Taking Care of Your Mouth After Tooth Extraction

Tooth extraction for adult teeth is not a simple procedure. It involves pulling out a mature tooth from its root. This calls for shaking the foundation of that tooth and tampering with the jawbone. It is why dentistry focuses mostly on improving the health of a mouth while saving natural teeth. Even then, most of the tooth extraction services offered for adults have a concrete reason behind it.

Why Do You Need Tooth Extraction?

Your first resolution when you have a dental problem should not be tooth extraction. Even when you visit your dentist, he/she has to determine the underlying causes of your problem before resolving for removal or your natural tooth. If it gets to the point of needing to pull out a mature adult tooth, some of the reasons informing the decision include:

• Severely decayed tooth – tooth decay damages both the enamel of a tooth as well as the internal parts. Besides, the longer you leave it in, the more pain it causes to the patient, not to mention, the further the infection spreads.
• Partially dislodged tooth – this happens following an injury that impacts the teeth from the outside. The impact dislodges the tooth partially from its socket. Such an injury can end up breaking the jawbone supporting the tooth, and hurting the gum tissue.
• Broken tooth – some broken teeth can be salvaged. However, some breakages can break the bigger part of the tooth, leaving very little behind that can be saved.
• Crowded mouth – when teeth are too big to fit in your mouth, it causes crowding. In orthodontics, pulling out some of the teeth is the first step of the treatment.
• Wisdom teeth – wisdom teeth that have grown unusually can be pulled out because of their potential to cause more harm. Some can be overlapping in the adjacent teeth top much, while others get partially stuck under the gums, making it super uncomfortable for the patient.

​Broken Tooth Extraction Procedure

The procedure of extracting a tooth is similar to most dental cases. Ideally, the oral surgeon or dentist in charge of your treatment makes a small incision on your gum tissue to expose the roots of your tooth. From here, it is easy to cut open the bone protecting the tooth, then rock the tooth from its socket.

However, when it comes to removing a broken tooth, the procedure differs a little. If the remaining part of the broken tooth is little, it is difficult to handle it similarly to a whole tooth. For such, the dentist may have to break the tooth into small pieces for easy removal. This is also done for stubborn teeth that resist the rocking of the dental fossils to loosen from the socket.

Overall, the entire process of tooth removal can be uncomfortable and cause some pain. It is why local anesthesia must be used for the procedure, to numb the mouth before the extraction process.

​Tooth Extraction Aftercare

Taking good care of your mouth after any dental treatment is necessary so you can sustain the new results. When it comes to tooth extraction procedure, you have no option but to take good care of your mouth, more so the first few weeks after the procedure.

Some of the things you will be experiencing after the removal of your tooth include:

• Slight bleeding
• Swollen gums
• Heightened sensitivity to temperature changes
• Mild pain and soreness

These things will need proper care so they can wear off quickly and allow you to heal properly. Some tips for taking care of your mouth after tooth extraction are as follows:

• Cold compress – using cold temperatures on the external part of the affected area will alleviate the pain and reduce the swelling. Your dentist will ask you to eat ice-cream after your treatment, to act as a cold compress.
• Keep the gauze on – at least for a couple of hours after your treatment. The gauze will control the bleeding and allow the formation of a blood clot.
• Avoid dislodging the clot formed – It will only result in more bleeding and deteriorate the healing process.

​Tooth Extraction Healing Time

The healing time differs from one patient to another. It depends on how well you care for your mouth, and how quick you naturally heal. In a week or two, you should already be in your path to full recovery.