Many people choose to take advantage of their time off work during the holidays to get dental surgery, like getting a tooth extracted. Although it can be wise to use your free time to care for your oral health, you may be wondering how this will affect your festivities while you recover. Fortunately, you can enjoy the holidays and allow your mouth to fully heal! Here are four tips on how to make it possible.
#1. Make Rest a Priority for the First Few Days
You should spend the most time resting the first couple of days after oral surgery. Overly strenuous activity or movements that increase blood flow could lead to additional discomfort. Also, if your surgery required heavier sedation, the effects could take up to 24 hours to wear off. Spending the first few days resting is essential for ensuring that you can celebrate the special holiday season with your friends and family.
#2. Plan Travel Around the Recovery Process
Oftentimes, the holidays are the time for the most traveling during the year. If you will be going out of town to visit loved ones, be sure to plan your departure date based on your recovery timeline. More than likely, it should only take a couple of days of rest after the surgery for you to feel well enough to travel by car. Regarding air travel, you may need to wait a while after surgery before it’s considered safe to fly. Your dentist will advise you on how long you should wait, although it should typically be no more than several days.
#3. Choose Holiday-Appropriate Soft Foods
Sticking to a soft-food diet during holiday meals may not be ideal, but there are plenty of seasonal foods that you can still enjoy! From mashed potatoes to stuffing to cranberry sauce, there are many nutritious yet delicious foods that can be eaten while your mouth is still healing. After several days of recovery, you should be able to eat most foods again (including holiday turkey!), but you should still avoid bones and anything else that is extremely hard.
#4. Plan Activities That You Can Participate in While Healing
If your family or friends are playing any physically active games during your early stages of recovery, you will have to cheer them on from the sidelines to ensure no injury occurs to your mouth. On the other hand, there are other more “tooth-friendly” activities that you can join in with your loved ones, like board games, cards, and puzzles.
Your holidays can be full of cheer and memorable moments, even while healing from oral surgery. Keep these tips in mind as your smile recovers and gets ready to shine bright for the next year!
About the Author
Dr. Jeff Lee and his team at Muskingum Valley Oral Surgery have been helping people return to whole, healthy smiles since 2005. As a skilled oral surgeon with almost 25 years of experience, he can expertly provide surgical and non-surgical tooth extractions. He strives to make each procedure painless and pleasant and wants to keep your mouth in top condition throughout every season of the year! To schedule an appointment, contact him through his website or call (740) 236-9392.