Oral care after wisdom tooth removal

From this article you will learn:

• Wisdom tooth removed - how long will it hurt?
• what are the complications?
• How long does it take for gums to heal after wisdom tooth removal?

The article was written by a dental surgeon with more than 19 years of experience.

According to statistics, after the removal of a wisdom tooth, inflammation of the socket of the extracted tooth occurs in 25-30% of cases. For example, after the removal of any other groups of teeth, inflammation occurs only in 3-5% of cases. This is due: firstly, to the higher complexity of removing wisdom teeth, and secondly, to the fact that they are surrounded by a large amount of soft tissue.

The last circumstance is very important, because the presence of moving soft tissues in the area of ​​the extracted tooth socket often leads to the loss of the clot - its loss or even destruction. If the socket of the extracted tooth is not closed by a blood clot, inflammation will inevitably develop in it.

Gums after wisdom tooth removal (normal) –

When wisdom teeth are removed, stitches are almost always required. This is necessary because these teeth are located deep in the soft tissues and in this place the mucous membrane is very mobile. The absence of sutures in this situation can lead to prolapse of the clot and inflammation. But if the patient has a long jaw and there is enough space for the wisdom tooth, the socket will look traditional (Fig. 3).

To learn how the sockets of extracted teeth should normally heal, and how to speed up this process, read the article: “How long should gums take to heal?”

Why complications often occur after wisdom tooth removal -

It must be said that the severity of negative symptoms after wisdom tooth removal directly depends on the degree of traumatic removal. In turn, the incidence of trauma depends not only on the simple or complex position of the tooth in the jaw, but, first of all, on the qualifications of the dental surgeon.

For example, surgeons often spend 1-2 hours trying to remove a patient’s wisdom tooth with just forceps and an elevator - instead of immediately making an incision in the gum, drilling out some bone around the tooth and/or sawing the tooth crown into several parts (after that, removing each root by separately), and spending only 15-20 minutes on it.

Another main cause of complications after complex wisdom tooth removal is the use of a drill by the surgeon, the surgical tip of which is not water-cooled. As a result, a thermal burn of the bone occurs, followed by severe pain and the development of suppuration in the socket of the extracted tooth.

Important: thus, the main causes of inflammation and other complications are the mistakes and negligence of the dental surgeon during the removal process. However, a lot also depends on the doctor’s prescriptions. Correct prescriptions dramatically reduce the risk of developing inflammation of the socket.

When to see a dentist

A visit to the doctor should not be delayed in the following cases:

1. Initially or after a couple of days, a blood clot falls out;
2. A purulent lump appears in the area of ​​the hole;
3. The pain does not go away for a long time and inflammation appears;
4. The entire jaw begins to ache, radiating to the temple and eye areas;
5. There is a constant iron taste of blood in the mouth;
6. Pain appears in the area of ​​the adjacent tooth;
7. Within 5 days the gums are not covered with white plaque.

If you are worried about your teeth, you will be helped at the Doctor-RAF Dental Clinic (Almaty, Muratbayev St., 101). Our highly qualified specialists will help you solve all your dental problems.

During the operation, a neighboring organ may be damaged. This will manifest itself as symptoms of pain, and perhaps the tooth will begin to loosen.

Complex removal will require additional care and the use of bactericidal drugs, but only those prescribed by the dentist. Self-prescribing antibiotics is prohibited. An exception would be local gels and ointments, which are available without a prescription and have an anti-inflammatory effect.

8 reasons why the hole does not heal after tooth extraction, ways to speed it up.

After tooth extraction, it seems that the worst is over. However, this is a surgical operation that does not exclude the possibility of complications, especially if you do not follow the doctor’s recommendations. What to do when the hole does not heal?

What to do after wisdom tooth removal to avoid complications -

What to do after wisdom tooth removal will depend on the complexity of the removal. If the removal was simple (that is, it was not accompanied by an incision in the gum and cutting out the bone), then standard recommendations after removal will be sufficient. If the removal was difficult or was carried out against the background of purulent inflammation, then the following must be added to these recommendations...

• Antihistamines - these drugs are also called antiallergic. Taking them will reduce the swelling of the soft tissues of the cheek after removal, which will certainly appear the next morning, and in addition, they enhance the effect of analgesics. It is best to take Suprastin. This is a very strong drug, but with a hypnotic effect. Therefore, we recommend taking it in the first 2-3 days after removal shortly before bedtime (once a day).

• 
  NSAID-based analgesics

  – it is best to use analgesics from the NSAID group (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), which have both analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects. These include products based on ibuprofen, ketoprofen, etc.
  It is best to start taking these medications before your anesthesia wears off. Read about the right choice of medications at the link above. It is best to use them for the first 3 days, then as needed.

• Antibiotics – after a complex extraction, or if the removal was carried out against the background of inflammation in the tooth, taking antibiotics is mandatory. Because After tooth extraction, a bone wound is formed, then antibiotics should be specific to bone tissue. At the moment, the most popular antibiotics among dental surgeons are several drugs.
  Firstly, Amoxiclav. The dosage for adults should contain 500 mg of amoxicillin and 125 mg of clavulanic acid. At this dosage, the drug is taken only 2 times a day. However, if you previously experienced diarrhea after taking antibiotics, then it is better to purchase another drug - Unidox-solutab in soluble tablets (taken 100 mg 2 times a day, 5 or 6 days).

  Very often, doctors also prescribe a drug from the Soviet past - Lincomycin capsules 0.25 (adult dosage - 2 capsules 3 times a day, for a total of 5-6 days). It is inexpensive, effective, but kills the entire intestinal microflora, causing you to suffer from dysbacteriosis later.

Treatment at the dentist

The doctor begins treatment by washing the socket and treating it with antiseptic solutions, and then cleans the socket from the remains of the blood clot using a surgical curette. Then the wound is dried with a gauze swab and treated with an anesthetic and antibacterial agents. The wound is covered with a bandage, which is designed to protect the open surface of the wound from possible biological, chemical or mechanical irritants. To check the possibility of detecting pieces of the extracted tooth in the socket, an x-ray can first be taken.

The procedure for cleaning the hole as a whole is carried out according to the following scheme:

1. Local anesthesia is performed;
2. The well is washed with an antiseptic solution (hydrogen peroxide solution 3%, chlorhexidine 0.05% or furatsilin 0.02%), and food debris and necrotic masses are removed;
3. If there are foreign bodies in the hole (root fragments, cysts and granulomas), they are removed using special instruments;
4. After cleaning the hole, it is treated with antiseptic solutions, dried with a sterile gauze swab, and turunda with an antiseptic and an anesthetic is injected into it. With a mild degree of inflammation, a turunda may not be necessary; thorough cleansing of the hole and subsequent care for it is sufficient;
5. In case of a pronounced necrotic process in the hole, rinsing and application with trypsin is carried out - this is an enzyme preparation that accelerates the breakdown of dead tissue. Trypsin has anti-inflammatory and anti-edematous effects, helps clean the socket from necrotic masses and pus;
6. After completing all the manipulations, the patient goes home, the doctor appoints appointment days when he needs to come for antiseptic treatment of the hole and change the turunda, if one has been installed. If necessary, a course of antibiotics is prescribed.

For alveolitis, antiseptic baths (not rinsing) with solutions of chlorhexidine 0.05% or miramistin 0.01%, which can be purchased ready-made at the pharmacy, are effective. When performing baths, the solution is taken into the mouth and held for several minutes, then carefully spat out. To relieve pain and reduce the degree of inflammation, nimesulide or ibuprofen are prescribed.

To prevent the turunda from falling out of the socket, during treatment you need to eat soft, pureed food and do not chew on the sore side. If the turunda does fall out, you need to rinse your mouth with chlorhexidine solution and immediately consult a doctor.

If this is not possible, you should rinse the hole yourself from food debris: to do this, bite off the sharp tip of the needle from a 5 ml syringe, bend it a little, and disinfect it with pure alcohol. A chlorhexidine solution is drawn into the syringe, the needle is inserted into the hole (not too deep) and the piston is pressed intensely to create a liquid pressure that can remove food debris.

All cases of alveolitis treatment are individual, so it may be necessary to visit the dentist up to several times.

With a favorable course of the healing process, the pain goes away, and the inflammatory process gradually subsides and disappears after a few days.

If the process, despite the procedures performed, progresses, then after antiseptics, gauze tampons soaked in propolis tincture or camvorophenol solution (10%) are inserted into the hole. A tetracycline-prednisolone cone inserted into the well has a good antibacterial effect.

What are the complications after wisdom tooth removal?

When a wisdom tooth has been removed, what to do after removal will directly depend on the symptoms that you experience. It must be said that according to statistics, complications after wisdom tooth removal occur in almost every 4th patient. Most often, patients encounter the following symptoms indicating the development of complications:

• severe spontaneous pain,
• pain when cold or hot water gets on the wound,
• swelling of the soft tissues of the cheek,
• unpleasant odor from the socket of an extracted tooth,
• painful swallowing
• difficulty opening the mouth,
• temperature,
• bleeding,
• the appearance of a hematoma on the face.

The patient's role in the prevention of alveolitis

According to statistics, in most cases, the cause of the development of post-extraction alveolitis is the patient’s incorrect actions after tooth extraction, ignoring the recommendations of the attending physician. After tooth extraction it is prohibited:

• Remove the blood clot from the socket. The blood clot that forms in the hole after tooth extraction prevents microbes from entering the wound, and the healing process under it proceeds quickly and without complications. Patients can remove the clot by touching it with the tongue, with fingers, by vigorously rinsing the mouth immediately after tooth extraction, and also while eating solid foods.
• Do hard physical work, sports, take hot baths, go to the sauna. Intense loads and elevated temperatures provoke the opening of the wound, and bleeding resumes; pathogenic microorganisms can enter the wound.
• Smoking, drinking alcohol. Bad habits lead to excessive irritation of the mucous membranes, healing of the hole is much slower, and inflammation may occur.

To speed up healing and prevent the development of inflammation in the socket, you need to:

• In the first few days after tooth extraction, review your menu, excluding spicy, too salty, sour, and hot dishes. All food should be soft, pre-chopped;
• Maintain careful oral hygiene. The presence of chronic inflammation of the gums and carious teeth in the mouth can cause infection of the socket, so after tooth extraction you need to carry out antiseptic baths (they should be prescribed by a doctor);
• After each meal, rinse your mouth with clean water to remove any remaining food; this must be done very carefully so as not to remove the blood clot covering the hole;
• Brush your teeth carefully, trying not to touch the socket with the brush.

Pain after wisdom tooth removal –

Having a wisdom tooth pulled out, how long will it hurt is the most common question patients ask. How much your gums hurt after wisdom tooth removal directly depends on the degree of traumatic removal. Normally, pain after wisdom tooth removal should not be very strong and, once it occurs, it should gradually only decrease. After a simple removal, the pain usually goes away completely in 1-2 days, and after a complex one, normally in no more than 3-5 days.

If you have a wisdom tooth pulled out and the pain immediately after removal is very strong and practically does not decrease in the first days, this indicates that the removal is excessively traumatic and the possible development of inflammation of the socket of the extracted tooth (alveolitis). Here you need to urgently go to the dentist for a second examination. In the worst case scenario, pain can last up to 3-4 weeks.

Symptoms of inflammation of the wisdom tooth socket - upon examination, you can see that the socket is empty, or it is filled with food debris and necrotic decay of a blood clot. Sometimes patients feel sharp/moving bone fragments with their tongue. There is always pain, there is always an unpleasant smell from the hole. The mucous membrane is swollen and red. Such symptoms are characteristic of a mild form.

However, in some cases, inflammation of the socket occurs with abundant formation of pus, swelling of the cheek, difficulty opening the mouth and painful swallowing. And it must also be said that if you experience pain when responding to cold or hot water, this clearly indicates the presence of an exposed area of ​​bone. In any case, only a dentist can help you.

Inflammation of the socket of an extracted wisdom tooth: video

Below you can see what inflammation of the sockets of removed wisdom teeth looks like in the video. Please note that in video 2, when you press on the gums in the area of ​​both removed wisdom teeth, thick pus comes out of the patient’s sockets.

Reasons for the development of alveolitis - if the patient rinses his mouth vigorously in the first days after extraction, this can lead to a blood clot falling out of the socket of the extracted tooth. This leads to inflammation in 100% of cases, because... the hole is immediately filled with food debris and microbes from the oral cavity. But in most cases, alveolitis still develops due to the fault of the doctor -

• traumatic removal,
• fragments or slightly movable bone fragments are left in the socket,
• when cutting out the bone, the doctor used a drill tip without water cooling, which led to overheating and necrosis of the bone,
• the doctor was too lazy to suture the mucous membrane above the hole (in some cases this can lead to exposure of a section of bone in the next few days),
• The doctor did not prescribe antibiotics after a complex extraction, or in the case when the tooth was removed due to inflammation.

Important: alveolitis is the most common complication after wisdom tooth removal. If the described symptoms occur, you should immediately run to the doctor and treat alveolitis. From experience I can say that when a doctor sutures a hole even after a simple removal, the number of cases of alveolitis development is almost zero. In addition, studies have shown that suturing the socket reduces the severity of pain after removal by 30-50%. Therefore, before removal, you should definitely ask the doctor to suture your hole, even if you have to pay extra for it (about 500 rubles for 2 stitches).

Recommendations for patients after tooth extraction surgery

Did you have to have a tooth removed? We will try to help you and remind you of the basic recommendations of doctors so that your healing process is easy and comfortable!

• Follow your doctor's recommendations carefully.
• Avoid eating for 2 hours after tooth extraction.
• During the first 24 hours, eat soft, non-irritating, warm foods.
• It is forbidden to rinse the wound during the first 24 hours after removal, to perform any manipulations to clean the hole yourself, or to apply warm compresses!
• On the first day after tooth extraction, if pain occurs, take Ketarol 1 tablet 2 times a day. If pain appears on the 3-4th day, or if your body temperature rises, consult a doctor immediately.
• Do not remove the medicine from the hole.
• You should not lift weights, play sports, go to the sauna, take a hot bath, get too cold, or drink alcohol for 4-5 days after tooth extraction.

Bleeding from the socket

After tooth extraction, the doctor usually applies a pressure bandage to the extraction site. Do not rush to take it out, even if it is unpleasant to you. This bandage should be in your mouth for 20 minutes, otherwise you risk returning to the doctor with bleeding from the hole!

And please refrain from rinsing your mouth unless your doctor prescribes it. Frequent rinsing will not stop the bleeding, but will lead to slower healing and increased pain. Usually, during the first 24 hours, the color of saliva changes due to mixing with blood. If there is severe bleeding, make a roll of sterile gauze, apply pressure to the wound with the roller and press with your mouth closed for 20 minutes. The bleeding should stop. If the bleeding does not stop, consult a doctor immediately!

Pain

After the anesthesia wears off (usually 1-2 hours after extraction), pain may appear in the area of ​​tooth extraction. If there is severe pain, take an analgesic (Ketanov, Solpadein, Dolaren, etc.). Be sure to read the instructions for use of a particular drug, especially if there are contraindications and side effects. It is best to take the analgesic during or after meals with sufficient liquid. The choice of an analgesic, especially in the presence of concomitant pathologies (stomach ulcer, gastritis, hepatitis), is best done in consultation with your doctor or pharmacist.

Cooling

There is no need to use ice packs after simple removal. In other clinical cases, when your doctor has recommended ice, press an ice pack against your cheek on the removal side for no more than 10 minutes, with a break of 20-30 minutes. Avoid severe hypothermia of tissues. Use ice packs with caution as prolonged exposure to cold can increase pain and delay healing.

Bad habits

Smokers often have more problems after removal than those who do not smoke (for example, they are more likely to have dry sockets). The formation of a vacuum in the mouth (when you smoke or drink a cocktail through a straw) can cause the clot to dislodge. If you can abstain from smoking for two days after removal, this will undoubtedly improve the healing process.

Alcohol can dissolve the clot and irritate the wound after removal. In addition, many drugs prescribed after removal are incompatible with the use of alcohol. Therefore, refrain from drinking alcohol at least in the first days after removal.

Drugs

Be sure to inform your doctor before removal about any medications you are taking (oral contraceptives, insulin, antihypertensives, anticoagulants, etc.) so that he can choose the right anesthetic and prescribe individual postoperative care for you. The doctor may recommend you anti-inflammatory drugs (Nimesil, Mefenamic acid, etc.) after tooth extraction, especially if the extraction is difficult or there is inflammation before extraction. You should not neglect his recommendations, even if it is a course of strong antibiotics along with desensitizing drugs. If, after taking one antibiotic capsule, you feel that you do not need such strong treatment, do not stop taking the drug!!! If you suddenly stop treatment, the bacteria attacking your body may become “immune” to this group of antibiotics.

Food

If removal was difficult, your doctor may prescribe a diet of liquid or soft foods for the next 24 hours. If the removal was quite simple, you just need to make sure that you chew with teeth that are as far as possible from the extraction site. Avoid eating spicy, sour, hot and traumatic foods. After eating, oral baths are required on the first day and rinsing in subsequent days so that the hole does not become clogged with food debris. Hot liquids can dissolve a blood clot forming in the socket, so exclude them from your diet for a day after removal. Also avoid carbonated drinks and alcohol during this time, especially if you are taking antibiotics or other medications!

How to brush your teeth

During healing, it is very important to maintain good oral hygiene. On the day when the tooth was removed, it is better not to brush the teeth located in the immediate vicinity of the extraction site with a toothbrush. This does not mean that teeth do not need care at all! Moreover, good oral hygiene improves healing. Just make sure that the movements of the brush in the area near the removal are softer and more accurate. On the first day after removal, rinsing your mouth is contraindicated. Rinsing should be replaced with oral baths made from herbal decoctions or antiseptics that do not contain alcohol or other irritants.

Seams

After your tooth is removed, your doctor may stitch you up around the extraction area. Some types of thread used to make these seams subsequently dissolve by themselves; Non-absorbable sutures will have to be removed by your dentist. If you have had stitches, check with your doctor again what type of thread he used. Typically, dentists prefer non-dissolving sutures - however, the process of removing them is very simple and completely painless.

Wound healing

The wound heals after removal in 2-3 weeks. However, the healing of holes at a young age occurs somewhat faster than in the elderly. The sockets of single-rooted teeth heal faster (16-18 days) than multi-rooted ones (19-23 days). In the presence of inflammation in single-rooted teeth, delayed healing is observed for 1 week, and in multi-rooted teeth - 2 weeks later. The delay in epithelization also has a direct relationship with the traumatic nature of the tooth extraction operation. The more severe the removal, the longer the healing.

On the 3-4th day after tooth extraction, the development of granulation (soft young) tissue begins. At this time, white crusts of newly formed epithelium are observed on the surface of the socket. Tearing or scraping it off is strictly prohibited!!! By day 14, the hole is completely filled with this tissue.

Two weeks after the operation, elements of new bone tissue appear on the bottom and side walls of the socket; by the end of the first month, the socket begins to fill, and by the 45th day it is completely filled with young bone tissue.

By the end of the 3rd month, newly formed mature bone tissue fills the entire socket.

By the end of 4-6 months, and in a complicated course - by 8-10 months, it is not possible to distinguish the socket from the surrounding bone radiographically. In older people and in the presence of concomitant diseases, wound healing occurs more slowly.

Swelling after wisdom tooth removal –

If you have a wisdom tooth removed and your cheek is swollen the next day, then in some cases this is normal.
Normally, after simple removal, swelling rarely develops, and most often it occurs in people with an abundance of subcutaneous fat on the face. Such swelling most often becomes noticeable only in the morning of the next day. Normally, after a complex removal, swelling gradually develops immediately and gradually increases, becoming maximum the next morning. Usually the swelling is stable over the next 1-2 days, after which it begins to slowly decrease. If, against the background of swelling, there is no increasing temperature or pain, but on the contrary, all symptoms slowly decrease, then everything is OK.

• When removing an upper wisdom tooth, swelling of the upper cheek may occur (even if the removal was simple). The appearance of edema in this case is due to the fact that the area where the upper wisdom teeth are located is very richly supplied with blood, and therefore swelling of the surrounding soft tissues occurs. If the removal of the upper wisdom tooth was difficult or was carried out against the background of inflammation, then the occurrence of edema is all the more not surprising.
• When removing lower wisdom teeth -

  
  swelling is natural if the removal was complicated (an incision was made, a bone was drilled, a tooth was sawed), or the tooth was removed due to inflammation. Swelling of the surrounding soft tissue near the removed lower wisdom tooth can lead to painful swallowing or difficulty opening the mouth.

When to sound the alarm - if swelling continues to increase over the next 1-2 days after removal, pain and temperature may also increase, pain when swallowing increases, and the mouth opens less and less - all these are unfavorable symptoms indicating suppuration. If you have at least one of the symptoms listed, you need to urgently run to the dentist.

Important: to ensure that swelling does not appear after wisdom tooth removal or is minimal, it is advisable to take antihistamines (Suprastin is best) for the first 2-3 days before going to bed - once a day before bed. Antihistamines have not only an antiallergic effect, but also a decongestant.

Is it painful to remove a wisdom tooth?

Many patients delay wisdom tooth removal due to fear of pain. Such fears in modern dentistry are absolutely groundless, since anesthetics are necessarily used for the procedure. Discomfort occurs when the effect of the drugs wears off and the analgesic effect decreases. But this is a physiological process that fades away on its own after some time. In addition, there is absolutely no need to endure pain; the doctor will prescribe medications to alleviate the postoperative condition.

When removing a wisdom tooth, some patients experience painful symptoms for a number of reasons:

• drug addiction;
• extensive purulent process;
• abuse of painkillers.

Also, the degree of pain depends on the method of removal, the condition of the wisdom tooth, and its location. For example, surgery on the upper jaw is easier. But removing a wisdom tooth from the lower jaw is more problematic due to the structural features of the jaw and large curved roots.

Temperature after wisdom tooth removal –

• If the tooth was removed NOT due to inflammation - if your wisdom tooth was removed, the temperature may well rise to 37.5 degrees, but only on the first evening.
  The body sometimes reacts to injury with just such a low-grade fever, even if the tooth was not removed due to inflammation. This is especially true if the removal was difficult. Normally, the next morning after removal, the temperature should disappear (24stoma.ru). When to sound the alarm: if the temperature does not subside the entire next day after extraction, and even more so continues to increase, then this indicates suppuration of the hole of the extracted tooth. All you need to do is run to the dentist.

• If the tooth was removed due to purulent inflammation, in this case the temperature may be higher than 37.5. But normally, from the next day the temperature should decrease progressively. If it persists and, even more so, increases (this indicates an increase in inflammation), you need to urgently go to the dentist.

Bleeding after wisdom tooth removal –

Usually, in the socket of an extracted tooth, blood clots instantly, but with increased pressure or injury to a large vessel, prolonged bleeding may occur. Bleeding after wisdom tooth removal is not a big deal if it occurs while still in the dentist’s chair. The doctor will then immediately suture the wound with suture material and/or place a hemostatic hemostatic sponge into the socket of the extracted tooth (Fig. 8).

However, very often bleeding after tooth extraction occurs after leaving the clinic. Experienced doctors, to be on the safe side (especially if a large tooth is removed and the patient has a history of hypertension), usually always put 1-2 sutures on the wound, just to prevent bleeding. In addition, suturing allows the wound to heal faster.

Bleeding after removal of the upper 8th tooth: video

More detailed information on the possibilities of stopping bleeding at home is in the article: → “How to quickly stop bleeding after tooth extraction”

Features of the structure of wisdom teeth

The structure of a wisdom tooth is no different from other molars and consists of a neck, a root system (4–5 pieces) and a crown. In some cases, root development is disrupted and a single conglomerate is formed, that is, a tooth grows with one root.

Its only difference from its neighbors is that recent studies recognize the wisdom tooth as a rudiment that has lost its functional purpose during the evolutionary development of man. Scientists do not consider it as a full-fledged organ, since some part of humanity does not grow it at all.

However, the wisdom tooth has several parameters that distinguish it from the same “seven”:

• lack of milk precursors, which ultimately complicates eruption and impedes growth. There is no room left for it on the dental arch, which is why various developmental pathologies arise;
• the number of roots is greater than that of other molars - up to 5 pieces. In this regard, problems often arise when removing a wisdom tooth;
• significantly curved roots of the “eights” make cleaning and treatment of root canals very difficult;
• poor blood supply compared to other teeth leads to rapid aging, accompanied by fragility and susceptibility of tissues to caries, despite minimal load;
• many pathological conditions, for example, pathologies of the masticatory muscles, malocclusion, pericoronitis, are associated with the growth of “eights”.

Thus, the appearance of third molars has many more negative consequences than positive ones. Many patients are forced to see a dentist even before they can be seen in person.

Hematoma after wisdom tooth removal –

A hematoma appears due to the fact that a vessel in the soft tissues has been injured. There is no point in blaming the doctor for this, because... When administering anesthesia, the doctor does not see where the vessels pass in your soft tissues. The needle can injure such a vessel and after a few days the skin may appear blue. Gradually it will pass.

However, the formation of a hematoma may require additional measures. A hematoma often festeres after the removal of a wisdom tooth. In this case, already on this day or the next day after removal, the patient experiences swelling of the cheek, a feeling of fullness, pain, and a slight fever. Here you need to urgently consult a doctor, because... when the hematoma suppurates, an incision is required to release the pus.

Why there is bad breath and what to do

The appearance of an unpleasant odor after the removal of a wisdom tooth indicates the development of an inflammatory process. In most cases, the symptom appears 3-4 days after surgery and is accompanied by tissue swelling and pain. In this case, you need to consult a doctor.

Odor may also develop due to lack of hygiene. This increases the risk of inflammatory abs, so you shouldn’t forget about brushing your teeth.

It is worth considering that some medications that doctors use to protect the socket may have a specific odor. As a rule, dentists warn the patient about this situation immediately after the procedure.

Removing a wisdom tooth is a complex procedure, but following all the dentist’s recommendations will help reduce the risk of complications to zero. Our doctors always tell patients in detail the features of the postoperative period and prescribe all prescriptions, including antibiotics and analgesics. All they have to do is follow all the instructions exactly.

We answer frequently asked questions from patients -

If you have a wisdom tooth removed: what to do after removal, what to rinse with, how quickly the hole will heal and when it will be possible to treat your teeth... We answer all questions separately.

How to rinse your mouth after wisdom tooth removal -

It is best to rinse your mouth after wisdom tooth removal with the antiseptic Chlorhexidine. This drug is sold in every pharmacy and costs only about 30 rubles per 100 ml bottle. Please note that you can only rinse your mouth slowly, because... Strong rinsing can cause a blood clot to fall out of the socket of the extracted tooth. The latter will lead to the development of inflammation.

How long does it take for gums to heal after wisdom tooth removal?

How long it takes for the gums to heal after wisdom tooth removal depends on the complexity of the removal. Typically, you must wait 1 week to begin treatment after wisdom tooth removal. But after a complex removal, the gums may take longer to heal (up to 10-14 days), which will depend on the degree of traumatic removal. If inflammation occurs in the hole, healing may take 20-30 days. We hope that our article on the topic: Wisdom tooth removal, how much it hurts, turned out to be useful to you!

Sources:

1. Dental education of the author of the article, 2. Based on personal experience as a dental surgeon, 3. National Library of Medicine (USA), 4. “Pathology of wisdom teeth eruption” (Rudenko A.), 5. “Qualified removal of third molars” (Asanami S.).

Tips for caring for a healing socket

The success of wound healing depends on two people: the doctor and the patient. If the doctor has already done everything in his power, it is up to the patient. The latter needs to be taken into account and carefully follow the recommendations and prescriptions. These may include the following:

• Leave in place and do not remove the embedded turunda (bandage). It protects against infection and promotes healing, and is often covered with medication. Usually the turunda is removed after 30 minutes, but in some cases (with complex wisdom tooth removal) it will have to be kept for 5-15 days.
• Follow a rinsing schedule. A specialist can prohibit them or recommend them. This point is very important. The best option is to take the medicinal solution into your mouth and simply tilt your head towards the healing hole.

After a tooth is removed, a blood clot should form in the wound. You shouldn’t disturb him for no reason, no matter how much you want to. It protects the wound from infections. Therefore, you do not need to rinse your mouth more often than the specialist advised, or do it too intensively. Water can wash out the clot, and then healing will be delayed.

If bleeding occurs, you can take clean gauze, roll it up in several layers, place it on the hole, bite and hold for up to 45 minutes. If bleeding continues for a long time, you will have to go to the doctor again.

After the anesthesia wears off, pain may occur. There is no point in enduring pain. It is worth using the painkiller recommended by the doctor. Also, do not ignore the recommendation to take medications. The experience of a specialist will tell you what a particular patient needs.

In a normal case, the hole heals and stops bothering you after about a week. If there are complications, the process takes longer and causes inconvenience. If the drug course is completed, no complications are observed and the hole has healed, you can simply stop thinking about it - it does not need attention. The only point that concerns the gums in general is that it is better to handle toothpicks more carefully and not to get into a recently healed area.