Running After Wisdom Teeth Removal?

Had the wisdom teeth removed five years ago (a proceedure which, by the way, I believe is totally unnecessary for most of the people who have it done, and is just a way for dentists to extract $$ from patients). Anyway, I believed that I was young and tough and attempted to train the next morning. 20 minutes into my run the pain was so bad that I had to wave someone down to use their cell phone and call for a ride.

I was water skiing within two and a half hours of my wisdom teeth removal. I was an idiot kid then but suffered no consequences. I never swell much. Chances are if you don't feel it throbbing, it will not hurt you any.

4 days and you'll be good to go.

Marty Liquori ran an indoor mile race (Millrose?) a few days after having wisdom teeth extracted. His mouth was still bleeding, but I think he won the race.

Had one extracted.

Long run 20 miles the next day.

No pain,No problem.

The swelling and discomfort shouldn't prevent you from running. However, allowing a nasty blood clot to form in your socket is a better reason to avoid heavy exercise. It's a bit ironic - I've seen patients who didn't follow the post-op instructions and smoked cigarettes and then I've seen patients who didn't follow the instructions and went for 10 mile runs. They both develop something called a "dry socket". Dry socket - those things hurt.

Hope your extractions weren't too unpleasant and good luck with your recovery!

I had all four out at the same time. 2 were impacted and other two were just coming through. Anyway, I had no problems running 10 miles the next day. I think it is different for each individual.

I had all four removed at age 33.

I just needed to take 2 days off for precaution and it was all good.

Had 4 extracted in the morning and went 18 miles that night. No problem although I heard later that this wasn't good idea.

Go read the info at this website:

http://www.animated-teeth.com/wisdom_teeth/t1_wisdom_tooth.htm

This is the best website I've found for information about all kinds of dental procedures.

Anyhow, the upshot is that when you get a tooth extracted, a blood clot must form to promote healing. If you accidentally dislodge it through sucking, smoking, running, etc. you run the risk of developing a dry socket. I never got this, but everything I've heard about it is that it can be fairly painful and unpleasant. There's no guarantee, but there's a difference between acceptable risk and being foolish. Unless you are in the middle of a competitive season, you aren't going to lose much fitness taking a week off.

Looks like I'm the odd one out here. Had 4 removed at once, two were impacted. The gums bled for almost 24 hours straight. Swelling was pretty awful. However, the main issue was my head couldn't stand the jostling of running. Just walking around I had such a bad headache that I couldn't imagine what it would've been like to run. Tried to run 7 days after removal and it was terrible so I had to stop. My head was able to stand the movement of running after about 10 days.

I had mine done yesterday...doc told me it was ok to run just a couple hours later. However, I decided against it and I think I will lay low for a few. Best of luck to you.

I had mine out at the end of April and was forced into 5 days off when two would have easily sufficed. If you start bleeding more heavily from the mouth during the run, I would stop just to make sure you don't get dry socket.

People, the younger you are the easier the surgery is on your body. The older you wait to get this done, the harder it is for your body to heal up and adapt.

A 20 year old should be able to get back to training a lot quicker than a 40 year old.