Can I eat after having a tooth extracted? What should we pay attention to?

Healthy teeth can make eating life a pleasure and enjoyment, on the contrary, bad teeth will be a burden for any food. Therefore, protecting dental health is a key issue in people's lives. When teeth are severely damaged, the only way to repair them is to extract them. So, can you eat after extracting the teeth? What should we pay attention to? Let’s take a look at the explanation below.

Post-tooth extraction care

1. After tooth extraction, the doctor will ask the patient to bite 1 to 2 cotton rolls, which can apply pressure to stop bleeding and protect the wound. Generally, the tampon can be spit out about 40 minutes after tooth extraction. Be careful not to hold the cotton roll for too long. Some people think that the longer the biting time, the better. Some people bite for several hours or even more than ten hours. This is wrong. Instead, it causes the wound to be soaked in saliva for a long time, causing infection or poor blood coagulation.

2. For patients with bleeding tendency, it is best not to leave after tooth extraction. Ask the doctor to check the wound again after half an hour to see if the bleeding has stopped. If bleeding continues, the doctor should provide further treatment, such as applying hemostatic drugs, suturing to stop bleeding, and taking some hemostatic drugs orally.

3. Under normal circumstances, the bleeding will stop after you spit out the tampon. It is normal to have a little blood in the saliva. If you spit out large mouthfuls of blood, it is abnormal. You should contact our clinic in time or go to the nearest hospital's dental department for emergency treatment and ask the doctor to treat it. Never handle it on your own, such as stuffing cotton at home into the extraction socket or applying so-called hemostatic drugs at random. These cotton balls and medicines are not sterile and may cause secondary infection and more serious consequences after use.

4. After tooth extraction, you must pay attention to protecting the blood clot. Do not rinse your mouth on the same day, do not chew food with the side where the tooth was extracted, do not lick the wound frequently, and do not suck or spit repeatedly, so as to avoid destroying the blood clot due to the increase in negative pressure in the mouth. You can eat two hours after the operation, and the food for two days after the operation should be warm, cool, and soft.

5. Generally, you don’t need to take any medicine after tooth extraction. However, when extracting teeth during the acute inflammatory period, or when the trauma is severe or the general condition is poor, oral antibiotics and painkillers should be taken.

6. Tooth extraction generally does not affect work and you can go to work as usual, but do not engage in heavy physical labor. Smoking and drinking have adverse effects on wound healing. It is best not to smoke or drink within one or two days after tooth extraction.