All four of mine were removed a few weeks ago, a month maybe. I didn't act weird at all after I woke, or say anything insane. I think most people recover pretty quickly from that. I didn't feel much pain, it was more of a distant ache, which I could deal with. The only meds I was taking were the ibuprofen the dentist gave me. I didn't take the stronger pain meds. After about a week, a week and 3-4 days, I was able to slowly start eating solid foods (soft breads at first, potatoes, chili). More because I was a baby about the whole thing, so I prolonged eating solid foods longer than what my dentist told me (he said I could start eating foods after 5 days).
It's really important to clean your mouth, almost constantly. (and by cleaning your mouth, I mean rinses. I was scared about brushing my teeth, and I brushed them very softly and avoided my back teeth) After every meal. However during the first 2-3 days, you want to avoid rinses, as they can dislodge the blood clot that is to form where the extraction site is. This blood clot is crucial to the recovery, and lowers the chances of forming a dry socket, which I've heard can be quite painful. So for the first 2-3 days, avoid rinsing as much as you can and take it easy. After the surgery, you'll bleed, and you'll want to change the gauze every hour, or 30 minutes. Depending on how bad you are bleeding. But after awhile, you're going to want to stop applying gauze because you want the clot to be able to form. Anyways, after those couple of days pass, you can start doing salt rinses. This will help clean out your mouth. You don't want to rinse too vigorously, as your mouth is still sensitive. You want to rinse after every meal, this means after every pudding you eat, every applesauce, what ever your food source will be for the next couple of days. You should be provided with an oral rinse, and if not, I would suggest asking for one. You want to use this twice a day, once in the morning, once at night. Just make sure to take good care of your mouth, clean it frequently, and try not to dislodge the clot. IF by chance a dry socket forms, you will typically know 2-4 days after the surgery, because the pain will start to feel worse, even having aches close to your ears. You might even have a slight smell, or bad taste. Those are all indications of a dry socket. Call the dentist if you think one is forming, as they can fill it up for you and give you medicine to clear it up faster.
My stitches started coming out on their own about 5 days after the surgery, which was much sooner than I had expected. And right now, the holes from the extraction site are almost closed. So expect at least a month for them to close up, could be 2 months. After your check-up, to see if your mouth is doing all good, and you're eating solid foods and such, you'll want to rinse your mouth a lot to keep the food out of the holes. This is a very annoying process, and it's rather uncomfortable for me. I don't like the feeling of having food stuck in the extraction holes :p But, expect to do a lot of rinsing to get the food unstuck. Toothpicks help as well.
Ummmm, that's all I can think of to say right now :p I did a lot of research, because I was very paranoid as well. But if you take good care of yourself, you should be plenty good.
