Root Canal Post Operative Instructions

Root Canal Post Operative Instructions

During the next 24 hours

Do: Start taking pain medications before your anesthetic wears off. If we gave you a prescription, this will be sent to the pharmacy before you leave our office.

Do:  Eat softer foods and favor the other side of the mouth today. It is normal for the area to be tender. Try to keep food debris away from the extraction area.

Do: Ice the area as much as possible over the next 2-3 days. This is generally done for 10-15 minutes at a time. Ideally, do this three times per day. It is normal to have soreness in the area.

Don’t: Brush the area for the rest of the day.

Don’t: Smoke or use tobacco products. The products negatively affect healing and greatly increase the chance of painful infections.

After 24 hours and for the following week

Do: Continue to eat softer foods and favor the other side of the mouth. It is normal for the area to be sore. 

Do: Gently brush the area. It is normal to have some bleeding when you brush the area and for it to be very inflamed while it heals, especially around any stitches. We will give you further instructions on cleaning the area when you come in at your follow up appointment and we remove any stitches.

Do: If you notice continue to notice swelling, continue to ice the area as much as needed to reduce the swelling.

In general, the pain will slowly decrease over the 1-2 weeks. We will usually see you back for a follow up during this time to check healing.