Post-Surgical Instructions

Numb­ness: Numb­ness usu­ally lasts approx­i­mately 2 hours. Please do not chew any­thing or drink hot or cold liq­uids until the numb­ness is gone.

Dis­com­fort: You can expect slight dis­com­fort fol­low­ing your treat­ment. To make your­self more com­fort­able while you are heal­ing, do the following:

• Pain med­ica­tion guide­lines: Pain fol­low­ing peri­odon­tal surgery is usu­ally well con­trolled with non-narcotic med­ica­tions such as ibupro­fen (Advil, Motrin) or aceta­minophen (Tylenol). If ibupro­fen has been pre­scribed for pain, con­tinue tak­ing this med­ica­tion for sev­eral days; even if you are in lit­tle dis­com­fort, ibupro­fen will reduce swelling. Nar­cotic med­ica­tions (such as Vicodin or Codeine) may be addi­tion­ally ben­e­fi­cial for pain con­trol. You may elect to take the pre­scribed nar­cotic (with, not in place of your ibupro­fen) for pain that is mod­er­ate to severe. Please note that some nar­cotic pain med­ica­tions con­tain aceta­minophen (Tylenol), so do not exceed 3000 mg in a 24-hour period. Nar­cotic med­ica­tions may cause drowsi­ness and/or nau­sea. To min­i­mize stom­ach upset, take your med­ica­tion with at least 1⁄2 glass of water and after a meal.
• Antibi­otic med­ica­tion guide­lines: If you were pre­scribed antibi­otics, please take the full pre­scrip­tion. It is best to take these med­ica­tions with food to pre­vent stom­ach upset. Antibi­otics can reduce the effec­tive­ness of birth con­trol pills, so addi­tional meth­ods of con­tra­cep­tion should be employed. Note that Doxy­cy­cline should not be taken if you are breast­feed­ing or preg­nant, and it may cause an increased ten­dency to sunburn.
• Begin­ning 48 hours after the pro­ce­dure, gen­tly rinse 1 to 2 times daily with warm salt water for 30 sec­onds (1 tea­spoon of table salt in 8 ounces of warm water). If you pre­fer to use Lis­ter­ine, you may dilute it with warm water and rinse. This is ben­e­fi­cial for both heal­ing and cleanliness.
• If instructed, you should apply an ice pack on your cheek near the sur­gi­cal site—for 20 min­utes on and 20 min­utes off. Do this mul­ti­ple times dur­ing the 24 hours after the procedure.

Activ­ity: The day of your surgery, we rec­om­mend that you limit your activ­i­ties and return home to rest. This is espe­cially true if you have taken seda­tive med­ica­tions. You gen­er­ally can resume nor­mal activ­i­ties 1–2 days fol­low­ing peri­odon­tal surgery.

Brush­ing: Brush thor­oughly and gen­tly, avoid­ing the sur­gi­cal area for a few days. If a mouth­wash is pre­scribed, it will clean the sur­gi­cal area; for 2 weeks after surgery, use only the pre­scribed mouth­wash. When brush­ing, use a soft brush warmed in water, and tem­porar­ily avoid elec­tric brushes, rub­ber tips, water picks, or other den­tal aids in the sur­gi­cal area.

Bleeding: For sev­eral hours fol­low­ing surgery, a small amount of blood may appear in your saliva. If bleed­ing per­sists, try to local­ize the area where the bleed­ing is com­ing from. Apply firm but gen­tle pres­sure directly to the site of bleed­ing, with a gauze or moist­ened tea bag for 10 min­utes. If severe bleed­ing con­tin­ues and you can­not stop it, please call the office or go to your local emer­gency room. Your gums may bleed for a few days when you brush or floss. Do not be alarmed, as this is normal.

Sur­gi­cal Dress­ing: Sur­gi­cal dress­ing may have been placed over your gums. In areas of gum grafts, try to keep the dress­ing in place for as long as pos­si­ble. Do not worry if the dress­ing falls off other areas before your next appoint­ment, as this will not adversely affect your heal­ing. Con­tinue to avoid the area with the tooth­brush. If you are con­cerned, feel free to call the office.

Nutri­tion: A good diet is impor­tant for heal­ing. A semi-soft, high-protein diet is rec­om­mended. Avoid hot, hard, and crunchy foods, since these may injure heal­ing tis­sues. Food sug­ges­tions include scram­bled eggs, yogurt, bananas, instant break­fast drinks, apple­sauce, cot­tage cheese, oat­meal, fish, soup, etc. Avoid extreme hot or cold on your teeth, as they will be sen­si­tive. Sen­si­tiv­ity is nor­mal and may last from a few days to sev­eral weeks. You should expect grad­ual improve­ment. We rec­om­mend the use of anti-sensitivity tooth­pastes such as Sen­so­dyne, or flu­o­ride gels such as Prev­i­dent or Gel-Kam. Smok­ing after surgery will impair healing.

Post-Surgical Prob­lems: Please call the office if you expe­ri­ence any of the fol­low­ing: fever, swelling that increases after 3 days, dis­com­fort not con­trolled by the pre­scribed med­ica­tions, adverse reac­tion to any med­ica­tions, or any uncer­tainty about your progress in healing.

Call us: If you have any fur­ther ques­tions or con­cerns, please call the office at (510) 843‑6341.