Recovering From Your Dental Extraction
A dental extraction can be one of the most common and stress-inducing dental treatments that a person might need to undergo. Due to the fact that individuals will find thinking about this dental treatment unpleasant, they will often be unprepared when their dentist recommends a dental extraction procedure.
Healthy Teeth Can Need To Be Extracted
A dental patient is likely to assume that an extraction is only required when a tooth has suffered serious damage or developed disease. However, some patients may need to have otherwise healthy teeth extracted. This is most often needed when a patient is suffering from dental crowding. By having one or more teeth extracted, the crowding can be reduced so that alignment issues with the teeth can be easier to correct.
Limiting What You Eat Can Be Essential For The First Day Or Two
During the first couple of days after having a tooth extracted, limiting yourself to eating soft foods can help the extraction site to heal more quickly. Hard foods can actually cut the extraction site or disturb the scab that formed, and both of these issues can cause the healing process to have to start over. Additionally, using staws or other devices that require suction should be avoided. The suction can lead to the formation of dry sockets, which can be exceedingly painful as well as prone to infection. Luckily, your gums will have a rapid healing rate, which can limit the time that you will need to avoid harder foods. In fact, most patients will find that they can return to their normal diet within only two or three days.
Be Thorough When Cleaning The Gums Where The Extraction Occurred
Preventing infection will require the extraction site to be thoroughly cleaned throughout the day. Bacteria in the mouth can reproduce at an extremely high rate, and this can lead to the population of bacteria to rapidly increase to the point where it can cause an infection. However, you will also need to be fairly delicate while doing this cleaning as it can be easy to disrupt the scab that is protecting the surgery site. In addition to very gently brushing this site, you will also need to sanitize it with an antibacterial mouthwash. It is common for a dentist to prescribe these mouthwashes to their patients. However, if your dentist did not do this, you should still choose to invest in a gentle mouthwash that can promote healing of the gums.
Contact a dentist to learn more about this type of dental treatment.