Aftercare from tooth extraction

[catinabox]

Hey there

I'm 40, F from UK. I had a tooth extraction (upper right tooth, near the back, not a wisdom tooth) just over a day and a half ago (7th April). I'm a VERY anxious patient and I basically had a full on panic attack and cried for at least half an hour after the procedure. but the thing I'm most worried about is screwing up the aftercare. I didn't have stitches btw, it was left as an open wound. Though I got a leaflet it's quite vague with some stuff so I wanted to ask some questions as I'm a little nervous about making mistakes.

1) Firstly was wondering when I should be brushing that particular area of extraction again.. I'm too scared to do it atm and have mainly been brushing the other teeth and using salt water rinses. But I don't know how long it's gonna be before it's safe to brush again, especially as I can't see where the tooth was extracted..

2) I'm wondering how often I should be using salt water rinses. After EVERY time I eat? So even if I have a snack? Even if it's like 6 times a day?

3) I've been absolutely suffering with hunger pains so it's been agony for me not to have proper food atm lol. I'm wondering when is safe to eat more solid food.. and when I can also have hot coffee as I have literally had no energy without proper meals? I've had a pancake, soup, mashed potato, and scrambled egg today. Yesterday I just had liquids. When is safe to eat more solid soft things like sandwiches or cakes? When can I actually drink hot drinks or eat hot food without worrying?

4) I grind and clench my teeth when sleeping - is this gonna cause issues to the wound? I'm a little scared about sleeping so I haven't been getting much sleep as you can imagine. I also am wondering how long I should be sleeping with my head elevated for.

5) I also sneezed once today, which caught me off guard. But afterwards learned that sneezing is bad for the blood clot etc. Will I have caused issues? I haven't noticed any blood lately and there's no worsening pain.

Hopefully it's okay to ask these questions, sorry if I am being a bother! Thank you to anyone who can reply to this.

 

[Amanda0621]

Hi! I’m not a dentist but just wanted to give some support as I’m also a very anxious patient. I’m 3 weeks post upper right 2nd molar extraction. I had the same fears as you. I’ll leave the answering of questions to a dentist here, but I’ll just wanted to comment on a couple things. I also grind/clench my teeth as I have TMJ disorder and it was very flared up after my extraction. The clenching didn’t cause any issues with the extraction site for me. I also have allergies, so I sneeze quite a bit. I just made sure to keep my mouth open and sneeze as gently as possible. I hope your recovery goes well!

 

[Sassycass]

I myself am a very anxious person. I had an upper 2nd molar extracted yesterday afternoon. Wishing you a quick recovery.

 

[Gordon]

1) Firstly was wondering when I should be brushing that particular area of extraction again.. I'm too scared to do it atm and have mainly been brushing the other teeth and using salt water rinses. But I don't know how long it's gonna be before it's safe to brush again, especially as I can't see where the tooth was extracted..

Brush anytime you want now, you won't do any harm.

2) I'm wondering how often I should be using salt water rinses. After EVERY time I eat? So even if I have a snack? Even if it's like 6 times a day?

A couple of times a day for a couple more days is plenty, probably overkill to be honest.

3) I've been absolutely suffering with hunger pains so it's been agony for me not to have proper food atm lol. I'm wondering when is safe to eat more solid food.. and when I can also have hot coffee as I have literally had no energy without proper meals? I've had a pancake, soup, mashed potato, and scrambled egg today. Yesterday I just had liquids. When is safe to eat more solid soft things like sandwiches or cakes? When can I actually drink hot drinks or eat hot food without worrying?

Go ahead and eat whatever the heck you want. Just try to be a bit careful chewing round the socket if you can.

4) I grind and clench my teeth when sleeping - is this gonna cause issues to the wound? I'm a little scared about sleeping so I haven't been getting much sleep as you can imagine. I also am wondering how long I should be sleeping with my head elevated for.

Not an issue at all. No need to sleep with your head elevated. I'm surprised you could sleep at all like that

5) I also sneezed once today, which caught me off guard. But afterwards learned that sneezing is bad for the blood clot etc. Will I have caused issues? I haven't noticed any blood lately and there's no worsening pain.

Not a problem today.

For upper molar and premolar extractions ONLY. For the first 24 hrs it's best to not try to "hold in" sneezes. Just sneeze as normal and let it go. There's a very, very, very small chance of causing a small issue if you build up too much pressure in your nose from holding the sneeze in, but it's likely to be theoretical, I've never seen any evidence of it actually happening.

 

[catinabox]

Hi! I’m not a dentist but just wanted to give some support as I’m also a very anxious patient. I’m 3 weeks post upper right 2nd molar extraction. I had the same fears as you. I’ll leave the answering of questions to a dentist here, but I’ll just wanted to comment on a couple things. I also grind/clench my teeth as I have TMJ disorder and it was very flared up after my extraction. The clenching didn’t cause any issues with the extraction site for me. I also have allergies, so I sneeze quite a bit. I just made sure to keep my mouth open and sneeze as gently as possible. I hope your recovery goes well!

Thank you for the reply! I'm glad to hear you didn't have any issues despite grinding/clenching! I think for me it feels a bit more tender in the morning perhaps for that reason but otherwise it's healing okay.. I think.
I'll try to sneeze with my mouth open in future lol. Hoping this period of time won't be too slow going as it's difficult to find things that I like that are soft enough to eat!

 

[catinabox]

Brush anytime you want now, you won't do any harm.



A couple of times a day for a couple more days is plenty, probably overkill to be honest.


Go ahead and eat whatever the heck you want. Just try to be a bit careful chewing round the socket if you can.


Not an issue at all. No need to sleep with your head elevated. I'm surprised you could sleep at all like that


Not a problem today.

For upper molar and premolar extractions ONLY. For the first 24 hrs it's best to not try to "hold in" sneezes. Just sneeze as normal and let it go. There's a very, very, very small chance of causing a small issue if you build up too much pressure in your nose from holding the sneeze in, but it's likely to be theoretical, I've never seen any evidence of it actually happening.

Thanks haha. I'll probably avoid the actual extraction site as it's still tender and just brush as close as possible.

I think I was told up to 4 times a day for the salt water.. I'll probably just do it for another day or two as you say.

Haha, so hot coffee is fine? Or maybe if it's cooled down slightly? I'm not a fan of lukewarm coffee but maybe I should just stomach it because I'm seriously craving one!

For some reason I didn't struggle too much sleeping with my head elevated, probably because I'm used to sleeping elevated most of the time as it is due to gastritis. But I was sleeping quite upright, so it'd be nice to be able to lie down again properly.

Thanks for the advice about the sneezing though. I think I'm safe from that sneeze.. I sneezed with my mouth closed so I was slightly worried but nothing came of it luckily. I'll be careful in future

 

[Gordon]

Haha, so hot coffee is fine? Or maybe if it's cooled down slightly? I'm not a fan of lukewarm coffee but maybe I should just stomach it because I'm seriously craving one!

Yes, perfectly fine. Lukewarm coffee is an aberration

 

[catinabox]

Thank you!

Just another quick question (I didn't want to make a whole new thread lol). I've noticed that I can feel one of my teeth that were near the extracted tooth a lot more obviously now rubbing against my cheek. Will this settle down? Or is this just something I have to get used to now as the shape of my mouth is slightly different?

 

[Gordon]

It's probably a little bit of residual swelling from the extraction, or else you're feeling the edge of a tooth that was previously overlapped a little by the missing one, either way it'll disappear fairly soon.