POST EXTRACTION  ADVICE HOME

POST OPERATIVE INSTRUCTIONS FOLLOWING REMOVAL OF A TOOTH

Please keep your fingers and tongue away from the surgical site: If you touch it, it will bleed.

Do not rinse your mouth until it has stopped bleeding for the first 24 hours to prevent dissolving of the blood clot.

Tomorrow, rinse your mouth gently with a pinch of salt in a juice glass of luke warm water 6-8 times per day for 10-14 days until the wound has healed and closed.

Do not rinse with Scope, Listerine or any other mouth wash. Just use salt water.

Do not spit for the first 24 hours.

Do not smoke for 48 hours or your chance of developing a post-operative infection, called a dry socket will increase. A dry socket is a very painful infection, which occurs when a proper blood clot does not form. Without a blood clot, healing will not occur or will be very slow. If a dry socket does occur you will notice a bad smell, a very bad pain and a tendency to trap food in the remaining socket. You may experience a burning itch one to two days after the extraction, which is followed by a very sharp pain, bad smell and taste. If this occurs, please let us know so that we can clean the socket and pack it temporarily to protect the socket from food particles. The packing will remain in place for three to seven days. After which time it is removed to allow the final stages of healing.

Do not eat solid foods the first day (stick to clear fluids, broth, consomme, water, tea or coffee ) .. Do not exert yourself for the rest of the day. The second and third days, switch to soft, non-spicy foods( eggs, pasta, or rice). Avoid temperature extremes; have cool or lukewarm foods. Avoid drinking alcoholic and carbonated beverages for 48 hours as well. Do not eat steak, roast or pork chops until the fourth day.


If there is heavy bleeding, please do the following:

Take a single square gauze, fold it into four, wet it and place it directly on the extraction site. During this time do not walk or talk. Find a comfortable chair and sit down, keeping your mouth firmly closed for a full thirty minutes. You should feel pressure from the gauze on the extraction site. At the end of this time, remove the single gauze. If it is just a bit red next to the wound and the other half is white, leave the gauze out (it has clotted.) Do not disturb the site. Let it heal: You don't have to do anything else.

If the entire gauze is red then you are bleeding too much, so repeat the above steps using two wet gauze squares instead of one. At the end of the second, thirty minute period again check the gauze. If it is half red and the other half is white leave it out, for you have clotted, and you are done.

If there is still no clotting, place a tea bag in lukewarm water, squeeze the water out of it, cut open the tea bag and place 1/3 of the tea leaves on an open gauze. Fold the gauze into four so the tea leaves cannot fall out and place it next to the open wound. Place a plain wet gauze folded into four with the first gauze for added pressure and bite firmly for thirty minutes. At the end of that time check the gauze; if they are a bit red and mostly white you may remove them and leave all of the gauze out for you have clotted. If both gauze squares are still red you are bleeding too much and must ask yourself. "Have I followed all of the instructions to a T?" Children must be supervised. If you have followed all of the instructions and are still bleeding, call my office for an appointment. If the office is closed, leave a message on the answering machine. Should you have an urgent need, please call (905)371-6137 and leave a message if nobody answers. We will call you back ASAP. If you cannot wait, phone the emergency department at the hospital and ask for the dentist on call. Your extraction site will need to be packed in order to stop the bleeding. If you form a proper blood clot the wound will heal in seven to fourteen days. If you develop an infection or need to have the site packed, it could take up to two months to heal. So PLEASE follow all instructions. Doing this won't guarantee that you will not have a problem but it will increase your chances of having a rapid, uneventful recovery.