Wisdom Teeth Extraction
Wisdom Teeth Extraction - Regardless of the effectiveness of these temporary remedies, the time may come when you have to have the wisdom teeth extracted. You've no doubt heard some horror stories about what that can involve and how painful the after effect can be. There are visions of victims of the surgery with swollen faces, walking around holding an ice pack against their jaw. Admittedly, some extractions can become quite involved, and recovery can take some time. Most of the time however, recovery is either painless, or easily managed for a day or so, with a prescribed pain reliever, and aside from having to be a bit careful about what you eat and about how you go about brushing your teeth, you should be back to near normal in about 24 hours.
The extraction may be a simple one, or if the jawbone is affected, you may have to have stitches to close the wound. In either event you will come out of the procedure with one or more wounds in your mouth, and you'll need to exercise caution to avoid bleeding or additional wisdom teeth pain (aptly named even though the wisdom teeth may have been extracted). If you begin to experience some pain a few days after the extraction has taken place, it could be that an infection has set in. You'll have to schedule a quick visit to the dentist or oral surgeon, but more than likely antibiotics will quickly remedy the situation.
There are two additional situations which can arise following extraction. One is called "dry socket" where a blood clot as failed to form or has formed but become dislodged. This may cause pain within 3 or 4 days. Treatment involves placing appropriate medications in the socket. The other situation, which is experienced much less frequently than dry socket, is Paresthesia, in which nerves in the vicinity of the extracted tooth have been damaged during the extraction process. The symptoms of Paresthesia are those of numbness about the mouth or tongue which can last for a few days or weeks, or in rare instances, be permanent.
Home Care - Once you are home following surgery you'll no doubt have a list of instructions to follow to help you through the healing process. You'll be told not to rinse your mouth out during the first 24 hours. Rinsing may see to be helpful but if done too soon could dislodge blood clots which have formed in the socket, and as a consequence lengthen the healing time. Even if oral surgery doesn't rank up there with open heart surgery, your body still needs a period of rest and recovery, so you'll be advised to take it very easy for at least 24 hours. If you go dancing that evening, bleeding may start up and you're back to square one as far as healing is concerned.
You can expect to be on a liquid diet for the first 24 hours, and then graduate to some very soft foods for the next day or two. When you do start eating more solid foods you'll still want to avoid chewing too vigorously in the area where the teeth were extracted. Finally, if you are the type who is used to brushing your teeth with vigor, you'll need to ease up on that for awhile, brushing well but gently.
Once you've gone though all of this successfully you can sit back and enjoy the feeling that you'll never probably have to endure wisdom teeth pain again, unless you still have some left that is.