Key Points

• Kelly Ripa revealed graphic details of an oral surgery procedure that led to her extended absence from Live With Kelly and Mark.
• The talk show icon said that “a good bad habit” led to “gum recession” in her mouth, and a procedure that forced her not to talk for 10 days.
• “I was supposed to do it five years ago,” Ripa told Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast guest Michelle Buteau, who added that she has a “fake tooth” in her own mouth.

Daytime TV icon Kelly Ripa has opened up with graphic details about her painful gum surgery that, as Entertainment Weekly previously exclusively reported, resulted in an extended absence from her post on Live With Kelly and Mark.

Ripa revealed what led to her needing a gum graft procedure on the latest episode of her Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast (below), on which she welcomed actress (and one of the guest cohosts who filled in for her alongside Ripa’s husband, Mark Consuelos, amid her Live absence) Michelle Buteau.

“I guess you were on the talk show as a guest, what, last week? And Mark was like, ‘Hey, would you want to host sometime?’” Ripa said of the show’s process for “taping shows in advance” in anticipation of Ripa’s hiatus from the show.

“I’m an over-brusher. I brush my teeth too much. It’s a good bad habit,” the 55-year-old continued. “So, they’ve got to re-gum my gums!”

While Buteau lauded Ripa for taking time off to take care of her health, Ripa cut in to tell her, “Before you praise me, I was supposed to do it five years ago. But, now, just so you know, the doctor was like, ‘Now, you don’t have the luxury of time!’”

She later joked that “death creeps in through the gums” and playfully referenced her medically imposed bout with silence when she asked Buteau, “Do I ever need to be heard again? I don’t think so!”

Consuelos first revealed on the air in July that his wife of 30 years would miss several episodes of Live as she recovered at home from the painful surgery.

He told the audience that his wife “famously doesn’t feel pain,” and said that she often doesn’t even request numbing medication when she goes to the dentist.

“But this one hurts,” he said, referencing her high pain tolerance. “So, I know it’s bad.”

In addition to Buteau (who also recently filled in at the last minute during an emergency View cohost shortage), guests who covered for Ripa included Kevin Jonas, Mila Kunis, Pamela Adlon, and Scott Foley, among others.

Ripa’s Live return date has yet to be announced, though the program is currently airing its annual round of pre-taped end-of-summer shows that were banked in the recent past, and which feature Ripa before she went out for surgery.

Live With Kelly and Mark is expected to return for a new season later this year. Listen to Ripa discuss details of her surgery in the podcast episode above.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly