Tooth extraction recovery: your personal hour-by-hour timeline

Not at all for the first 24 hours, and no vigorous swishing for several days after that. There is one reason: a blood clot forms in the socket, and that clot is the dressing under which the bone heals. A jet of water or pressure washes it out, exposing the bone — that is what dry socket is, and it hurts more than the extraction did. From day two gentle salt-water baths are allowed: take the water in, hold it, let it out, without moving your cheeks.

Usually 2–5 hours, depending on the anaesthetic and the size of the procedure; longer after a surgical extraction. The danger of eating early is not the socket but your cheek and tongue: numb tissue gets bitten without being felt, and a second wound joins the first. This happens especially easily to children. Drink cool water and wait until sensation returns.

By the direction the pain is moving. Normal pain peaks in the first day and then fades steadily. With dry socket the pain also fades at first, then on day three or four sharply intensifies, often radiating to the ear, temple or neck, and a bad taste or smell appears. That reversal — getting better, then suddenly much worse — is the distinguishing sign. It is treated quickly, usually with one medicated dressing, and drags on for weeks if left alone.

More than anything else on this list. The suction of drawing on a cigarette acts like a straw and pulls at the clot, and the smoke itself slows healing. Smokers get markedly more dry sockets. If quitting for a few days is impossible, tick “I smoke” — the countdown to your next cigarette gets longer, and that is deliberate strictness rather than a bug.

After a surgical extraction, yes. Swelling builds and peaks on day two or three, then goes down; a bruise can spread across the cheek and neck and change color for a week or more. What is not normal is different: swelling that starts growing after day three, swelling with a temperature above 38 °C, or swelling that makes it hard to open your mouth or swallow. Those are reasons to call, not to wait.

Pink saliva and slight oozing in the first hours are normal, and they frighten people more than they should: one drop of blood colors a lot of saliva. What is worrying is blood flowing in a visible stream, gauze soaking through in 20–30 minutes, or bleeding that restarts on the second day. Tell your dentist separately if you take blood thinners — your normal timings are different.

Probably not. Anaesthetic lasts hours, not days. Persistent numbness of the lip, chin or half the tongue after removal of a lower tooth, most often a wisdom tooth, means a nerve was affected. In most cases sensation returns on its own, but it can take a long time, and your dentist needs to know as early as possible because it changes what they do next. This is a case for calling without waiting for a scheduled visit.