Oral Health: Don't Ignore Your GumsOral Health: Don't Ignore Your Gums

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Oral Health: Don't Ignore Your Gums

When you go to your dentist, you are likely concerned about cavities and the stains on your teeth. If you are like me, then you probably never thought much about your gums. Unfortunately, this caused me to form a serious gum recession condition. My dentist said that hard brushing practices, poor flossing techniques, and even the consumption of sugary foods led to the recession. After some deep scaling treatments, I was informed that I needed a gum graft procedure. The gums are extremely important to your health. They provide your teeth with the nutrients they need and they protect the sensitive dental roots. The gums even keep bacteria away from your jaw bone. Don't ignore your gums like I did. Read my blog and learn about proper oral care techniques. Prevention practices can easily save your gums from necessary restoration.

Root Canal Aftercare

20 November 2015
 Categories: Dentist, Blog

Having a root canal is often a painful process, and aftercare is something that many people struggle with. Most people treat this as similar to a cavity, when in fact you should be treating as you would after surgery.

Immediate aftercare

Immediate aftercare is essential to the immediate healing of your tooth. First and foremost, to prevent yourself from doing any extra damage, don't eat or drink anything until the numbness wears off. This is essential, because if you started to do things normally, you might accidentally bite your cheek or tongue. This could introduce extra bacteria into your mouth, and possibly result in your newly worked on tooth or gum getting infected.

As well, check yourself out once you leave the dentist, and if you notice any major swelling of something like an allergic reaction, contact them immediately. Neither one of these things is normal, so you should be aware in case something does happen

Long-term aftercare

Make sure that you brush your teeth regularly to ensure that the area around the tooth that was worked on does not get inflamed and possibly infected. Continue to keep watch on yourself to make sure that you are not reacting poorly to the root canal, either with extra swelling or allergy-like symptoms

Pain relief

This is what most people struggle with after their root canals: managing the pain. Root canals are no fun, and afterwards, due to the extensive work that has been done on your tooth, you are bound to have some pain afterwards. To alleviate this, follow these next few points.

  1. Take the medication that your dentist gave you. It sounds silly, but many people will stop taking the medications that were given to them by their dentist. These medications are usually antibiotics to make sure that your tooth does not get infected by anything. If you don't take these, it opens you up for infection, and yes, more pain.
  2. Take an over-the-counter medication that has an anti-inflammatory aid. Most people find that it is the inflammation that causes the pain. Bringing down the swelling will help to ease the pressure on your tooth and stop it from aching so much.
  3. Try to relax your jaw. Clenching your teeth adds pressure to the tooth that has just been worked on, and extra pressure will make your tooth hurt even more. Try to relax yourself so that you are able to heal better.

There you have it, a few things to remember after your root canal. Keep everything smooth and shiny, and enjoy your now pain-free meals. For more information, talk to a professional like Dodson Endodontics.