Rinsing with salt/water and brushing after extraction - Safe?

[bellaboone0314]

Hi, I had my first tooth extraction yesterday and after many hours, finally got the blood to clot in the wound, although I still have that bloody taste when my tongue hits the socket. My guess is it will stay that way until it's healed?

My question is about the dentist's instructions to rinse with salt/water 5x the following day. I've read that rinsing can cause the blood clots to dislodge and that could cause 'dry socket'. Is it safe to do this now? Also brushing - I'm afraid that will also dislodge the clots. Is there a really safe way to do both of these things to avoid dislodging the clots, or has enough time passed now that it doesn't matter?

Thanks!

 

[Cygre]

The bloody taste is normal. Don't spit it out, though. You'll create a suction kind of pressure and pop the blood clot out. You could swallow, or rinse out with salt water.

Just sort of gently swish it around, and gently let the liquid out. Dry socket usually happens with infection of the wound. As long as it's clean, you run a low risk of developing dry socket.

Since 24 hours has passed, you can brush gently while avoiding the area of extraction. Don't spit the toothpaste out too forcefully. You should be able to resume cleaning the area of extraction for something like 3 days later. Meanwhile, don't poke around the wound with your tongue. It'll disturb the clot.

 

[joss]

Sorry, but dry socket usually happens with dislodging the blood clot, not infection.