Kelly Ripa reveals the “bad habit” that forced her off Live for weeks

Kelly Ripa opened up about the “good-bad habit” that forced her to undergo painful surgery and to miss several days of Live with Kelly and Mark tapings.

The TV personality shared on a pre-recorded episode of her Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa podcast that she was undergoing a gum graft after overbrushing her pearly whites.

Inside Kelly’s painful procedure

“It is [painful],” she said to her guest, comedienne Michelle Buteau, before adding that she is “not allowed to talk for ten days” after the surgery. Kelly described the procedure on the podcast, explaining that her dentist will graft “the skin off of the roof of your mouth” onto the receding gums.

“I’m an over-brusher,” she added. “I brush my teeth too much. It’s a good-bad habit. But I’ve caused gum recession down here specifically, and so they have gotta re-gum my gums.”

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“We’re already managing my stress level for not being able to talk for ten days,” she quipped. Kelly shared that she was meant to undergo the procedure five years prior, but put it off as long as she could.

“But now, just so you know, the doctor was like, ‘Now, you don’t have the luxury of time,'” she said.

A lengthy recovery

Kelly has been absent from Live since July 27, and her husband and co-host, Mark Consuelos, shared an update on her progress. “Kelly sends her love,” he said on the show, before revealing the strict instructions she was set to follow.

 “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.'”

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“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,'” Mark continued. “But the one thing about it – she is doing well, doing great – she is not allowed to talk.”

The father of three added that Kelly was feeling the pain, despite being a pillar of strength when it came to her health. “She famously doesn’t feel pain. When she goes into the dentist, she doesn’t use the novocaine. But this one hurts, so I know it’s bad.”

The TV star’s imminent return

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The team behind Live with Kelly and Mark are currently taking their annual summer break, and all episodes from August 10 until Labor Day are pre-recorded. Kelly appeared in Monday’s pre-recorded episode, after stars like Kevin Jonas, Mila Kunis, Jenna Dewan and Michelle Buteau stepped in as guest hosts.

Her first live appearance on the show following the surgery will be on September 8. Kelly and Mark have been married since 1996, and share kids Michael, 29, Lola, 25, and Joaquin, 23. They have co-hosted Live since April 2023, after Ryan Seacrest stepped down from the position.