-p-500.png)
While you can get back to your normal, day-to-day routine after just a few days, it will take up to 2 weeks to fully heal and recover from a wisdom tooth extraction at Jackson Family Dentistry.
Wondering what to expect after Dr. Ben Heffter or Dr. Pako Major removes your wisdom teeth? Read on, and we’ll provide you with a quick overview of the healing and recovery timeline.
Right after surgery, you’ll have gauze packs placed over your surgical sites to absorb blood. As blood clots form in your mouth, you may need to swap these a few times if they become soaked with blood.
You will likely experience some pain or discomfort after your numbing and sedation wear off. You should drink plenty of clear liquids and eat a diet of liquid foods like milk, broth and thin soups, yogurt, and other such foods that don’t require chewing.
In addition, don’t use a straw or spit forcefully for at least 2-3 days. This could dislodge your blood clots. You can brush your teeth normally, but do not brush the extraction sites. Use a prescription oral rinse or salt water rinse to keep your extraction sites clean.
During this time, you should avoid heavy exercise and exertion. After about 2-3 days, you can usually start eating slightly more solid foods like mashed potatoes, applesauce, pudding, and jello.
Pain and discomfort tend to peak and then fade within 1-3 days after surgery. You may notice other symptoms like bruising, swelling, and inflammation around the extraction sites. This is normal.
The 3-7 days after your surgery will be when most of your pain, discomfort, and other symptoms will begin to fade. After a week, you will be able to eat more solid foods, but you should still avoid very tough and crunchy foods. You can eat things like pasta and rice.
You can also start brushing the extraction sites very gently after a week. Brush your other teeth normally, then gently brush the site to remove any food or other debris.
About 2 weeks after surgery, your extraction site should feel almost completely normal. It may not look fully healed and it may be tender and sensitive to the touch, but otherwise, it should not interfere with your daily life at all.
You can go back to eating pretty much all of your favorite foods, and brushing and flossing your teeth normally. It will still take a bit longer for the underlying extraction site to fully heal, but this process will continue without you having to do anything special to care for your mouth.
Having your wisdom teeth removed can be intimidating. But at Jackson Family Dentistry, Drs. Heffter and Major use the latest techniques and technology to simplify the process, and we offer sedation dentistry to keep you comfortable throughout your appointment.
Contact us online or give us a call at (262) 677-3003 to schedule a consultation with Drs. Heffter and Major right away, and find out if your wisdom teeth need to be extracted.