Your basal wisdom teeth are one of the last four teeth to come into your mouth. They usually grow between ages 17 and 24, or at about age 25. This is because our jaws increase in size as we get older. Since most people’s mouths are too small for four extra teeth, these teeth will often need to be removed.
Wisdom Teeth surgery at An Dental can range from having them pulled out using forceps – which doesn’t require any stitches – to requiring open surgery where they are removed with a scalpel or bone saw. To prepare for the procedure, you’ll want to avoid certain foods that could cause you difficulty during recovery.
Real quick, here are five things your doctor will want you to avoid when preparing for wisdom teeth surgery:
- No Smoking: This is important because it can increase your risk for dry socket, which is a condition where the blood clot in your wisdom teeth wound dislodges prematurely, exposing the raw nerves in your jawbone. It’s no fun – but typically resolves itself after two weeks or so when you can rinse with salt water or use medicated mouthwash to help fight infection.
- No Alcohol: Similar to smoking, alcohol can decrease blood flow and cause dry sockets to increase in severity. Limit yourself to one alcoholic drink the night before surgery if you must have one at all.
- No Cold Foods or Drinks: You will need to keep all of your meals and beverages lukewarm for the first 24 hours after surgery, so it’s best to avoid cold foods and ice cream altogether.
- Avoiding Crunchy/Firm Foods: This includes crunchy fruits like apples, crackers, chips, nuts, and other hard foods that could get caught in the folds of your healing gums.
- Be Careful With Partial Denture or Retainer Use: If you have a partial denture or removable retainer that fits over the top row of teeth on your right side – do not dislodge this while you are healing from wisdom surgery because it could potentially cause dry sockets.
What Happens during Wisdom Teeth Surgery?
When you’re booked for wisdom teeth surgery in Singapore, you’ll typically be given an IV for pain medication right before the surgery begins to relax you. After that, your surgeon will numb your mouth so you won’t feel any discomfort while they are working. They will make a small incision to expose all four of your wisdom teeth. Then, they will remove each tooth one by one with forceps or a scalpel depending on the severity of how deep it is rooted in bone tissue.
Your surgeon may cut an opening into your gum above the area where the tooth was removed, which allows them to suture (sew) your gums back together over the top of the hole left behind. Once everything has been removed, they will place temporary stitches under the skin to hold the surrounding muscles and tissues together until your next visit. Check this link for dental aligners.
What Happens after Wisdom Teeth Surgery?
After you’ve healed from wisdom tooth surgery in Singapore, there are a few things that you should be prepared for when it comes to eating and caring for yourself.
- Keep the Pressure Off of Your Wound: You will need to keep all of your bandages in place on top of your wound unless otherwise directed by your dentist and avoid touching or pressing on your wound.
- Avoid Smoking: After surgery, you will need to keep a close eye on how your gums look and feel for two weeks before they are fully healed. If there is a small amount of bleeding from one or more of the sutures at any point, call your dentist immediately so they can schedule an appointment to remove them for you.
- No Retainer Use During Recovery: In most cases, it is not recommended to wear a removable retainer after wisdom tooth surgery because it may cause dry sockets to form if the opening in your gum tissue has not yet healed over properly – causing pain when opening and closing your mouth. For this reason, we typically recommend wearing a permanent retainer for a couple of weeks after your surgery and then switching to a bonded retainer once the healing process is completely over.
- Contact Your Dentist Immediately If You Experience: Chest pains, breathing problems, severe bleeding, or excessive Swelling. These could be signs of an allergic reaction to the anesthesia administered before surgery, so it’s important that you contact your doctor immediately if this happens – even if they only last for a short time.
Now that you better understand what to expect before, during, and after your wisdom teeth surgery – it’s time to talk about what you can do for yourself at home to speed up the recovery process.
- Get Plenty of Rest: This includes mental rest as well because the last thing you want is to watch scary movies or leave on disturbing shows when you are trying to recover from your wisdom teeth surgery in Singapore.
- Drinking Water: Be sure that you’re staying hydrated by drinking lots of fluids post-surgery. Bone broth soups are good choices because they are easy on your stomach and will help keep things moving through your system, which helps prevent infections or dry sockets. Also, if possible, try taking pain relievers such as Ibuprofen instead of every six hours to help with pain and swelling.
- Avoid Excessive Activity! Don’t try to do the things you usually would while recovering from your wisdom teeth surgery. There’s no reason to take unnecessary risks, and we want you to follow your doctor’s advice so that you heal quickly and get back into your day-to-day routine as soon as possible.
- Be Patient! It may feel like it’s taking longer than you expected to heal, but you need to keep in mind that every patient heals differently and that your body is working hard to restore itself to its healthy state – so give yourself some credit for being so resilient! If you experience some bleeding or minor discomfort after your wisdom teeth surgery, try not to panic. It’s going to be okay!
- Keep up with Your Dental Care during Recovery: Brush and floss twice a day to keep your mouth clean and avoid infection. Also, continue using pain relief mouthwashes or sprays when necessary – it will help you heal faster, trust us!
In Closing
If you’re experiencing symptoms that you’re worried about after wisdom teeth surgery in Singapore, stay calm and give us a call as soon as possible. We want to help you get back on your feet quickly so that you can start enjoying life again! With this in mind: we recommend scheduling an appointment with our practice now if we can help enhance or restore your oral health and make you feel like yourself again.
If you need wisdom teeth surgery, please give our team a call right away at +65 6513 9549. We’re here for you!
An Dental
360 Orchard Rd, #03-06/07 International Building, Singapore 238869
+65 6513 9549
https://andental.sg/
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