If you know you are going in for a wisdom tooth hurting jaw or you just underwent one then you need to know that the post op care is a very important and delicate issue. There are dos and don’ts that you will have to follow to the letter if you want to avoid complications and unnecessary pain. Here are a couple dos and don’ts for wisdom tooth extraction recovery:
Dos:
- Rinse your mouth gently immediately after surgery – Immediately after a wisdom tooth extraction, you will have a surgical gauze pad placed over the area to help stop the bleeding. It is okay for you to rinse out your mouth a couple of times but you have to make sure that you do it very gently so as not to dislodge the forming clot and start the bleeding again.
- Keep your mouth clean – You are allowed to brush your teeth the night after your surgery as long as you keep your toothbrush away from the operated area and on your teeth. Do not rinse as you usually would but gently spit.
- Take pain medication exactly as prescribed – Once the local anesthetic has worn off you should take the pain medications exactly as they were prescribed to you; not more and not less.
- Use ice packs to minimize the swelling – For the first 3 days ice packs will be very helpful in reducing your swelling but after 3 days you will have to switch to warm moist heat.
- Finish your prescribed antibiotics even though you feel fine – Even though you begin to feel better after three days, if you have a prescription of antibiotics for a week then make sure to finish them. If you stop taking your antibiotics half way through the prescribed dosage, you are still at risk of getting an infection, even if you feel fine.
Donts:
- Do not rinse your mouth until the day after the surgery – Once you have left the dentist’s do not rinse your mouth until the next day as you may dislodge the clot that has formed and restart the bleeding.
- Do not drink anything from a straw or sucking bottle – Any action that needs sucking should be avoided as this may dislodge the clot forming and restart bleeding.
- Do not consume alcohol while taking any kind of medication – Do not ingest any alcohol while taking the prescribed antibiotics or painkillers regardless of what they are.
- Do not operate heavy machinery while on the medication – While under heavy medication it is very difficult to properly coordinate your actions so if you know you have a duty that requires operation of heavy machinery you will have to postpone it.
- Do not smoke for at least 24 hours after surgery and if possible, avoid smoking altogether.
- Do not spit or blow your nose, as the inward or outward pressure can possibly cause problems, such as dislodging the blood clot.
- Do not ignore pain, bleeding or swelling that does not subside – the bleeding is supposed to gradually decrease to a halt from day one to around the third day. This also applies to the pain and swelling that you have from the first day. If these symptoms however do not decrease to a halt then you should not hesitate to contact your doctor to find out if something is wrong.
Follow the above tips on wisdom tooth extraction recovery and you are sure to be back in tip-top shape in a week or less.
