What to Expect After Tooth Extraction Procedures 

One of the dental procedures that cause phobias among patients is a dental extraction. The procedures are feared to be extremely painful, which is why many patients avoid them. However, in modern dentistry, there are ways introduced to improve the performance of such procedures. With sedation dentistry and local anesthesia, you will barely feel anything while your dentist is working in your mouth.

Still, when your teeth are removed, there are a couple of things you should anticipate. Your mouth will no longer be the same. Without psychological preparation, a lot of what goes on after your treatment will distress you.

What Are Tooth Extractions?

They are dental procedures that entail forcefully removing a tooth from the jawbone. While it seems like a double standard to extract teeth even though the goal of dentistry is to preserve them, tooth removal is still a process done as a means to preserve the oral cavity. The dentist will only advocate for tooth extractions in Berkeley Heights on a need basis. Some of the reasons you need to have your teeth removed include the following:

• Risk of infection – if one of your teeth increases the risk of infecting the rest of your natural teeth, an extraction procedure is necessary.
• Impacted teeth – these are the types of teeth that do not erupt correctly, so that part of your teeth is still stuck underneath the gum tissue.
• Overcrowded mouth – it is an orthodontic problem where the teeth in your mouth are too many or too large to fit in the available space in your jawbone. To properly align your teeth, therefore, your orthodontist may have to extract one or two of your teeth to make room for the rest.
• Severely decayed tooth – sometimes a root canal or tooth filling is not suitable to treat your tooth. This is particularly the case when your tooth is significantly decayed, making it unsalvageable.
• Advanced gum disease – medically known as periodontitis. It is when the gum and bone tissue of your mouth is severely impacted by an infection that they can no longer properly support your teeth. Therefore, your natural teeth are extracted to allow for treatment, without which they will begin to fall off by themselves.

What To Expect After Your Teeth Are Extracted

• Soreness – the extraction site and the surrounding areas will feel sore after your treatment. You will experience this soon after the numbing used for your treatment wears off. The soreness, however, should only last a day or two after your treatment. As your mouth heals, you will become more comfortable with no pain to worry about. Your dentist will also prescribe some medication to help you deal with the pain during the first few days after your treatment.
• Bleeding – on the first 24 hours after your procedure, be careful how you tend to your mouth. The wound site will still be tender, hence prone to bleeding. At first, the dentist will ask you to keep gauze on for a few hours until a blood clot is formed. This will help overcome residual bleeding. If you do not disrupt the formation of a blood clot, then you will not have to worry about bleeding. However, there is always the temptation to dislodge the blood clot, especially with your tongue. Even the foods you eat after your treatment can dislodge the clot. This is why you are likely to start bleeding again.
• Swelling – inflammation is a consequence of the body’s immune system as a response to infections and wounds. Therefore, your mouth will swell on the side of the treatment. You may even have a swollen face on the first day after your treatment. However, as you heal, the swelling should go down. Anti-inflammatory drugs can also help you manage the swelling.

Summary

After your natural teeth have been removed, you should practice care on how you use your mouth. Technically, healing begins to happen immediately after your treatment. However, it should take 5 days to 2 weeks for you to fully recover without any complications. Within this period, how you eat and what you eat will especially impact the speed of your recovery.