Healing After Gum Contouring
Gum contouring is a common procedure used to correct a gummy smile or an uneven gum line. It is also used in the treatment of periodontal disease. Gum contouring is performed with a soft tissue laser under a local anesthetic administered to the area being treated. Recovery time can take up to 10 days but with good rest and postoperative care, you may be back to your normal routines within a week!
Recovering From Gum Contouring Procedure
There are a number of things you can do to help speed your recovery. Your doctor will provide you with a detailed list of post op care and dietary restrictions that should be followed to the latter to avoid complications or infection. Instructions will include oral hygiene, dietary restrictions, pain management, and physical limitations.
Pain management: Most patients are able to manage their postoperative pain with over-the-counter pain medications but if you feel that you cannot tolerate your discomfort, your dentist may be able to provide you with a prescription. It is expected to experience mild discomfort and swelling in the area but after about seven days, swelling should be completely gone. Warm salt water is a great way to soothe your surgery site and will also help keep the area clean and free of food particles.
Dietary restrictions: Immediately following your surgery, it is important that you stick to a liquid diet. After a day or two, you can begin to incorporate soft foods like eggs, oatmeal, soft fruit, soft cooked vegetables, and well cooked pasta. As you begin to incorporate foods that require more chewing such as meat, make sure you take care not to bite into anything. Any foods that are crunchy or spicy will irritate your surgery site and could cause the area to begin bleeding again. Carbonated, acidic, and alcoholic beverages should also be avoided for about 10 days.
Oral hygiene: There are a few modifications you will need to make to your oral hygiene routine to make sure your surgery site is clean and it’s not irritated with your toothbrush, floss, or mouthwash. You will still be able to brush and floss normally but you will need to take extreme care when flossing around your surgery site. Warm salt water will help keep the area clean and is swelling. You can use this warm salt water as often as you like, especially after eating. Make sure you do not use any mouthwash that contains alcohol which will burn and irritate the area and cause it to dry out.
Physical activity: If your day-to-day life requires you to do any heavy lifting, you will need to avoid doing so for at least a week. The more you rest, the quicker your surgery site will heal. Strenuous activities such as heavy lifting, can promote bleeding and cause you’re overall recovering time to be longer than anticipated.
If you have an uneven gum line or a gummy smile that makes you self-conscious about your smile, speak with your dentist to see if you were a candidate for gum contouring.