Getting your wisdom teeth out is a fairly routine procedure that dentists perform every day. However, because it generally involves sedation, stitches, and extended recovery time, it is important that you are prepared for this. There are certain things that you can do to ensure that your recovery goes as smoothly as possible, and this article will discuss 3 of these tips in more detail.
Keep Your Head Elevated
Because you have open wounds in your mouth, extra blood will be flowing into them in order to heal them. While this extra blood flow is normal, it is important that you do all that you can do to keep this blood flow to a minimum. One thing that you can do is to keep your head elevated at all times. Obviously, this is going to be simple when you are sitting or standing, but when you are lying down, this is a different story. Rather than lying flat and letting the blood pulse into your head, causing your mouth to throb, you will instead want to elevate your head to around 45 degrees, or at least enough to ensure that the blood will now flow directly into it.
Breathe Through Your Nose
One important factor to the healing of your mouth is your saliva. Your saliva contains natural healing properties that not only keep wounds moist but also allow the skin tissue to rebuild and heal itself. Because of this, it is important that your mouth stays moist for several days after the procedure. However, breathing out of your mouth excessively is a surefire way to cause your saliva to dry up and your mouth to dry out. Instead of dealing with the repercussions of this, you should instead focus on breathing through your nose. This will ensure that your mouth stays moist and can heal at a faster rate.
Massage and Move Your Jaw
Your mouth will be quite sore after the procedure, and it may feel very tense and tight. While this is a normal part of the recovery process, there are certain things that you can do to reduce these feelings of pain and tightness and get your jaw back to normal once again. Opening and closing your jaw can help to loosen the muscles back up, and massaging your masseter - the muscle that opens and closes your jaw - can help to relieve some of the pain and throbbing that you are feeling.
If you have more questions or concerns, talk to an expert, like the dentists at A Q Denture Services.
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