Kelly Ripa is back in her studio chair after taking six weeks off to recover from a major dental procedure.
The 55-year-old television host returned to Live with Kelly and Mark alongside her husband and co-host, Mark Consuelos. She spent six weeks away from the daytime talk show while healing from a painful gum graft surgery.
Doctors ordered the notoriously chatty morning host to rest her voice during her recovery, but keeping quiet proved virtually impossible.
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Breaking Doctor’s Orders
Periodontists instructed Ripa to stay on strict vocal rest for 10 days so the delicate tissue graft could heal properly. She admitted in an exclusive interview with People that she couldn’t help but ignore her doctor’s orders.
“Oh, I was talking the whole time,” Ripa confessed. “He was like, ‘You’re not supposed to be talking.’ I’m like, ‘I’m fine!’ It did look weird, though, when I talked.”
The resulting inflammation in her lower lip was so pronounced that show producers assumed she was holding cotton in her mouth.
“What was funny, a few of my producers said, ‘You just need to take the cotton out, take the cotton out from under your lower lip,’” she explained. “And I was like, ‘There is no cotton. That is just swelling. That’s why I’m not at work today.’”
An Overzealous Daily Routine
Ripa previously revealed on her Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast that her aggressive dental hygiene routine — decades of over-brushing and over-flossing — wore away her gums, leaving her dentist no choice but to operate.
Consuelos teased his wife about her five-minute brushing sessions and called her habits excessive.
“She doesn’t follow instructions very well,” Consuelos said.
Ripa responded, “I’m getting better. I’m retraining myself. I host a morning show. I know when there’s bad dental hygiene involved. It’s a good-bad habit, or a bad-good habit.”
Despite the unusually painful recovery, Ripa reassured the outlet that she’s fully healed and feeling much better.
“[I’m] so much better,” Ripa told People. “It was fine. It was definitely necessary. I delayed it for five years. I really did because I was like, ‘I’ll wait until I retire.’ And then, eventually my dentist was like, ‘Okay, now we have to finish it.’”
