After your tooth was extracted a bone replacement graft was put inside the socket and covered with a membrane. The purpose of the bone replacement graft is to maintain the original size of the bone for a future implant or pontic site.

 

The amount of pain you feel after the extraction has a lot to do with the difficulty of the extraction itself. The harder the tooth was to remove, the more pain you are likely to feel afterwards. The pain usually is the worst for the first 3 days and should be gone by 10 to 14 days. If the pain and/or swelling increase significantly a few days (3 to 7 days) after the extraction, please call for instructions.

 

You will probably have a little bit of bleeding and a pink color to your saliva for the first day or two after surgery. Holding small amounts of ice water in your mouth will usually stop any slight oozing. However, if there is excessive bleeding the day of or continual bleeding the day after surgery, please call for instructions.

 

The sutures need to stay in place at least 10 days but may be left in place up to 1 month. We do this in order to keep the membrane and bone graft from coming out of the socket.

 

Then time it takes for the soft tissue to grow over the socket can vary from 2 weeks to 3 months. The speed of the soft tissue coverage is related to the size of the tooth extracted and the health of the patient. Your back teeth take longer to close than your front teeth and healthy patients close faster than unhealthy patients.

 

The time it takes for the bone graft “to take” is anywhere between 3 and 6 months. This healing time frame depends on the size of the graft that was placed and the general health of the patient. The smaller the graft, the faster it heals. The healthier the patient, the faster it heals.

 

We will likely ask you to come back 3 months after surgery for a 3 dimensional x-ray. This x-ray will allow us to evaluate the bone healing prior to implant placement.