December 2018: Peg's Gum Graft Surgery
The gum graft surgery was a little nasty, but I wanted to continue to take a natural approach to heal. So, I took a risk and decided to avoid buying the antibiotic mouth rinse since antibiotics are so hard on my sensitive system. He warned me that using the antibiotic mouth rinse would turn my gums white. I had bought an extra bottle of essential oil Thieves blend mouthwash to experiment with first. I could always pick up the prescription if I found tissues were sore or irritated and it wasn't healing well.
I've been impressed with my experience. I have had very little pain, and my gums are healing super fast. They look pink and healthy and the only irritation came from the threads from the stitches poking into my lip and on the roof of my mouth. My surgeon mentioned that the threads could be clipped shorter if I found them irritating. So today I called his office and asked if he could ease the poking with a trim, so I could enjoy Christmas with less irritation when I talk and eat. He invited me to just come to the office today and he would fit me in.
Then I got nervous. Would he feel like I had disregarded normal protocols? Were things healing as well as they seemed? Would the gums adhere well to the teeth when I was using a different approach?
It was time to find out.
I was called into the inner room and sat in a dental chair. When I opened my mouth, he quickly surveyed the gum tissue and asked me when the surgery was performed. I told him that this was day five since the gum graft. He said the stitches on the roof of the mouth could come out because the tissues had healed together and looked healthy and pink. He pulled an assistant over to show her how healthy the gums and tissues looked on day five. He asked me again what I had been doing. I had cleared using essential oils with him on the day of the surgery, and he said he was fine with experimenting, but he was impressed with the results. He said it seemed too early to take out the stitches on the site where the new gum was grafted, but the tissues were healthy, pink and almost better. He made me much more comfortable by shortening the bits of thread so they no longer poke my lip.
I'm so relieved and happy that the essential oil routine I made up has made the surgery so much less invasive and uncomfortable. And I am so grateful for a surgeon who was so helpful, open and capable. Thanks, Young Living for training me to feel more confident in natural approaches to my health and providing oils I can trust for injuries, recovery from surgery and winter colds and flu bugs. My health just keeps getting better rather than having to rebuild from the side effects of other approaches.
ORAL CARE: Wisdom Teeth Removal
Andrew is my third son to need to have wisdom teeth removed and I am getting wiser about aftercare and have more tools that I am confident in using to help with recovery! This has been the smoothest recovery yet!
Helichrysum is great for helping the body deal with injury while soothing tissues. So I keep Helichrysum in a roller version and a dropper version in case I want to just apply a drop without touching the wound. I like Fractionated Coconut oil as a carrier because it has some anti-viral properties to help with wound care.
BEFORE SURGERY:
With Andrew, I applied a Helichrysum roller to his jawline and cheekbone preventatively. He couldn't ingest anything pre-op, so rollers were a great way to keep his stomach empty while offering some support.
For emotions, I chose topical rollers of Valor and Frankincensefor calming and relaxing his mind and body.
AFTER SURGERY:
When we arrived home at 11:30 am, Andrew was still a little unsteady as the anesthesia and freezing wore off. My focus was on getting the bleeding to stop and getting pain management in place before the freezing was gone to keep him as comfortable as possible.
I used one drop of my diluted dropper of Helichrysum on his jawline touching as little as necessary. Orally I gave 1 drop of Dietary Frankincense and 1 drop of Copaiba Vitality in his mouth to calm the bleeding and help with inflammation. Then I used a roller of PanAway/ Copaiba/ Peppermint gently applied along the jaw and cheekbone to help with pain and swelling.
I put Ningxia in a glass of water to take one extra-strength Ibuprofen, two Sulfurzyme capsules and one Agilease once the bleeding stopped and he could swallow around 12:35 pm. This gave him inflammation and pain support from three different sources and worked so well that he was talking and feeling very normal.
We set him up to watch a show with more gauze nearby in case he needed it, but the bleeding had stopped by then. I also asked him to keep applying the Helichrysum and PanAway rollers along the jawline and cheekbone every hour.
After an hour or so, I had him swallow an Inner Defense with a protein shake. Inner Defense is a wonderful combination of Oregano, Thyme and other effective oils blended to keep the immune system working top notch. It is available to Canadian members on the US site.
I didn't want to use an antibiotic preventatively, so I took the script in case we needed it for any signs of infection. We have never needed it with our three other oral surgeries and prefer not to create side effects in the digestive system if it isn't necessary. Instead, I've been keeping the area clean by adding a drop of Lemon and Peppermint Essential Oils to the water he sips at. Today he can gently rinse with salt water as well. I used the syringe provided to squirt salt water at the back of the gums after he ate a bowl of oatmeal this morning.
By tonight, I will also have him use the Thieves Mouthwash since it is so gentle on tissues while doing a wonderful job of cleaning the mouth before bed.
For nourishment, he has been taking Ningxia, Ester-C powder drink or oils each time we refill his glass of water.
We opted not to get Tylenol 3s since Nathan found out after his surgery that he was allergic to Codeine. After this extremely uncomfortable reaction, we found effective pain management for him without them and so opted not to introduce a new drug in Andrew's aftercare. Sulfurzyme and Agilease work well instead as a morning and night supplement to help with pain and inflammation as they contain Tumeric, Boswelia, Piperine, MSM and sulfur which are great for tissue regeneration. We just used Tylenol and Ibuprofen as needed for the first day or so.
Andrew is just over 24 hours post-surgery and he is acting normally. He only has the chipmunk cheeks that keep him from opening his mouth too wide. The swelling is going down on one side already, but the right had an extra molar trapped under the bone next to the wisdom tooth that they had to remove. So that side is more tender. All the wisdom teeth were impacted. I can't believe he is not more uncomfortable.
Yay for ways to help the body heal without creating gut imbalance and putting an extra burden on the cleansing systems of the body. I love saving antibiotics for when we really need them and keeping the lowest doses of painkillers while still keeping my guys comfortable and healing well! Andrew was totally better by day four with pink healthy tissue at the extraction site. Copaiba and Sulfurzyme helped the chipmunk cheeks come down.
