After Wisdom Tooth Removal

Other Complications

• If numbness of the lip, chin, or tongue occurs there is no cause for alarm. As stated before surgery, this is usually temporary in nature. You should be aware that if your lip or tongue is numb, you could bite it and not feel the sensation. So be careful. Call Dr. Konys if you have any questions.
• Slight elevation of temperature immediately following surgery is not uncommon. If the temperature persists, notify the office. Tylenol or ibuprofen should be taken to reduce the fever.
• You should be careful going from the lying down position to standing. You were not able to eat or drink prior to surgery. It was also difficult to take fluids. Taking pain medications can make you dizzy. You could get light headed when you stand up suddenly. Before standing up, you should sit for one minute then get up.
• Occasionally, patients may feel hard projections in the mouth with their tongue. They are not roots, they are the bony walls which supported the tooth. These projections usually smooth out spontaneously. If not, they can be removed by Dr. Konys
• If the corners of your mouth are stretched, they may dry out and crack. Your lips should be kept moist with an ointment such as Vaseline.
• Sore throat and pain when swallowing are not uncommon. Some of this is due to the injections that were used during the procedure. In addition, the tissues and muscles get swollen, which causes the same symptoms. This will subside in 2-3 days.
• Stiffness (Trimus) of the jaw muscles may cause difficulty in opening your mouth for a few days following surgery. This is a normal post-operative event which will resolve in time. Anti-inflammatory medications like Advil and Motrin, as well as moist heat, stretching, and massage will help this process.
• “Dry sockets” occur when the blood clot in the socket is dislodged. This will cause a discomfort that can present as a ringing earache, radiating tooth pain (sometimes all the way down to the front teeth), or the feeling that “I was doing great, and now the discomfort is getting worse”. Dry sockets are a pain to have, but really easy to treat. Usually a simple, medicated gauze string is placed in the socket. In addition, anti-inflammatory medications (Motrin, Advil) are prescribed. Relief usually only takes 10-15 minutes.

A word about sutures

If your procedure requires sutures, Dr. Konys will almost always used dissolvable ones. They usually fall out after a week or so. Rarely do they last longer. On very rare occasions, non-dissolving sutures are placed. These are removed after a one-week healing period.

A word about antibiotics

A lot of controversy revolves around the routine use of antibiotics after simple oral surgery procedures. In the past, antibiotics were given after almost every oral surgery procedure. However, recent research has shown that unless an acute infection is present, antibiotics are not warranted. In fact, in many cases, antibiotics can actually cause more complications.