only given Novacaine. The several shots of Novacaine put my mouth pretty well out for the entire length of the surgery...I didn't feel anything except the first few needles, the 2 palate shots, and then the occasional pressure from the doc working and pushing on my mouth.

I felt little pain throughout the procedure (hardly any, really), but felt like I got whallopped with a brick about 45 minutes after leaving the office. NOTE to everyone: get a friend or fam. member to drive you to and from the office, to the pharmacy and back home...don't even try to drive the first maybe second day after the surgery. Keep that gauze near...you'll need it. The wounds will naturally purge quite a bit of blood during the day of surgery and just a bit the day after. Take your meds and RINSE YOUR MOUTH. That's very important to keep the sites from becoming infected.

And a little crazy bit of info for you guys:

Some periodontists use putty to cover all the areas that were worked on. I myself had a huge chunk on the roof of my mouth, and I also had a big chunk of the putty squished around pretty much my entire lower teeth. This crap is really annoying, but try to just leave it be.

Something you might want to be on the lookout for...

I woke up in the middle of the night 2 and a half days after my surgery feeling bits of the putty from the roof of my mouth coming apart. Sure enough, before I knew it, the entire piece had fell out. Now for the good part. It left hanging a piece of tissue (or so I thought at the time) from the top of my mouth that smelled GOD-AWFUL and tasted like ABSOLUTE DEATH and looked just as revolting as those other descriptions. It kept bugging me and I kinda started freaking out because I didn't quite know what it was. So I woke up my periodontist at 3am to explain the situation, and he told me to gently rinse my mouth, and the tissue would probably disslodge. So I did that, and it finally shook loose. Little did I know that it was a monstrous blood clot that had formed in kinda a bowl-shape due to the fact that it was from blood that had collected on top of that putty crap. So, I got that out, rinsed like 33847 times, and I finally got to sleep.

I've been living on thick smoothies and shakes (Jamba Juice! Get the Peanut Butter Moo'd or Chocolate Moo'd for max calories and protein...you need both to stay satiated and to heal), and I will get the stitches out in about another week. Just hope I don't have another groutesque experience with the lower putty stuff that I will assume work its way off of my teeth and tissue.

After that, I should be smooth sailin' to a full recovery and a well-deserved filet mignon!!!!