Tooth extraction healing will take time. It will be a minimum of two-weeks before you are able to eat a normal diet, for example. However, if you follow the tooth extraction healing tips on this page, we promise you that the process will be as fast as possible. It will also ensure the minimum amount of pain following your tooth extraction.
Pain Management
It is likely that your doctor will prescribe you with some painkillers for after your tooth extraction. These will be a little bit stronger than what you are able to purchase over the counter. It is likely you will only need to use these for a couple of days. You can then opt for weaker painkillers such as 500mg paracetamol, or 400mg ibuprofen. Make sure you take them according to the instructions on the packaging. For tooth extraction healing, ibuprofen may actually be a better bet for you. This is because it helps to reduce inflammation, which is the thing causing your pain anyway.
We wouldn’t recommend using clove oil or anything similar to that to numb the pain. It could end up causing more pain as it will irritate the area.
Eating The Right Foods
For the first couple of days of the healing process, you don’t want to eat anything solid. Smoothies. Soups. Liquid food. All brilliant ideas here. You don’t want to put too much pressure on the mouth. If you are chomping down on a nice, juicy steak in that first couple of days, we promise that you will regret it.
Once you are on the 4th day of the healing process, you can start to eat more solid foods. Nothing too crazy. A bit of bread. Try to avoid foods which are too high in sugar as it can cause a breeding ground for bacteria which will end up causing further issues. As each day passes, you can introduce more different foods into your diet. However, it is important that you take is slowly. When you have a tooth extracted, the way in which you bite will change. This is due to shifts in the positions of your remaining teeth. It is going to take a little bit of time to get used to this.
It is also important that you do not eat anything too hot (in terms of temperature) or too spicy. If you do, then there is a solid chance that you will cause irritation to the gum or the hole where the tooth was extracted from, and that is probably going to end up causing you more issues. In fact, most of the issues that people suffer from when it comes to tooth extraction healing is the fact that they have ended up eating the wrong foods.
Should Tooth Extraction Healing Be This Slow?
The pain from a tooth extraction should disappear almost fully within 3-days of the extraction. If the pain doesn’t seem to be dulling, or you experience increased swelling in your mouth then it is important that you either contact an emergency dentist or head to the emergency room. This could indicate serious issues with the gum or bone. It could be an infection.
Keeping The Tooth Extraction Healing Area Clean
It is vital that you keep the area where you had the tooth extracted completely clean. You have a hole in your mouth. You don’t want bacteria and little chunks of food getting into the hole. Thankfully, you need nothing more than an electric flosser or rechargeable toothbrush here. Preferably both of them. Don’t floss with standard floss or brush your teeth with a standard toothbrush. It will put far too much pressure on the area that you are trying to heal. A water flosser and an electric toothbrush will also give a far deeper and gentler clean.
We aren’t going to say that tooth extraction healing will be instant. It isn’t. You are still looking at a least a couple of weeks, even if you do everything right. However, we promise you that if you follow the tips on this page, you will be dealing with the minimum amount of pain, and the lowest possible chance that you will end up suffering from further issues.
