Do I need to take an antibiotic after tooth extraction?

Often, the dentist prescribes antibiotics to the patient after the removal of a wisdom tooth in order to avoid unpleasant consequences or complications. The main indicators of antibiotic therapy include the development of the inflammatory process in the formed hole. More information about the choice of antibacterial drugs will be discussed in this article.

Antibiotics after wisdom tooth removal

Is it worth taking them?

Taking antibacterial drugs after removing the figure eight is necessary to relieve pain or at least to minimize it. Antibiotics are also necessary to prevent the development of the inflammatory process. Typically, antibiotics are used in the form of solutions, injections, ointments or tablets. They resort to their use only in extreme cases, when conventional drugs are unable to cope with inflammation or suppuration.

Pain after wisdom tooth removal

Antibacterial drugs are prescribed in the following cases:

• if the wall of the hole formed after tooth extraction is damaged and this can provoke an infectious inflammation that will eventually affect most of the bone;
• care of the hole after removal was insufficient. That is, ignoring antiseptic solutions for mouth rinsing can lead to the fact that small particles of food can accumulate in the hole, which is why pathogenic bacteria will multiply there;
• with a weakened immune system, the stress that occurs during tooth extraction can reduce the patient’s oral defense against infection;
• failure of the blood clot that closes the entrance to the formed hole can cause the infection to spread throughout the body.

Wisdom tooth removal is perhaps one of the most difficult dental operations, so doctors often prescribe various antibiotics to patients to relieve painful symptoms. It is worth noting that antibacterial drugs are used not only after the procedure, but also before it.

Wisdom tooth removal

The main factors why doctors prescribe antibiotics after tooth extraction:

• when there is a possibility of gumboil or pustules developing in the patient’s gums after removal surgery;
• if the integrity of the gum tissue has been compromised;
• when bleeding or other complications appear that cannot be eliminated without the use of antibacterial drugs;
• the presence of one or more chronic diseases;
• weak immunity.

If at least one of the above factors is present, the doctor resorts to the use of antibiotic drugs. But these are not all the reasons. There are other indications for the use of antibiotics. More on this below.

Antibiotics

Indications for use

If a secondary inflammatory process develops, it is, of course, necessary to take antibiotics after wisdom tooth removal. We are talking about damage to the periosteum, trigeminal nerve, alveolar ridge of the patient's jaw and socket tissue, which can cause serious complications.

How to take antibiotics after tooth extraction

These complications primarily include:

• alveolitis The main symptom of this disease is 2-day pain in the area of ​​the socket that appears, general weakness of the body and fever;
• periodontitis. Occurs due to an inflammatory process that affects the periodontal gum tissue;
• periostitis. A fairly serious disease that occurs as a result of inflammation of the periosteum of the jaw. Often the disease is accompanied by flux, that is, swelling of a person’s facial tissues;
• osteomyelitis. A dangerous complication after tooth extraction, accompanied by the appearance of fistulas through which purulent mass from the patient’s gums comes out.

Flux on the gum

On a note! For patients suffering from problems with blood clotting, cancer and high blood sugar, antibiotics must be prescribed. This is due to the fact that the weakened immune system of patients is not able to fight the development of infection.

Why is antibiotic therapy needed after wisdom tooth extraction?

Prescription of antibiotic therapy after figure eight extraction is common. Taking such medications is absolutely necessary to prevent the development of inflammatory processes and provide pain relief.

Antibiotics are indicated for the following pathological processes:

• Taking antibiotics is necessary to prevent the development of inflammatory processes and relieve pain

  Violation of the integrity of the walls of the hole.

• Low level of immune defense of the body.
• Thrombus failure.
• Parallel occurrence of chronic pathologies.
• Opening of bleeding after tooth extraction.
• Inflammation of the alveolar ridge of the jaw.
• Damage to the ternary nerve.
• Development of periodontitis.
• Periostitis and its complications in the form of flux development and swelling of facial tissues.
• Infectious purulent-necrotic inflammation of bone tissue, which is manifested by the release of purulent exudate from the gums.

Important! When diagnosing a patient with oncological and hematological diseases, as well as diabetes mellitus of any type, the prescription of antibacterial drugs is mandatory. This is due to a low level of immune defense. In this condition, the body cannot fight the infection on its own.

What drugs do doctors prescribe?

Many different drugs offered by modern medicine are used in dental practice as a post-operative intervention. People have most likely heard about many antibacterial drugs from advertising, but not all of them can help. Below are the drugs that doctors most often recommend using after removal of the figure eight.

• Wisdom tooth hurts

Table. Review of the most common drugs.

All of the above drugs have an analgesic and anti-inflammatory effect on the body. These are potent drugs, so you should not take them on your own. Otherwise, serious complications may arise in the form of other pathologies.

View of the socket of an extracted wisdom tooth

Video: Antibiotics after tooth extraction

Brushing your teeth after wisdom tooth removal

Postoperative care is needed after wisdom tooth removal so that the recovery process goes quickly. If you ignore personal hygiene products, you can provoke the development of an inflammatory process in the oral cavity, which is called alveolar osteomyelitis. According to statistics, approximately every fifth patient develops this disease after removal of the figure eight. To prevent the development of pathology, you must follow the recommendations of doctors. At a minimum, careful oral care is required for 5-7 days from the date of surgery. Below are step-by-step instructions for brushing your teeth after wisdom tooth removal.

Step 1: Change the bandage according to your doctor's instructions. After the tooth is removed, the dentist will apply a gauze bandage or cotton swab to the resulting hole. They need to be changed every 40-50 minutes. As a rule, after a few hours the bleeding stops, but if this suddenly does not happen, you should consult a doctor. Dentists say that in the first day after tooth extraction, small drops of blood may appear along with saliva. This is quite normal unless the bleeding is heavy.

Change your tampon or bandage promptly

Step 2. It is not recommended to brush your teeth in the first 24 hours after surgery. The same applies to rinsing solution and dental floss, which it is advisable to avoid using on the first day. Otherwise, the recovery process may be delayed due to damage to the blood clot that protects the socket from infection. The fact is that when brushing with a toothbrush with hard bristles, not only can the blood clot be damaged, but also the sutures placed after tooth extraction can come apart.

Start brushing your teeth a day after extraction

Step 3. For 3-4 days after surgery, you should avoid the wound in your mouth when brushing your teeth. During this period, you need to rinse your mouth with a special solution made from warm water and a small amount of salt. This procedure will speed up the healing process of the wound, but it is not recommended to spit out the solution itself. Just tilt your head a little to let it drain on its own. Oral rinsing is done in the same way. If you rinse vigorously, a vacuum may form in your mouth, causing damage to the blood clot.

Avoid the site of tooth extraction when brushing for 3-4 days

Step 4. Starting from the third day after wisdom tooth extraction, you can use a brush to clean your teeth, but this must be done with extreme caution. For cleaning, be sure to use a product with soft bristles, and it is not recommended to spit out the paste after the procedure, as is the saline solution. During the recovery period, all actions must be careful so as not to damage the gums and wound.

• Ear hurts after wisdom tooth removal

Use a soft toothbrush

Step 5. On the 4th day after the operation, doctors allow you to brush your teeth as usual, that is, using dental floss and toothpaste, which you can already spit out. But this does not mean that you do not need to be careful with the area where the tooth was previously removed. Also, do not forget about cleaning the surface of the cheeks and tongue, because this is where most of the bacteria accumulate, which can cause the development of infection in the mouth.

Rinsing your mouth and brushing your teeth

Step 6. It is necessary to avoid the development of infection, because even if all the doctor’s instructions are followed, it may still appear. If any suspicious symptoms are detected, you should immediately consult a doctor. Such symptoms include fever, problems with swallowing food or breathing, and so on. The appearance of severe swelling or suppuration at the site of tooth extraction should also be a reason for promptly seeking help from a doctor.

Difficulty swallowing food

Video: Is it possible to brush your teeth after tooth extraction?

Do I need to take an antibiotic after tooth extraction?

A very pressing question for someone who has recently had a tooth removed is whether it is necessary to take antibiotics after tooth extraction? And only the doctor who performed the removal operation can answer it with a 100% guarantee. Moreover, even without it there are a number of factors that influence whether they are worth taking or not.

One of the factors is the extraction process itself. If the operation was successful, without misfires, and the tooth being removed was not a “wisdom tooth,” then antibiotics, due to their strong side effects, are not prescribed. If at least one of these factors is violated, then these drugs are prescribed without fail.

As a matter of fact, the doctor, under any circumstances, before direct intervention, conducts a conversation with the patient to find out his early diseases and tolerance to antibiotics. After this, there is an examination, based on the results of which it will be clear whether the doctor will prescribe antibiotics or not. Moreover, he can prescribe them both after the operation and before it. And according to preliminary data and favorable conditions, an injection with a high concentration of antibiotic can be given. It replaces the course of drug use in the post-operative period, promoting the healing of the hole.

Antibiotics speed up the wound healing process, have a disinfecting effect, and increase the body’s overall resistance to disease. The doctor must inform the patient about possible undesirable consequences that may occur when taking medications.

A certain group of particularly effective drugs is prescribed exclusively for complications of some kind.
which antibiotics to take after tooth extraction ; it is strictly forbidden to select and take medications on your own.
A separate issue about taking antibiotics is considered if the patient is a pregnant girl. This raises a truly controversial issue about the prescription of antibiotics. On the one hand, taking them is necessary, but on the other, the effects of these medications may or may not affect the child in the most unexpected way. Currently, drugs are already freely available that can be prescribed to pregnant women without consequences. The only thing is that you need to accurately calculate the prescribed dose, which can be very difficult when pregnant women have elevated hormonal levels. But the main factor in the appointment is the gestational age itself. In the first trimester, the use of an antibiotic does not cause such undesirable consequences, since the placenta wall is thickened and the drug will not have such a destructive effect on the fetus as it could.

Before using the drug, you should ask a specialist whether you need to take antibiotics after tooth extraction? Even if prescribed by a doctor, you must carefully read the instructions to ensure that the patient does not have any personal contraindications. Antibiotics are used exclusively before meals, otherwise their effectiveness will be reduced.

To avoid side effects, antibiotics should always be taken at the prescribed time and in the required dosage determined by the doctor.

Are there any contraindications?

When prescribing antibacterial drugs after removing the figure eight, the doctor must take into account the characteristics of the patient’s body and diseases, if any. The dentist must know about the presence of problems with the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) or other body systems, because the choice of certain medications will depend on this.

Extracted wisdom tooth

Patients suffering from gastrointestinal diseases need to take antibiotics in the form of solutions or in effervescent form. This will significantly speed up the process of absorption of the active components of the antibiotic, due to which the contact of the surrounding flora with the active substances will be as short as possible. In addition, to avoid unpleasant consequences, doctors often prescribe antibacterial drugs to their patients along with gastroprotectors (special substances that protect the mucous membrane of the human stomach).

Antibiotics after tooth extraction

In rare cases, antibiotics can be prescribed intramuscularly, but this also happens if there are problems with the gastrointestinal tract. The form of the drug, dosage and duration of the treatment course, of course, should be determined by the doctor after examination. Self-medication is highly discouraged, because the incorrect use of potent drugs will not only not help speed up the recovery process, but will also provoke other health problems.

Rules for taking antibiotics after wisdom tooth removal

Regardless of the type of antibacterial drug prescribed by the doctor, after a wisdom tooth has been pulled out, it is recommended to strictly follow the basic rules for taking it:

• It is recommended to avoid the consumption of alcoholic beverages during antibacterial therapy.

  Strict adherence to the regimen and dosage of the prescribed antibiotic.

• The optimal time to take the drug is an hour before a meal, or 2 hours after eating it.
• The drug is washed down with exclusively purified plain water. The use of juices and mineral water for these purposes is unacceptable.
• When taking other drugs in parallel, their compatibility should be taken into account.
• It is recommended to avoid the consumption of alcoholic beverages during antibacterial therapy.
• In order to avoid disturbances in the flora of the oral cavity and intestines, antifungal medications or probiotics are taken in parallel.
• If after taking antibiotics their effectiveness does not appear or side effects occur, the drug should be replaced with a more suitable one.
• Independent interruption of the course of therapy is not allowed.

Important! Improper use of antibacterial drugs can provoke the development of side effects. This will not only aggravate the recovery process after wisdom tooth removal, but can also provoke the development of other serious pathological processes.