Post-Operative Instructions Acknowledgment

Most problems after oral surgery are avoidable, and most of the rest are manageable if they are reported early. This records that you were given your instructions, that they were explained, and that you know what warrants a phone call.

If you were sedated, your memory of today may be unreliable. Keep the written instructions, and make sure the adult with you has read them too.

• Controlling bleeding, and what is normal in the first day.
• Swelling, ice, and when swelling should start to settle.
• Pain medicine — what to take, how much, how often, and what not to combine it with.
• Antibiotics or rinses, if prescribed, and finishing the course.
• What to eat and drink, and for how long.
• Cleaning your mouth and the surgical site.
• No smoking or vaping, no straws, no spitting or rinsing forcefully, and no strenuous activity, for the period you have been told.
• Sinus precautions, if your surgery involved the upper back jaw.
• Looking after a temporary or a denture over the site.
• Your follow-up appointment.

• Bleeding that does not stop after firm pressure for the time you were told.
• Pain that gets worse after the third day rather than better, or that your medicine does not control.
• Swelling that increases after the third day, or that is hot, hard, and spreading.
• Fever, a bad taste or smell, or discharge from the site.
• Numbness that is still complete the day after surgery.
• A temporary, denture, or implant that loosens or breaks; or a stitch problem.
• A reaction to any medicine.

• You have difficulty breathing or swallowing, chest pain, swelling spreading toward the eye or down the neck, or uncontrollable bleeding.

You were given a number to call outside office hours. Use it. A problem reported the same evening is almost always easier to fix than the same problem reported three days later.