Oral Surgery Survival Guide

IMPORTANT!

This is NOT medical Advice

Your oral surgeon will give you printed instructions following your surgery. Read those thoroughly and follow them to the letter. Ignore anything and everything in this survival guide that may be contradictory to your surgeon’s instructions.

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 Get Ready, Set …

This survival guide is designed to help you pull together (and in some cases use) the items needed and suggestions in order to have the most comfortable recovery possible.

The more you get and have handy before your procedure, the more smoothly things will go afterward.

Buy Your Soft Food 

For the first three days or so, look for items without hard chunks and those that you don’t have to chew. You need to take extra precautions not to damage the stitches in your surgery and its stitches.

Some suggestions:

• Custard
• Ice cream
• Yogurt
• Bananas
• Jello
• Oatmeal
• Hummus
• Quiche (plain or spinach, no meat chunks)
• Scrambled eggs
• Well blended smoothies
• Canned tomatoes
• Goat cheese
• Peaches in cans or glass.
• Canned fruit cocktail
• Cottage cheese
• Avocado
• mashed potatoes
• cream of wheat
• Soup – stick to bullion for first several days. After that, avoid those with chunks of meat.
• Avoid nuts and chewy, gummy items.

What About Dairy?

Check with your oral surgeon about dairy.

There seems to be no consensus on these.

Some professional dental sites contend that dairy hinders healing, while others find milk and other products acceptable. An October 17, 2024 search for scholarly papers at Google Scholar found no consensus on this issue.

Ask your surgeon.

Keep it clean

Don’t use adult toothbrushes: The bristles can  damage the stitches. Plus, the head will be much smaller and easier to brush without danger of damaging stitches.

Buy small, super-soft bristle toothbrush. Drugstores have them. The image below contrasts the size of small-child and adult toothbrushes.

Even with small, super-soft bristles, the danger exists for a slip and damage to the developing clot. This is why electric toothbrushes are not recommended.

 

While some recommendations call for brushing after every snack or meal, many people will find that regimen hard to swallow.

While periodic careful brushing is needed, one method in between those is to thoroughly swish.

Start with two rinses of the fill mouth and follow with two directed at the clot area. Following that, rinse the wound area with salt water – twice.

Rinsing/Swishing With Salt Water

Salt water can aid recovery from oral surgery for several reasons:

1. Antimicrobial properties: Salt has mild antimicrobial effects, which can help reduce bacteria in the mouth and lower the risk of infection in wounds.
2. Osmosis: The salt concentration draws out fluids from the tissues through osmosis, which can help reduce swelling and inflammation.
3. Soothing effect: Warm salt water can provide a soothing sensation, offering temporary pain relief.
4. Cleansing: Rinsing with salt water helps clean the affected area, removing debris and food particles that could irritate the wound.
5. Promotes healing: The slightly alkaline nature of salt water can create an environment that’s conducive to healing.

Recipe for salt water rinse

1/2-Tsp per cup of water. Microwave until warm then stir in salt. Keep measuring cup handy for frequent mouth rinse. Be gently swishing around for the first three or four days.

While warm (115 degrees F) salt water is recommended, it can be useful to mix up a cup or two and keep it handy for frequent swishing even at room temperature.

Temperature for consuming food, soup, warn beverages

If you enjoy coffee, tea, or hot cocoa, it’s a good idea to keep the temperature below 110 degrees F.

Using an inexpensive  infrared temperature gun works well here and should cost less than $20. It also works well for many cooking processes as well.

One way to do this expediently is to place a heavy ceramic mug in the freezer before you start brewing. You can speed the process by putting a gel cooling pad around the mug and another inside.

Beverages

Avoid alcohol. The length of time varies widely. An internet search on 10/17/24 found some recommending a wait of 48 to 72 hours, while others urge 7 to 10 days.

Avoid citrus and other acidic drinks, including most soft drinks. This applies to carbonated beverages because the carbonation generates carbonic acid.

No hot beverages for the first 48 hours. Drinking hot beverages like coffee or tea may damage or dislodge the clot. Like the salt water rinse, coffee and tea should be no more than 105 degrees F. Cold juices from the fridge may initially be too cold for comfort.

Damage to the clot can cause to a painful condition called dry socket. Dry socket can occur when the clot is disturbed, exposing the bone and nerves, resulting in severe discomfort and delayed healing. The risk of dry socket exists for about 7 to 10 days after surgery.

After 48 hours (or, as with all things surgical) follow your doctor’s orders.

If you enjoy coffee of tea keep temperature below 110 degrees F. One way to do this expediently is to place a heavy ceramic mug in the freezer before you start brewing. It’s even better to keep several mugs in the freezer to have them ready.

Sleep Position After surgery

After oral surgery, sleep with your head elevated above heart level using a wedge pillow, extra pillows or sleeping in a recliner. This can be accomplished by sleeping on your back or on your side. It’s generally recommended to avoid sleeping on the side of the extraction for at least 24-48 hours after the procedure.

This position limits swelling, prevents further bleeding, and reduces pain by countering gravity’s effects on surgical wounds.

Elevated sleep promotes faster healing, prevents pressure buildup, and helps avoid complications, making recovery more comfortable and efficient.

Exercise

Avoid exercise for at least four days, perhaps a week depending upon doctor’s directions.

Here, again, follow your oral surgeon’s advice because a scholarly consensus seems lacking. A variety of professional opinions  exists with the three days being the most common recommendation, but with others ranging from a week to even more depending on the activity.

Strenuous activities such as heavy lifting, or exercise programs which elevate your heart rate such as long-distance runs, or sports like basketball require a week or longer period of abstention as recommended by your surgeon. Also to avoid are calisthenics such as push-ups, planks, pull-ups, sit-ups, squats, crunches and similar energetic exercises.

Pain Relief

Other than the pain relief from surgeon-prescribed medications, cold and heat are your friends.

For the first two days surgery, place a small (roughly 4×6-inches) freezable gel pack over the surgery site. Hold it for ten minutes on and off (for comfort)

Some gel packs are appropriate for microwave heating and freezer chilling. The most comfortable ones are those with a soft covering rather than a plastic-coated one.

On about the third day after surgery, use heat – as indicated by your surgeon. You should make sure this is a comfortable temperature, then hold it gently (do not press hard) over the surgical area.

 

For both heat and cool, buy those that are about the same size (or a bit larger) than your hand. Larger one you may have on hand for sprains will be far too large to be comfortable.

Before surgery

Things to have on hand ahead of time

• Food
• Super-soft bristle small child toothbrush
• cold pack
• microwavable heat pack
• infrared temperature gun
• Ibuprofen
• Extra gauze pads in case surgeon’s supply runs out. NOTE: special gauze pads. Regular ones will not work.