Thursday, October 25, 2012

Wisdom tooth removal - Recovery

You may experience pain and other symptoms after having your wisdom teeth removed. However, you can take measures to reduce the pain and assist your recovery.

After you have had your wisdom teeth removed you may experience:

   swelling (inflammation) of your mouth and cheeks – this will be worse for the first few days but will gradually improve; gently pressing a cold cloth to your face will help reduce the swelling
    a stiff, sore jaw – this should wear off within 7 to 10 days; the skin around your jaw may also be bruised for up to two weeks
    an unpleasant taste in your mouth
    tingling or numbness of your face, lips or tongue (although this is rare)
    pain, which may be severe if the extraction was complicated

Self care advice

To help reduce pain and assist your recovery, you may wish to:

    relieve the pain using painkillers, such as paracetamol or ibuprofen (always read and follow the manufacturer’s dosage instructions)
    avoid strenuous activity and exercise for a few days
    use an extra pillow to support your head and provide extra comfort at night
    avoid rinsing, spitting and drinking hot drinks, or anything else that may dislodge the blood clots that form in the empty tooth socket, because they help the healing process
    avoid smoking and drinking alcohol
    eat soft or liquid food for a few days and chew with your other teeth
    gently rinse the extraction site after 24 hours, and then regularly, with antiseptic mouthwash

Returning to normal

After your wisdom teeth have been removed, and any swelling and bruising has disappeared, your mouth and face should return to normal.

You will usually be able to brush your teeth normally after a few days. Make sure that you finish any course of antibiotics that you've been given.

A check-up appointment may be arranged a week or so after the procedure. At this point, any remaining stitches may be removed. You should report any excess bleeding, severe pain or any other unusual symptoms to your dentist or oral surgeon immediately.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Tooth Extraction Recovery

One of the things that we dread most, is visiting the dentist. But something that supersedes that dread, is when the dentist tells us that our tooth has outlived its life, and needs to be extracted. Somehow, you've managed to brace yourself into getting that tooth extraction done, so what next? How long is the recovery going to take? Is there a fixed recovery period? What do you do, if you have pain after tooth removal?

How Does Tooth Removal Recovery Take Place?
Immediately after an extraction, the blood vessels in the socket release platelets, which help form a network mesh, which is known as the blood clot. This clot takes a few hours to start getting organized and is the most important component of the extraction recovery. Often, pain after tooth extraction is associated with dislodgement of this clot. Once the blood clot is firmly in place, the remodeling of bone begins. After a week or so, the osteoblasts (bone forming cells) start laying down the bone, which then helps in the closure of the socket. The final visible stage is the complete sealing of the socket by a layer of gums.

Normal Tooth Extraction Healing Time
There is no fixed time, as it varies depending on a lot of factors. Some of these factors are enlisted below:

Health of the Patient: If the patient is a diabetic or an anemic, then wound healing takes longer, thus, increasing the recovery time. Also, if the patient is immunocompromised in any way, then the chances of a superinfection are high, thus prolonging the recovery period.
Type of Extraction: Depending on the type of extraction done, the recovery time will vary. For a simple extraction, especially of mobile teeth, there is not much bleeding, and hence, the recovery time considerably decreases. However, if it is a surgical procedure, like extraction of impacted wisdom teeth, involving incisions, bone drilling, etc., then in such cases, wisdom teeth removal recovery is much longer. Extra post extraction care also needs to be taken after a disimpaction.
Health of the Tooth: If there was a long-standing tooth decay, with the infection extending into the bone, then the recovery time will be longer, as the bone will take longer to fully heal.
Presence of any Superinfection: If the wound gets infected, before it fully closes, then the time taken for the wound to heal is longer.

How do You Speed Up Tooth Extraction Healing Period?
Although there is little that can be done to speed-up the recovery time, there are certain tooth extraction aftercare pointers that should be kept in mind. These are:

After extraction, keep the gauze pack firmly in place for at least half an hour. This will aid in formation and stabilization of the clot.
Do not drink with a straw after extraction. The negative pressure created while sucking from a straw can lead to dislodgement of the clot, which in turn can lead to pain post extraction.
Eat only light and cold food (ice cream, yogurt and rice etc.) after an extraction. Try and maintain a semi-solid diet for two days after an extraction, as heavy chewing leads to a high risk of dislodgement of clot.
Start taking the prescribed medications (painkillers or antibiotics) within a few hours after the extraction. This will help prevent pain and any infection, thus considerably reducing the recovery time.
Gargle with warm salty water, from the second day onwards, to prevent any infection from taking place in the oral cavity.
Use an ice pack, later in the day, after the extraction to help constrict the blood vessels, which will help prevent formation of a swelling and thus, decrease the tooth extraction recovery time.
Do not smoke for at least 24 hours after an extraction, as smoking can be a very serious hindering factor for wound healing.
Do not brush too vigorously after an extraction, as this may dislodge the blood clot.
If there is excessive bleeding or pain after tooth extraction, inform your dentist immediately. Both of these can be signs of clot dislodgement, which can lead to severe pain.
Religiously follow the instructions given by your dentist, as after all, they are for your own good!

Pain After Tooth Removal
This is a serious condition and shouldn't be ignored under any circumstance. Extraction is a procedure that dentists use as a last resort, and hence, it is a procedure that should provide relief from long standing pain. Here are a few conditions where one may experience post extraction pain:

Periapical Infection: If, after a tooth extraction, there is still pain, then it could be that the tooth was so badly carious, that it has led to a tooth abscess, or the infection has reached the jawbone. One needs to check for periapical infection with the help of an x-ray.
Infection of the Wound: Certain people like diabetics and immunocompromised individuals are at a high risk of superinfections. Tooth extraction recovery time is longer in these people. For example, in diabetics, the open wound, which has exposed blood vessels containing blood that is high in sugar, acts as an invitation to microorganisms. Hence, there is greater risk of a superinfection. If this occurs, contact your dentist immediately.
Dry Socket: Dry socket after tooth extraction is an extremely painful emergency condition seen in tooth removal recovery period. This pain is almost unbearable. This condition occurs when the clot is dislodged before it is fully formed, and hence, symptoms start showing approximately a week after extraction. The patient complains of excruciating pain. The dentist needs to immediately wash the area with betadine, which helps soothe the wound.
Infected Pocket After Wisdom Tooth Removal: After wisdom tooth extraction, especially if the third molar is horizontally impacted (often called 'sleeping molars'), patients may complain of pain and swelling behind the last standing molar. This is because, the bone formation is not complete behind the second molar, and hence, sometimes food seeps in through the gums and gets lodged in the space behind the second molar. This may then harbor micro-organisms and lead to periodontal diseases. Thus, one needs to take extra care after extraction of wisdom teeth, as pocket formation is nearly inevitable. One should consult a periodontist for help in such situations.

If you want to do away with tooth extractions altogether, just remember to practice some basic dental care like brushing those pearly whites twice a day and visiting your dentist (at least!) twice a year!
Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/tooth-extraction-recovery.html

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Fast Healing and Better Comfort after Tooth Extraction

We would never like to experience a tooth extraction after we reach ages of teenagers. When we were child, we had very normal tooth removals. You may be reading this article for your kid or for yourself. Solutions are the same both for the recovery from tooth extraction of a child and adult. However, we can easily estimate the pain of mature to be higher than the pain of child because of the dimensions of destruction during surgery.

Fast healing requires comfort and comfort can only be provided with the help of pain killers. You will always want to touch that place or wash that place if you do not use painkillers for recovery from tooth extraction. Painkillers increase our quota to remain patient. Please always remember that you could never heal such things of surgery with your fingers!

The real part of fast healing and better comfort during the recovery from tooth extraction lies beneath the way of protecting the actual extraction site. Keep yourself relax and accept it that even a small level of hemorrhage will make you feel like you are bleeding to death. A day of bleeding is very normal if it is molar. A tusk occupies a large place in your mouth and that is kept in your mouth without counting a circumstance of a removal. To protect that site better, you can position some icepacks on your face. That protects it against swelling. Try to take liquids from the other side. Keep everything away as much as possible. Do not consume extreme hot and cold things. During this struggle time, even slight temperatures are extremely hot for you!

Monday, October 22, 2012

Steps after Dental Surgery: Extraction

There are a lot of steps for the reduction of discomfort after a tooth removal. Dental extractions are generally ending up with "do not eat for 2 more hours." They were saying this when they made operations on a tooth without removing it. That cliché is standing still in the world of busy dentists. That suggestion is no longer valid. That was not a good way of treatment at all. We do not know the reason of it but we generally do not ask our dentist about what to do after removal. They would give us many ideas but they are not asked enough. Followings steps are prepared as tips for those who have just experienced a removal and looking for a fast recovery from tooth extraction.

There will be bleeding about around 24 hours after removal. That is very normal and you do not need to panic. That is a huge hole for your teeth path. You can buff that place with special materials that are given by dentists. If you do not have those, you may look for cotton buffer. Buffing the place is very important for a faster recovery from tooth extraction.

You have to keep the clot undisturbed for twenty four hours after extraction to provide a good recovery from tooth extraction. I had no idea about the importance of this and I threw it away. It ended up with greater pain. Do not disturb that place with water. Do not go washing your mouth every ten minutes. You have to resist that smell and taste of iron until blood coagulates.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Tooth Extraction Aftercare Tips

Many people hate visiting dentist and it ends up with a tooth removal after long times of neglecting. In many of the articles about teeth and dentists, they are always mentioning about tips and hints of keeping teeth healthy. However, there are only a little written about the period of aftercare. Here I underline some tips of staying okay and of recovery from tooth extraction.

First of all, you have to stop bleeding! If it keeps bleeding, it will really make you annoyed. That discomfort should not be wished even for your enemy. That has a heavy smell of iron in blood and bad taste of same thing. That is very devastating when it is partly of fully coagulated! To stop bleeding, you have to keep a buff on the place of surgery. Your dentist will give you some packing material that is produced for bleeding recovery from tooth extraction. If you forgot to take one of those, place a piece of cotton on it. Sweeper pieces will not be good for it.

Pain must be controlled because the biggest part of this discomfort after operation comes from the pain of root's slot. Following few days will force you to experience similar pain until you find a way to control that pain. Advised doses of painkillers are often ideal choices. If low doses do not work, call your doctor and ask him / her for higher doses. They will supervise you. You generally do not have to visit doctor again if you ask true questions.  Besides these, there are anti-inflammatory drugs.

Recovery from tooth extraction can be faster if you take measures in advance. Still, I tried to compose it for those who are experiencing worse including regrets.