Kelly Ripa is opening up about undergoing a gum graft procedure.
In an upcoming episode of the “Let’s Talk Off Camera” podcast, which was recorded before her surgery, Ripa, 55, shared that she’s “not allowed to talk for 10 days.” She explained that the dental procedure includes taking “the skin off of the roof of your mouth” and then putting it over the gums.
“I’m an over-brusher. I brush my teeth too much. It’s a good bad habit,” she said in the episode, per Entertainment Weekly. “So, they’ve got to re-gum my gums!”
The Live With Kelly and Mark cohost went on to explain that she was “supposed to do it five years ago” before ultimately getting the procedure recently.
“But, now, just so you know, the doctor was like, ‘Now, you don’t have the luxury of time!’” she said, later joking that “death creeps in through the gums.”
The dental procedure treats thinning gums or gum recession, with recovery generally taking a couple of weeks, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
In July, Ripa’s husband and cohost Mark Consuelos confirmed that she would not be taping the talk show as she recovers from the surgery.
“Kelly sends her love,” Consuelos, 55, told guest cohost Kevin Jonas. “There’s a list of things you are not allowed to do. [No] talking, she has to eat soft food, can’t suck out of a straw. You can’t examine it, which means pulling down the lip. Last night, she was like, ‘Can you look?’ And I’m like, ‘I’m not pulling your lip down.’”
“Her dentist said five years ago, ‘You could do it in about five years.’ And she said, ‘I didn’t know I would still be on the air in five years,’” Consuelos continued. “But the one thing about it — she is doing well, doing great — she is not allowed to talk.”
Jonas, 38, jokingly added, “That has to be the hardest thing she has ever done.”
Consuelos, who shares three children with Ripa, agreed with Jonas’ sentiment that his wife is a great “conversationalist” and shared that most of their communication has been done via phone. (Consuelos and Ripa, who tied the knot in 1996, are parents to sons Michael, 29, and Joaquin, 23, and daughter Lola, 25.)
“It’s painful,” he added. “But she famously does not feel pain. When she goes into the dentist, she doesn’t use the novocain. But this one hurts, so I know it’s bad.”
