Recently, one of my girlfriends discovered that all of her wisdom teeth are impacted. Naturally, everyone had their wisdom tooth story to scare the living daylights out of her — the doctor left part of my tooth in there, I swelled up like a chipmunk for a week or my personal favorite – my own experience – I had a psychotic reaction to the general anesthesia. (I never do anything halfway.)
But! I hardly had ANY swelling. How could that be?
I drank pineapple juice the whole week before my surgery. I can’t remember who offered this wisdom, but pineapple juice is anti-inflammatory. It is the only natural source of bromelain, an anti-inflammatory and protein-digesting enzyme (which is also good for arthritis!). Never mind that I woke up screaming at the doctor that he was a jerk for not telling me about it. (He said he’d heard about it, but doesn’t tell people. What the #$%&?)
So if you’re about to lose your wisdom teeth, drink up – the worst thing that can happen to you is you drink delicious pineapple juice for a week and it doesn’t do the same wonders for your swelling. It will still be just as delicious – my favorite kind of medical advice.
3 responses so far ↓
Nils // July 24, 2007 at 5:56 pm |
Other natural anti-inflammatories: turmeric and dried ginger. Both strong tasting, but take a little bit (like a half teaspoon), put it on the back of your tongue and have a glass of water handy to gulp it down.
Like pulling teeth // March 23, 2009 at 7:44 am |
[...] swelling was very minimal, thanks to pineapple juice, and the pain wasn’t awful, thanks to Vicodin. We actually went to get Thai food that night. [...]
Jessie // March 31, 2009 at 4:46 pm |
It’s true! I had my wisdom teeth removed years apart (2 when I was in middle school, 2 when I was in college), and the second time went infinitely smoother. I credit this to the fact that I ate as much fresh pineapple as I could possibly stand the night before the surgery.