Cleaning my gums after wisdom teeth removal

[Anonymous]

Hey, I had them removed 5 days ago and now I got a tiny piece of biscuit stuck in my gums (I know I shouldn't have eaten it, but I was craving for something sweet)

Any advice how to clean it, cause I have problems reaching it and don't want to do something wrong.

The "little thingies" I had for cleaning them from my dentist are all gone already.

[may04]

As an Oral Surgery technician my advice to you is to try to gently rinse with warm salt water (I tsp per 8 oz glass) and see if that can dislodge it. Do NOT use any type of alcohol based mouth wash (ie: Listerine).

You don't really want to be reaching up into the sockets to try and pull it out because you could disturb your blood clot and give yourself a dry socket.

Dry sockets aren't life threatening, and they don't change the healing process any but they are VERY painful. Basically your blood clot acts as a blanket to cover your bone and nerve endings while you heal. If that blanket breaks then all those nerve endings become exposed causing a throbbing pain the socket that pain medications can't control. Not fun.

The dry socket window is primarily 4-8 days out after surgery.

If GENTLE rinsing with warm salt water doesn't quite clean it out for you, go back and see your dentist/surgeon to professionally clean it out until you're no longer in the timezone to get dry socket. Most places will have syringes with hooked ends that they can teach you how to use properly at home to keep things clean. (These are called monoject syringes in case you want to ask them about it).

[may04]

Thank you for the BA! Hope you heal up fast!

[ghostgirl97]

Hydrogen peroxide or baking soda is what I used when I got my wisdom teeth taken out. My doctor told me it would help bring up any food residue that got stuck in my gums. It should help. I hope you've gotten it out by now, (I see that I'm posting 12 hours after this was originally written).

[DecadenceOfOrpheus]

there is something called interdental brush, I use it

ida.org.in/Images/NewImages/interdental%20brushes1.JPG

put www in front of the link please :)

[Zalewe]

a cup of luke warm water with a teaspoon of salt dissolved in it, swish around your mouth as often as you like, it will flush out hard to reach areas and also aid in healing.