Wisdom tooth removal is surgery and it does require recovery time. It is not a very invasive or large-scale surgery so the recovery usually takes three to four days. If your teeth were impacted or located below the bone, then it may take an entire week to properly recover.
The remaining wound will take months to heal fully so it is still possible to develop an infection even weeks after the surgery. It is important to continue to take care of yourself and follow all the aftercare instructions given by dentist. Usually, you can go back to your normal day to day life the day after surgery with a few exceptions. Be sure to avoid any activity that could disrupt your stitches or dislodge the blood clot in the wound. The most common ways to slow or damage the healing process are smoking cigarettes or electronic cigarettes, spitting, using a straw, and strenuous exercise.
Home care
In order to avoid infections or other complications like dry sockets, you will need to properly care for your mouth at home. The oral surgeon will give you the exact instructions you should follow to clean and protect your mouth. The instructions will be customized for your surgery and the type of wisdom tooth removal the surgeon performed. For the first day after surgery those instructions may include avoiding brushing, rinsing and flossing but that will be the only time a dentist will give you those instructions.
The best ways that the dentists have found to clean your mouth after surgery include rinsing with salt water. This will keep the wounds clean but you can’t spit the water out when you’re done. Instead, stand over the sink and tip your mouth to the side to let the water fall out. If you notice any excess bleeding, you can use sterile gauze to absorb it. The blood clots that remain the wounds are very important to the healing process and prevent the wound from drying out or getting infected. Additionally, if the blood clots are dislodged then you will experience sharp pains in the wounds where you have a dry socket.
One of the fastest way to dislodge your blood clots and to disrupt your healing is smoking. Any action that relies on suction like smoking or using a straw can cause the dry sockets. Also, the nicotine in cigarettes and e-cigarettes can cause increased bleeding which will slow the healing process. Nicotine also causes inflammation so that will disrupt the healing process as well. Cigarettes have a number of additional carcinogens which can cause infections or other problems in open wounds in your mouth. Regardless of your choice of brand of cigarettes or electronic cigarettes, one is not safer than the other. As long as you have blood clots and stitches in your mouth, you will want to avoid smoking. You may want to use this opportunity of pausing smoking to quit smoking all together and give your body the gift of improved health.