A tooth abscess is a dental infection that is caused by tooth decay. The decay is often the result of poor dental care. When plaque is allowed to accumulate around your teeth, it can seep into your tooth and infect the nerves inside of your tooth. An infection that is still in the early stages can be eliminated by draining the abscess inside your tooth. In order to do this, your dentist will create an incision in your tooth that allows any pus and fluid to exit the tooth. Once the tooth has been drained, it is important to take care of it in order to prevent it from becoming reinfected. Therefore, there are a few tips that you can use to take care of your teeth immediately after your tooth abscess is drained. 

Brush Around the Surgical Area

Immediately following surgery, the surgical area will feel extremely painful. While you should not brush directly against the surgical site, you do need to brush around it. Keeping the rest of your mouth and the area around the surgical site clean will help to prevent any bacteria from forming.

Use a Bacterial Rinse to Clean the Surgical Area

After the surgery, you will feel pain in the area in which the abscess was drained. Your dentist will give you pain medicine to help reduce the pain, however, it may still cause some discomfort to brush or floss your teeth. Therefore, during this time it is important to use a bacterial rinse to thoroughly clean the area. A bacterial rinse will help to eliminate any food and bacteria from the area without disrupting the surgical site. The cause the original tooth abscess was bacteria, therefore, you should rinse with a mouthwash after every meal in order to keep the area clean.

Avoid Eating Hard Foods

Within the first few days after the surgery, the surgical site is still healing. Therefore, eating hard foods can disrupt the healing process. Hard foods like chips and nuts can reopen the incision before it has a chance to fully heal. If the incision is reopened, then it can easily become contaminated by any food or bacteria in your mouth. As a result, it is important to stick to soft foods like soup and yogurt during the first few days of your recovery.

Getting your tooth abscess drained will only eliminate the current infection. It is important to practice good dental care in order to keep the infection away. Therefore, use these tips to take care of your tooth after your tooth abscess is drained.

Contact a local dentist, such as Benjamin D Hull DDS, for further assistance.