Wisdom teeth don't always grow in correctly. When this happens, they can be extremely painful and have to be extracted. While a healthy, perfectly aligned wisdom tooth can be an asset, very often, the wisdom teeth that appear between one's late teens and early to mid twenties are not aligned properly and cause overcrowding. If left unattended, apart from severe pain, wisdom teeth can also cause cavities, infections and tooth diseases. Due to lack of time, individuals with a painful wisdom tooth take painkillers to ease the pain until they find the time to visit a dentist. However, pain killers can become habit forming and cause side effects so it is advisable to visit a dentist without delay.
As a badly aligned wisdom tooth can damage the adjacent to teeth and even cause jaw and nerve damage, oral surgeons recommend its removal. An oral surgeon or a dentist will do the surgery. If you are suffering from infections and you are in severe pain, then he will prescribe antibiotics and other medication to reduce the infection.
Things To Do
You will require a few days to recover after the surgery. It is therefore important that you fix an appointment when you get a few days off from work or from other commitments. The surgeon will give you a list of things that have to be followed and avoided before and after the surgery for quick healing. A dentist or an oral surgeon will do the tooth extraction after giving a local anesthetic.
You will have to stay on a completely liquid diet for a while after the extraction. After the stipulated period, you can eat solid food again beginning with softer solid foods and gradually moving on to harder foods. Care should be taken to avoid all kinds of spicy dishes as well as those that are high in temperature.
Doctors will advise total rest initially and will want you to take things easily during the healing period. It is best to avoid all kinds of exercise and be relaxed. The mouth will feel stiff after the surgery. However, it is important to keep opening and closing your mouth slowly and gently to get rid of stiffness.
Home Remedies
Home remedies are excellent to get relief from pain and discomfort. Rinsing the mouth with warm salt water is very effective. To avoid any kind of infection, the mouth should be rinsed often, especially after a meal or drink. Biting down on a piece of gauze or cotton will control the bleeding. Biting on a tea bag is also effective as tea leaves are known to reduce pain and clot blood. Tea bags can be used 12 hours after surgery.
Pain Killers
You must follow all of the instructions from your dental surgeon meticulously to ensure quick healing and recovery. The pain killers and other medications you are given will help reduce the pain. Pain killers will have to be taken over a period of time, and although they might make you drowsy and keep you from performing your best, going off of pain killers abruptly is not advisable as it could lead to unwanted side effects. It is important that you follow your doctor's directions to the letter with regards to taking pain pills so that you don't suffer pain killer withdrawal from staying on them for too long.