Dr.Anna Beattie Profile Image

Last Reviewed 18 October 2023

Medically reviewed by Dr.Anna Beattie, Bachelor Dent. Sc. (Trinity College Dublin) 2003, PG Diploma in Conscious Sedation (Newcastle University), Clinical Doctorate in Oral Surgery, Fellow of the Dental Faculty of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Oral Surgeon

Post Extraction Instructions

After having a tooth extracted at 3Dental, please follow these instructions:

  • Avoid excessive exercise and strenuous activity for the rest of the day.
  • Do not drink anything hot or alcoholic or smoke a cigarette for three to four hours after extraction.
  • Failure to comply with these instructions may re-start bleeding.
  • Do not rinse your mouth out excessively on the same day as the extraction as this encourages bleeding.
  • You may feel sharp edges in the socket with your tongue and small fragments of bone may work loose. This is normal.
  • If you have been given antibiotics you must finish

Day After Extraction & One Week Thereafter

  • It is very important that you keep your mouth as clean as possible. Rinse out your mouth as often as possible (after every meal if you can) with suitable mouthwash. This will promote faster and cleaner healing.
  • If severe pain starts a day or so after an extraction it probably means that you have a dry socket. This is a very painful condition and affects at random a small proportion of extractions. It means that there will be delayed healing. Dry sockets never last longer than two weeks and are usually healed well inside that time. If your socket is very painful please contact the clinic. We can easily treat it and make it more comfortable.

If Excessive Bleeding Occurs

  • Use gauze, cotton wool or a handkerchief to make a firm pad an inch thick. Place the pad into the bleeding socket from tongue side to cheek side. Bite firmly to compress the pad on the bleeding socket for 15 to 20 minutes until bleeding
    stops.
  • Do not lie down or panic as this will increase the blood supply to the head and make the bleeding more pronounced. It is advisable to keep sitting up. If your efforts are unsuccessful after 2 or 3 hours, contact the clinic.