After going through a root canal treatment, you should know that taking good care of your teeth and gums is crucial for a speedy recovery. You can recover fully within a week, but you need to be careful about a couple of things to ensure you heal without any pain or complications.
Immediately after the surgery, you might feel mild to moderate pain for up to a few days. But, if a sharp pain persists for a long period of time, you should immediately contact your dentist and let them know about this. You can click on the link if you live in NYC and want to know about anyone doing dental practice in the Park Slope area of Brooklyn, New York.
Vital tips for your root canal recovery
Aftercare is essential for a patient who has undergone root canal therapy. These tips are straightforward and do not require you to do anything time-consuming or strenuous.
- Give your teeth time to heal
No matter what part of a human body it is, giving it time to heal and recover is crucial after undergoing surgery. You should avoid doing activities that cause strain in your mouth or require your jaw to move a lot. Continuous speaking or chewing hard foods is not advisable. Put an ice pack on the area of surgery at regular intervals for some days following the surgery and apply pressure. This is necessary to reduce the swelling and relieve discomfort.
- Wait for some time before you eat.
Avoid chewing on the part of your mouth where the treatment was done until the numbness disappears. Instead, go for soft and gentle foods that do not put too much pressure on the area. You will be happy to know that you can, in fact, take care of your teeth while enjoying tasty food! You can have some hot soups, smoothies, or yogurt of your choice. These foods will help you gain the necessary nutrients for your body while ensuring your teeth are recovering.
- Salt water gargling
You might hear people around you use this to relieve themselves of throat infections. But gargling with warm salt water can be highly beneficial as it not only keeps your mouth clean but also ensures there are no infections due to bacteria in your mouth.
- Pain Management
As mentioned earlier, applying a cold compress or an ice pack around the area where the treatment was done can help you reduce the pain and swelling. You might also think of taking over-the-counter medications like painkillers to relieve the pain. Still, it is always best to consult your dentist or your physician to ensure those medications do not have any side effects on you.
