Managing Pain & Hygiene After Oral Surgery | Smiles Dental

Managing Pain & Hygiene After Oral Surgery

When you receive oral surgery, whether it’s a tooth extraction, wisdom teeth removal, or something else, you’ve just taken an important step in looking after your dental health—but you’re not quite done yet.

To ensure you have the easiest and speediest recovery possible, you need to know how to take care of your oral hygiene and manage any potential pain after your dental surgery.

family having a good time with grandma after oral surgery

Dental Surgery Pain Management

It’s completely normal to have a little bit of pain in the first couple days after surgery but this should become less and less as time goes on.

To manage any discomfort, you can take over-the-counter painkillers like ibuprofen. Just remember to follow the dosage recommendations of the medication and not to drink alcohol while taking pain meds!

If your pain doesn’t go away after a few days, contact your dentist so they can assess the situation.

Post-Dental Surgery Oral Hygiene

After getting oral surgery, you should be gentle while cleaning your mouth so you don’t irritate the treatment site. Continue to brush and floss but do so gently, but depending on the surgery you’ve received and your dentist’s advice you should either avoid or just take extra care around the treatment area.

The day after your surgery, just use water or a simple saltwater solution instead of rinsing with mouthwash. Mouthwash may be too harsh for the sensitive surgery area, and a saltwater rinse will still keep the area clean.

Since tobacco use can get in the way of the healing process, avoid smoking or chewing tobacco for at least a day after your oral surgery, possibly even longer depending on the advice of your dentist. Otherwise, you risk the possibility of getting an infection.

Along with these tips, the best thing you can do after getting oral surgery is to just take it easy. If possible, try not to do anything too strenuous and get as much sleep as possible.

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More Questions? We Have Answers!

At Smiles Dental, we provide a suite of oral surgery services, so we’re happy to answer any questions you might have about your recovery. Don’t hesitate to contact us.

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Advanced Oral Surgery

Advanced Oral Surgery

In Washington & Oregon

Our highly trained dentists and team are dedicated to providing you with the most conservative dental treatment possible. However, in certain cases, oral surgery may be the best available option for improving your oral health, overall appearance, and smile functionality. We are pleased to offer several types of dental surgeries at Smiles Dental. To ensure that we can meet all of your personal dental needs. Please feel free to contact the Smiles Dental office nearest you. To learn more about which surgery is right for you. And how we can improve your smile!

family having a good time with grandma after oral surgery

What is Oral Surgery?

It includes a number of surgical dental treatments. The goal is to improve the function, health, and appearance of your smile and the surrounding structures, such as your jaw. Oral surgery may be necessary to correct more complex dental issues. We offer:

Tooth extractions are for teeth that are decayed, damaged, or infected. To the point that they can’t be fixed with other restorative treatments

Wisdom teeth removal is for wisdom teeth that are impacted, growing in at an angle, crowding other teeth, or causing other issues with your oral health.

Jaw surgery is most often utilized for treating TMJ disorders. Correcting uneven jaw growth, or improving the fit of dentures

Bone grafts can increase bone density. And/or improve the chances for successful, long-lasting dental implant placement.

Care You Can Count On

While we provide some oral surgery treatments at our office, we also work closely with local oral surgeons and specialists to ensure that you receive the high-quality results you deserve. Our team will carefully evaluate your smile and your dental needs to determine whether oral surgery is the best available treatment choice for you. If it is, we’ll create a personalized treatment plan to fit your unique needs and budget!

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Top-Notch Smiles Start in Our Dental Office

The Smiles team is pleased to provide excellent dentistry in the Pacific Northwest. Contact the office nearest you today to learn more about what we can do for your smile!

Visit our sister locations at Optima Dental Spa!