Removal of impacted wisdom teeth is a kind of dental surgery that you don’t want to take lightly. Therefore, if you want a faster healing time, you need to follow post-operative care advised by your dental expert. Proper maintenance and post-operative care is the key to prevent pain, infections, and any potential complications. Make an appointment
Why is Post-Operative Care Important
After wisdom tooth removal, expect to bleed, feel discomfort, and have some bruising in the treated area. Most patients will be able to recover quickly particularly if dry socket has been prevented and if you’ve taken good care of the extracted area.
When the tooth is removed, the blood will form a clot. This clot will prevent the underlying bone, tissues, and nerve as the site is healing.
Wisdom Tooth Aftercare
To prevent this and other complications, you will need to follow post-operative care instructions given to you at the office. Below are some of these post-operative care procedures:
- Expect that your mouth will be bleeding, you’ll feel pain, discomfort and swelling – this occurrence is normal.
- For 48 hours, do not spit, drink through a straw, or smoke. This is useful to your recovery and it can promote faster healing time.
- Prevent doing any kind of strenuous activity for several hours. Avoid unnecessary eating, drinking and talking.
- Do not rinse your mouth for 24 hours.
- Ice – Apply an ice pack up against the cheek side of the surgical site for 15-20 minutes on and off, for a total of one hour. Alternate if your extractions are on both sides. Continue this for the next 3 – 4 hours. This greatly reduces the chance of swelling.
- Pressure – If there is bleeding, you need to maintain pressure in the area that is bleeding by biting a piece of gauze. You need to remove the gauze gently and replace it with a freshly folded pad every 30 minutes, or whenever it’s needed. If you run out of gauze, you can use a tea bag as an alternative. Continue biting on the gauze until you are no longer bleeding or if the bleeding is barely evident. The pressure you put in the affected area greatly affects facial discoloration and helps to form the clot.
- Discomfort – Expect to feel a bit of discomfort as the extracted area is healing. Don’t worry as your dental expert will prescribe pain medications. Take your medications as directed to reduce discomfort especially when the anesthesia wears off.
- Rinsing – For 24 hours and when the bleeding has stopped, you can rinse your mouth with lukewarm salt water. The salt water solution should contain a teaspoon of salt dissolved in an 8oz of glass in lukewarm water. Rinsing is essential as it gets rid of the food particles and debris from the socket are and it helps to prevent infection and promote healing.
- Sutures – It is important not to remove the sutures on your own. There are sutures that will dissolve in time so you simply have to wait for it to dissolve. If you are provided with a non-dissolvable kind, you’ll need to set up an appointment to have it removed. Sutures will need to be removed at least 1 week after the surgery.
- Eating – It is essential that you watch your diet. Do not chew on the area where you have the incision. Eat only nutritious foods and drink plenty of fluids. When the soreness dissipates, you can slowly ease to your normal diet.
- Post operative visit – You need to visit your dental professional for post-surgical appointment so that they can check if the extracted area is healing as expected.
When to speak to a medical professional
Expect to feel pain and swelling for several days, but it will improve over time. You will need to contact your medical professional if you experience the following:
- Excessive bleeding
- Severe pain
- Difficulty in opening your mouth
Whether you have one or all of your wisdom teeth removed, it is important that you follow the instructions your dental professional has given to you to expedite the recovery process and avoid any complications. Don’t trust your smile to just anyone. Wisdom teeth removal are Affordable.
See more about how wisdom teeth are removed.
