In general, It takes between one and three months for your gum tissues and bone to heal completely following an extraction . However, the good news is that most people find that within 1 – 5 days the pain has subsided and they're able to get back on their feet and get back to normal.
Recovery Time After Having Your Tooth Pulled
You will likely be back to yourself after a simple extraction within a day or two. For a surgical extraction, it may take 48-72 hours to feel better.
However, certain cases necessitate tooth extraction, such as impacted wisdom teeth, dental trauma, infection, severe tooth decay, gum disease, or overcrowded teeth. After having a tooth extracted, you can expect to heal within 1-2 weeks, but this varies on a case by case basis.
Be sure to brush gently around the extraction site. After 24 hours, you can rinse with warm salt water to wash away food debris and bacteria to prevent infections. Avoid alcohol-based mouthwashes as they irritate the wound and delay healing. If all goes well, you should feel completely fine within 1 – 2 weeks.
It is normal for pain to get worse over the next couple of days. Most discomfort is seen on day 2 and 3. Once you get home and the bleeding has stopped, you should eat (soft foods, pudding, etc.). After eating, start taking the Ibuprofen/Acetaminophen.
– Day 1. The first day after the extraction, blood clotting begins. It is normal to experience slight bleeding, discomfort, and even some pain. Swelling also reaches its peak in the first 24 hours.
It is best to stick to soft foods requiring minimal chewing, such as applesauce, yogurt and pudding. Vitamin C and vitamin A help to support the healing process following a tooth extraction. Therefore, it is a good idea to eat foods rich in these nutrients.
Tip #1: Salt Water Rinse
After a tooth has been removed, it is possible for small particles of food to be lodged in the socket. We recommend a gentle salt water rinse to clean the area that is healing and prevent food from getting caught. The salt water promotes healing and reduces the risk of complications.
Pain After a Tooth Extraction
The pain is due to the underlying inflammation and the reaction of the body's anti-inflammatory cells as they fight it. Due to a dry socket, you may have severe pain in the extraction site three or four days after an extraction.
The tooth extraction site after three days should be feeling better and healing nicely. Swelling should be minimal, and there should be no more bleeding. The blood clot that formed in the socket should be more secured but can still become dislodged if you are not careful.
For most people, the main symptom of dry socket is severe pain. However, pain tolerance and perceptions differ from person to person. Therefore, some people may experience less pain than others. Dentists will typically diagnose dry socket based on the presence of pain and breakdown of the clot after a tooth extraction.
This clotting can occur for the next 24 hours to stop the bleeding and protect your nerves and bone from infection and irritation. Ideally, the clot stays in place and shrinks over the next 7-10 days as the natural healing process closes the wound with new tissue.
Within the first 24 hours after tooth removal surgery, you should avoid consuming anything that involves chewing. Try to limit yourself to liquids exclusively. If they don't fill you up and you want to consume solid food, go for soft meals that don't need much chewing, like pudding or oatmeal.
The entire process of pulling a tooth—from administering the anesthetic to applying stitches if needed—typically takes anywhere between 20-40 minutes. That said, the procedure will take longer if you require more than one tooth pulled.
Don't drink with a straw, suck on candy or ice pops, slurp soups or other liquids, rinse your mouth vigorously, or smoke for 24 hours. These things create suction in the mouth. This may dislodge the blood clot. Don't drink alcohol or use mouthwash containing alcohol for 24 hours.
While every patient heals at a slightly different pace, most people can begin drinking small amounts of coffee around 5 days after an extraction. If all goes well, within two weeks any swelling should subside and your mouth should be mostly healed. At that point, you can return to drinking your normal amount of coffee.
Dairy contains proteins that can encourage the growth of bacteria and increase the risk of infection. This is because dairy provides an ideal environment for bacteria to thrive, which can lead to swelling and discomfort in the gums and surrounding area.
How Long after Tooth Extraction Can I Drink? You can simply drink normal water after one or two hours but if you are looking to drink any soda, acidic drink or an alcohol, you must wait for at least a week after tooth extraction.
After your wisdom tooth extraction, you should avoid consuming hot coffee, tea, and other hot drinks for 24-48 hours. The heat from these liquids can irritate the surgery site and damage the healing process. Instead, go for a cold coffee or ice tea.
We do not recommend sleeping with gauze in the mouth unless the surgical site is actively bleeding. After active bleeding has subsided, a towel may be placed on the pillow before the patient goes to sleep, if desired.
After the tooth removal procedure, you might experience little pain when you bite down on the socket. However, you will not experience any more toothaches since the cause of pain is eliminated after extracting the tooth. The recovery period is between two days and a week.
If you're trying to choose between the two options and wondering “which is more painful, a tooth extraction or a filling,” removing a tooth results in a longer period of discomfort compared to a filling procedure.
Always sleep with your head elevated for the first few nights after the wisdom tooth extraction surgery. If you struggle to put yourself in that position, get support from a few pillows. Keeping your head elevated at a 45-deg angle while sleeping ensures faster recovery. It also minimizes swelling in the surgical area.