Have 2 bags of frozen green peas , wrap one in a kitchen towel and put on your face until the peas just starting to thaw . Then repeat with the other bag from the freezer , and so on . Saved me once from face the size of soccer ball after a surgical extraction .
Myself getting ready for the bedtime sequence for my 2.5 year old ninjah girl (8pm here in Israel) .
My first post here ! Hurray !
everyone's reactions are so different... some people look like they went 50 rounds with a kickboxer, and feel like dreck for weeks, some people... go right back to work like nothing happened - that was me. drove myself there, got some novocaine, lost 4 teeth, drove back. heh. 3 were surgical removals with cheek flaps cut out and lots of micro-grinding. super delicate resulting in minimal trauma. no bruising. if i had told my boss and cow orkers, they wouldn't have known.
i did the cold pack thing as well - i have these mineral clay packs - they hold the cold like stone will (a long time), but are flexible - the shizznit for when i almost broke my shoulder and then my knee (too many stupid injuries)... have two for alternating. kept one on my face for the first 6 hours.
between gargling and basic OTC painkillers, it was FAR less traumatic than i would have guessed.
Oh, no worries, I had my wisdom teeth removed, I spent 2 weeks in a demerol induced coma. I got a dry socket, and to be honest, clove oil from the pharmacy saved my ass. Try it, it really works. Clove oil, next to the oragel.
Moose
salt water soaks, and gargling. i kept a plastic sports bottle handy to irrigate and swish with very very salty (kosher sea salt!) water. often. no sucking on stuff. that can be torture for someone like Paris, i know.
if you have a humidifier, sleep with that thing so your mouth doesn't dry out.
the best part is, once the bone started migrating to fill in the gaps, it didn't feel like i lost half my face

wisdom teeth are HUGE.
the worst part is, once the PRESSURE was off the impacted area, my teeth wanted to "relax", which hurt like wearing braces for a few weeks - not really pain more like ... anti-pressure. those guys were like "woo, more room to spread out". geez.