Before and After Your Procedure

Before Your Appointment: Everyone

• Consent forms. Read them at home and bring them; you can sign with a witness at home or in our office.
• Prescriptions. Fill your post-operative prescriptions before the surgery so you can go straight home afterward.
• Medications. Take your normal daily medications with a small amount of water unless Dr. Verrett or your physician tells you otherwise. That includes blood pressure medication and blood thinners; see the question below.
• Diabetes. If you will be sedated you will be fasting; adjust your medications per the diabetic instruction sheet we give you and bring your glucometer.
• Tell us about any change in your health or medications, and about travel plans in the month after surgery, which can conflict with follow-up visits.
• Rescheduling requires two business days’ notice to avoid a cancellation charge.

Before Your Appointment: If You Are Being Sedated

• Your driver. A responsible, licensed adult brings you, waits in our reception area, drives you home, and stays with you for at least two hours. We need their phone number.
• Eating and drinking. No solid food for six hours before your appointment. Clear liquids such as water, apple juice, or black coffee are encouraged until two hours before. Nothing by mouth in the last two hours except your medications with a sip of water. Arrive hydrated; it makes IV access easier.
• What to wear. A short-sleeved shirt, long pants, closed-toe shoes.

These are not house rules. The American Dental Association’s Guidelines for the Use of Sedation and General Anesthesia by Dentists require an evaluation of medical history, medication use, and nothing-by-mouth status before any sedative is given, and require that written pre-operative and post-operative instructions go to the patient and to the escort who takes them home.

After Your Procedure

Diet. Soft foods for the first week; do not chew on the surgical area. Cool, soft foods for the first 24 hours. Keep something in your stomach when taking medication. Avoid seeds, chips, nuts, popcorn, and anything hard or sharp. Gentle use of a large straw is acceptable (sinus lift patients: no straws; see below). After the first week, return gradually to a normal diet, still avoiding the surgical site. If you are taking antibiotics, a probiotic or probiotic foods can reduce stomach upset.

Swelling and bruising. Normal, and greatest at two to three days. For the first 24 hours, ice on the outside of the face, twenty minutes on and off, with your head elevated above your heart. From day two, moist heat helps.

Bleeding. Light oozing and pink saliva are normal. For heavier bleeding, damp gauze with firm, continuous pressure for twenty minutes, sitting upright. A moistened tea bag works the same way. Do not press on a tissue graft. If bleeding continues, call. If you take aspirin or other anti-platelet medication, expect more bruising; do not stop the medication.

Oral hygiene. Brush and floss the untreated areas thoroughly. Leave the surgical site completely alone: no brushing, no flossing, no pulling your lip to look, no touching, for the first week. Do not sleep on that side. Rinse gently with salt water; do not swish.

Smoking. None for at least seven days. Smoking is the most reliable way to make a graft fail.

Sutures. They dissolve or are removed at your two-week visit. Don’t play with them or cut loose ones; call if one bothers you.

Activity. Rest for the first 48 hours. For the first week, activity at a conversational pace is fine; strenuous or high-impact exercise increases swelling and can disturb the site.

Alcohol. Avoid until you’ve finished your antibiotics and feel well.

Sinus lift patients. Take the over-the-counter decongestant we recommend. Do not blow your nose, sneeze with your mouth open, and avoid straws, flying, and heavy lifting for two weeks.

Pain management. A long-acting local anesthetic keeps you numb for four to eight hours. Start ibuprofen and acetaminophen while still numb and take them on the schedule on your printed chart. Discomfort for the first week is expected; it should improve each day. Use the stronger prescription only if the over-the-counter combination isn’t enough, and always with food.

Your temporary (flipper), if you have one. Wear it as instructed; remove it to clean; do not chew on it during the first week.

Follow-Up

For most procedures your first follow-up is at two weeks, then at six to eight weeks; implant patients also have a check before the crown. Your dentist receives a report after each visit.

Printable versions of these instructions, the soft-food list, and the medication chart are given to you at your visit and are available from the front desk.