The Importance of Proper After-Care Following a Tooth Extraction

Tooth extractions become necessary for various reasons, including severe damage or decay. In addition, tooth extractions are relatively standard and help eliminate harmful bacteria to improve oral health.

What Are Tooth Extractions?

Tooth extractions are dental procedures to remove your tooth entirely from its socket. Occasionally the process is referred to as pulling a tooth.

When Are Extractions Recommended?

Dentists prefer using various restorative materials and techniques to save natural teeth whenever possible. Unfortunately, they can fail with their efforts if the tooth is damaged or decayed. Dentists who observe such situations recommend tooth removal to safeguard dental health. Extractions are recommended if you have severe tooth decay, a fractured tooth, impacted teeth, crowding, severe gum disease, dental injuries or tooth luxation.

Who Performs Extractions?

Besides dentists, extractions are also handled by specialists like oral surgeons and periodontists. While general dentists routinely manage tooth extractions in plenty, they refer complex cases to oral surgeons or specialists.

Happenings during Tooth Extractions

If you have tooth extractions in Downtown Toronto, on a visible tooth, expect to receive local anesthesia around the affected tooth and surrounding gums to numb the issue. The dentist will use specialized instruments like elevators to loosen your tooth before carefully lifting it from its socket using forceps.

Occasionally if you need surgical removal of an impacted or fractured tooth, the dentist makes incisions in your gums to access it after administering anesthesia. The dentist removes the tooth, cleans the socket, disinfects it and places sutures in the surgical site to help promote healing.

What Happens after Tooth Removal?

After removing your tooth, the dentist will place gauze over the extraction site asking you to bite on it with steady pressure to help form a blood clot. The gauze pad also helps minimize bleeding to encourage blood clot formation. You can remove the gauze when you think the bleeding has subsided. However, you might experience slight bleeding during the first 24 hours after tooth removal.

Pain Management after Tooth Extraction

The local anesthesia the dentist administers during the tooth removal procedure subsides in four or five hours when you experience discomfort at the extraction site. However, if the dentist administered local anesthesia during the process, they will prescribe or recommend over-the-counter painkillers, which you can take to manage pain after tooth removal. In most cases, pain after tooth extraction subsides within 72 hours. Therefore you will likely not experience challenges in pain management after tooth extraction.

Risks of Not Following Tooth Extraction After-Care

As you leave the Downtown Toronto dentist’s office after getting your tooth or teeth extracted, you receive a set of after-care instructions that the dentist recommends you follow diligently to prevent complications. Therefore you are responsible for caring for your mouth after undergoing a straightforward or complicated tooth removal procedure.

Firstly you receive instructions from the dentist to take the medications prescribed by them for tooth extraction pain relief which you must take as suggested. Skipping doses or taking more painkillers to prevent experiencing pain does not help you because you might experience adverse reactions to the medications. In addition, if recommended antibiotics to prevent infections after tooth removal, you must ensure you complete the entire course to safeguard your mouth.

Keeping the extraction site clean is your responsibility to ensure a speedy recovery. At the same time, you must avoid strenuous activity for at least 48 hours to inhibit post-operative bleeding and discomfort. In addition, while keeping your mouth clean, you must avoid brushing directly over the extraction site until your dentist permits you to proceed. Brushing over the extraction site can dislodge the blood clot making you a victim of a dry socket, causing severe pain, and putting to rest any tooth extraction pain management remedies suggested by the dentist in Little Italy. A dry socket also needs additional dental treatment with sedative dressings and delays your recovery.

Besides the above, you must avoid crunchy and hard foods for a few days after tooth removal. Avoiding drinking through straws to prevent dislodging of the blood clot also helps.

If you experience dental pain that doesn’t subside after tooth removal, it helps if you discuss the issue with the dentist. The professional can determine the cause of the pain and give you a personalized treatment plan to ensure your quick recovery.

Getting a tooth extracted is a challenging experience. Unfortunately, it is occasionally the best way to eliminate infections and get you on track to a healthy smile and everyday life. You can discuss tooth replacement options with your dentist near you recommended extractions for the reasons described above.

Rusholme Family Dentistry performs many tooth extractions using minimally invasive techniques and provides sufficient after-care interactions besides offering replacement solutions. Therefore, if you receive a recommendation from them to extract a tooth or two, kindly accept the suggestion as beneficial for your oral health.