Oral surgery involves cutting of gum tissues, removing of tooth/teeth, gum surgeries and getting dental implants. Care after oral surgery is very important to minimize pain, swelling and discomfort felt. It is simply done by following instructions carefully. This article contains information on post operative care for oral surgery.
Care after oral surgery
Proper care after oral surgery should be taken in order to heal your mouth easily and quickly.
When you have pain
Before performing surgery in your mouth, you are given local anesthesia to numb the area where surgery has to be done. Numbness of mouth goes off later after surgery. Experiencing pain is normal and it can last 24-48 hrs after the surgery. Discomfort and soreness can last for 3-5 days. Pain and discomfort felt differs from person to person.
What to be done: Your oral surgeon prescribes some medicines to be taken. Make sure that you mention about any other medicines you are taking. Take medicines regularly as prescribed by the surgeon. Do not miss out any medicine that can make your healing process complex and painful.
What not to do: Remember not to take more medicines than advised. Make sure that you don’t drive and operate machine when taking medications especially when taking narcotic medicines. As these medicines cause drowsiness.
When you have bleeding
You are likely to bleed for the first few hours of oral surgery. Saliva and blood mixes together, which makes you feel that you are bleeding more than you really do. See for four hours, if it is still bleeding, call your oral surgeon.
What to be done: Your oral surgeon will keep a gauze pad over the wound for cutting down the amount of blood. No matter how soggy it becomes, this gauze pad should be kept at the same place for an hour or more. Keep pressure constantly on the pad by keeping your mouth closed firmly. After an hour, check whether it is still bleeding, if so remove the gauze pad and put another one. Continue to put pressure on that gauze pad. It is better to keep your head raised. This will slow down flow of blood, thus heals faster. If bleeding continues more than four hours, contact your dentist.
What not to do: See to it that you don’t rinse your mouth in the first 24 hours after surgery. Avoid hot liquids, if you are drinking soup let it cool and have it. This is because flow of blood will increase if you take hot food and drinks and can cause bleeding again.
When you have swelling
There may be swelling in the first 24 hours after surgery and can last for a week. Swelling gets reduced and takes time to disappear fully.
What to be done: First few days after surgery, apply cold compress on the swollen area. Cold compress can be made by putting some ice cubes in the towel and wrapping it. Apply continuously with a gap 10-15 minutes. This can help in reducing swelling with comfort.
What not to be done: Remember not to apply heat on the swollen area in first 24 hours after surgery. This can make your swelling worse.
Make sure take care of these points to get quick relief after surgery.