- Do not rinse out for the rest of the day to avoid disturbing the blood clot in the socket.
- The site will be numb for some hours – occasionally the anaesthetic can take 4-6 hours to wear off – this is normal. During this time, you can eat and drink but try and avoid the area as much as possible.
- Make sure that you do not bite your lip or tongue whilst numb and make sure that any drinks are cool enough drink safely.
- Do not smoke until the anaesthetic has worn off and preferably for the rest of the day.
- The site will be sore for several days – take pain relief such as paracetamol or ibuprofen until everything settles down.
- If the socket starts to bleed find a piece of gauze and fold it up into a ball on bite on it hard for at least 20 minutes without looking. There should be some gauze included in the pack given to you at the end of your appointment.
- Do not take vigorous exercise for the rest of the day following your extraction as this is likely to start the socket bleeding again.
- It is advisable to rinse your mouth out with salt water to keep the area clean. Starting on the morning following the extraction, take a tumbler of warm water and dissolve a teaspoon of salt in it. Take a mouthful and gently rinse round and spit out. Finish the rest of the tumbler in the same way – this process should take around 5 minutes.
- If you have a denture which fits around the extraction site, it is advisable to sleep in it for the first night after the extraction. This is because without the denture, the area will swell and you may not be able to get your denture back in on the following morning.
- If the socket does not settle after 72 hours contact the surgery for advice.
I’ve just had a tooth out – what are the aftercare instructions?
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