Usually the bleeding stops within an hour. You’ll continue to see pink in your saliva but there shouldn’t be any oozing out of the extraction site. If there is still oozing of blood after four hours and applying pressure on gauze doesn’t help then biting down on a tea bag usually does the trick. If that doesn’t help call us and we’ll get you in to see what’s going on.

Replace the gauze every 20 to 30 minutes. If it becomes soaked with blood you can change it out sooner. Once you notice the bleeding has substantially slowed down to just a pink color in the gauze you can discontinue placing it in the mouth.

If the prescribed medication does not help control the pain, call me! Even if it’s the middle of the night don’t hesitate. There is no one-size-fits-all for pain medications because everyone has different liver/kidney issues that need to be taken into account before recommending medications for pain.

Day 1-2: Warm (not hot) soup, ice cream, milkshakes, smoothies, yogurt, and pudding

Day 3-5: Mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs, and oatmeal

Day 6-7: Start resuming normal diet

For 2 days: Avoid alcohol, heavy lifting (20+ pounds), and running/jogging

For 5 days: Avoid straws, and foods that are hard/crunch (chips, nuts, and popcorn)

For 2 weeks: Avoid tobacco (it’ll slow down healing)

If you have pain and swelling during the first 24 hours you can use an ice pack to help with the symptoms. You want to place the ice pack for 20 minutes, take it off for 20 minutes, and repeat.

Sutures will self-dissolve in 5 to 10 days. The timeframe depends on the individuals saliva, diet, and the amount of tension placed on the sutures. If they don’t dissolve on their own by day 15 come in and we’ll remove them for you. Suture removal is quick and painless, it doesn’t involve having to get numbed or anything invasive.

If you had a bone graft done and sutures fall out in under 24 hours give us a call, we’ll get new sutures placed in to hold everything together. If it’s been over than 48 hours then continue to take it easy and everything will heal fine.

If no bone graft was done and there’s no bleeding then there’s nothing to worry about with the sutures falling out early. You don’t need new ones put in as the clot has formed and the tissue has stabilized. If you’re getting bleeding we’ll have you come in and we’ll put new sutures in.

The anesthesia we use typically lasts for 5 to 8 hours, depending on the persons metabolism and how much anesthesia was used. We recommend taking the prescribed pain medication before the anesthesia wears off to keep pain at-bay.

The only mouthwash I want you to use after an extraction is warm salt water (one teaspoon in one cup of water). Mouthwashes are not gentle enough on extraction sites, it will irritate the site.

For the first three day gently brush your teeth with a minimal amount of toothpaste (half of a pea size), avoiding the extraction site and the teeth near it. After the fourth day brush all of the teeth with a minimal amount of toothpaste avoiding just the extraction site. After 3 weeks you can brush normally.