gum graft after surgery

I had my surgery (more than 7 teeth) finished on wednesday 3.30pm. The doc ordered me not to talk or laugh or eat till next wednesday and to maintain Only liquid alimentation. No pain, excePt for some muscle contractions on my below righr jaw. So scared it will fail.

Had the surgery 3 weeks ago. My mouth was sufficiently numb and didn't hurt during the surgery. The doctor had background music for him but I had an Ipod and was very relaxed. Slight discomfort after, but only if I tried to eat or pucker to drink. Although, I went straight to work and used the computer for 2 hours after the surgery, I also kept my ice pack on most of the day. I also took Advil for the first 2 days. The Silly Putty stuff covered my graft and donor site for the whole week and the nurse took it off after 7 days. I think that helped a lot to keep it on. I was almost completely back to normal at about 2 1/2 weeks. I think the doctor has a lot to do with it. Keep your mouth inactive for the first few days after surgery will help too.

I had this surgery done a few days ago. On the day of surgery, I felt no pain afterwards. I thought this would be a predictor of the days to come and I'd have an easy recovery. Boy was I wrong. I woke up 24 hours later and everything was swollen! Not just my gums, but my whole face! My nose, cheek, lips... everything hurt to touch! It is 5 days later and I'm still having smoothies, ice cream and tepid soup. It's getting better day by day but it's definitely not the most pleasant procedure. I can't laugh or smile because I bleed when I do. People must think I've become so uptight!

Anyway, my advice is just take care of yourself afterwards with cold soft foods, rest, and your prescribed mouthwash and you'll be fine.

I think I had the complete opposite experience than most of you. The procedure itself was easy, once my mouth was numbed up I couldn't feel anything, although it is odd to know the Dr is picking at your gums. I was in and out of the office in 30 minutes. Was told to ice for the rest of the day but only did it for about 2 hours and didn't have any swelling. Had a little bit of bleeding around the stitches at first but that went away. No pain at all after the first day. I just chewed soft food on one side for a couple days just to be safe, but I think I was back to eating normally within 4-5 days. 

I just got the procedure done a couple days ago and the pain is very annoying. I got the tissue from the pallet. This is my second time having this done. 

Me too - this has been my experience so far. In agony for past 4 days, dentist says it's healing properly but it's swollen and yellow and ruptured last night, filling my mouth with blood.

Can anyone tell me how long it takes for the white parts to "pink up"?  I have 8 teeth done and am on day 9 of recovery.  6 of the teeth look great, but on 2 the whole graft area is white and thin-looking, and definitely isn't attached to the teeth.  The Dr said there's some "degradation" in that area, but we have to wait and see to find out what's really going on.  Needless to say that's not the response I was hoping for, so freaking out a bit here!

I just had it done 2 days ago.....I opted for the "fake" tissue because I heard horror stories about having it done from your pallet.  Anyways, I was fine...I was so nervous my doctor gave me an anxiety med to take an hour before the procedure -- I am not afraid of dentists and I do not freak out easily and I can tell you -- the anxiety med helped a lot....  I wanted to bring an IPOD and I forgot it in the car -- think that helps...   I swelled up a little the day after surgery.....and today I look like Alvin on the chipmunks... very puffy.... I did use the ice very faithfully.....I get touches of pain but nothing I can't handle....just feel very tired....  Going to start with warm compresses to get rid of swelling.... I do start to get twitches of pain right after the prescription motrin runs out.... I did have my entire bottom row of teeth done....

Can't eat anything that requires me to chew for 14 days.... I am living on jello, egg salad, tuna salad etc....Guess it is a good diet....

I have the prescription rinse but the doctor didn't tell me to do the salt water rinse...should I do that....warm water??  I hope I dont have bad breath -- I am buying altoids.....so paranoid about bad breath

Hi,
The gum graft surgery will subside as your gums heal. In the meantime, you should use some Corsodyl mouth rinse. This has a good antibacterial agent that will kill the bacteria that cause gum disease.

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It was so helpful. Thanks for taking the time to give the info. I am having the procedure in a few weeks and it relieved some of my anxiety.

I had gum surgery done on both upper and lower gums on one side, I had this done on the Friday before Easter and here I am on Wednesday of the next week still needing Advil every five hours for the pain.  I sure hope the pain lets up here in the next day or two this is getting hard to deal with and do not like taking so much advil every day.  Any suggestions--   I am on an antibiotic and being told the pain will subside but when         this has been a miserable experience..

 

Got my graft today AM, my doctor never mentioned soda so I had a small cup w/my soft dinner but I'm now freaked out because after maybe 40min-1hr started bleeding, which didn't happen at all. So decided to research this, your comment is the only one so far mentioning "soda". I think I'll need to call my doctor tomorrow if it worsen, however, any other than that I'm fine - no pain at all -. Suggestion or reply on why no soda? I also checked my Doc's instruction and "soda' wasn't on it, was I suppose to guess this one?! Concerned....

Just had this done a few days ago. I think the worst part about this is just the injection of the numbing stuff, and if you didn't bring an iPod, hearing them work in your mouth *shudders* the recovery part for me was fairly easy, I didn't bleed that much and had very minor swelling. Not sure if it's cause I had a brilliant periodontist or cause I just had 2 teeth done. The hardest part for me is eating as its very uncomfortable. And I'm craving so much real food. All I'm eating is smoothies yogurt and very creamy mashed potatoes. Soup is too hot, and ice cream is too cold. I have to eat room temperature food. I don't need the painkillers since I'm not in pain and I'm taking antibiotics. I've also been rinsin my mouth with salt water after meals and mouthwash in the mornings and night. I feel scared to brush my teeth in case I hurt or touch the surgical sites. I'm just mainly uncomfortable and scared to hurt or damage the sites that's all. The recipient side is white and im not sure if that's normal but I've been reading and apparently it is, so I feel much better! Just wanted to share my experience with gum grafting! It's not that bad, but I can't eat good food and can't exercise. Boo.

This is my experience with gum graft surgery (so far)  I had the surgery August 7th.  Today is August 18th.  So, 11 days after the surgery and I'm in ALOT of pain.  I had all 4 areas of my gums done at the same time - left and right upper and left and right lower.  The doctor used donor tissue (Alloderm).  The surgery was a piece of cake.  No pain at all.  When I got home I felt fine.  The next day they told me I could go to work and I felt pretty good, although I was taking Advil 600 mg.  about every 6-8 hours.  I work in a doctors office and work with patients so I do alot of talking all day.  They never told me I shouldn't talk after the surgery.  I worked 4 days straight after the surgery and had some relatively minor discomfort and swelling as long as I took the Advil, I didn't have much pain.  They said to apply heat after the first 2 days to control swelling, but I didn't feel like I had that much swelling so I didn't apply any heat.  By that weekend (5 days later, the pain and swelling was getting much worse.  On the 6th day, my face was visibly swollen so I went in to see the doctor and he said everything looks fine, but that I needed to put hot packs on it to reduce the swelling.   So I continued to work and applied the hot packs and by Thursday (the 9th day after surgery) the facial swelling was noticably less, but the pain was still very bad and not getting better.   I spoke to the doctor and he felt that the reason was because I was talking too much and tearing at the stitches.  *NOW THEY TELL ME!!! They never previously told me not to talk!  He said to rest, try not to talk and continue applying the hot packs.  After 2 days of not saying a word and hardly moving my mouth at all except to eat and putting the hot packs on frequently, the pain is not any better and the gum tissue is still very swollen and tender.  I am taking Motrin 800 every 6 hours and the relief only lasts about 4 hours.  Today is 11 days after the surgery and this is the worst it's felt since the day I had the surgery.  It's not getting better and I'm miserable!  I took antibiotics for 10 days after the surgery and have been rinsing with the prescribed rinse and have been keeping my mouth very clean, so I don't think I have an infection.  I am going to try taking 2 Aleve (440 mg) instead of the motrin to see if it works any better.  I will be calling my doctor today, but he's on vacation this week, so don't know if he'll be able to reply.  If anyone has had similar experience I'd like to hear your story.  I am scheduled to have the stitches out in 3 days (2 weeks after the surgery).  I'm wondering if the pain will go away after they remove the stitches.  I'm assuming that the reason i'm having so much trouble is because I was talking too much in the days following the surgery and I aggravated the stitches, but Damn!  I never thought the recovery would be this painful. 

Just had my second gum graft in 4 weeks. The description of the surgery totally freaked me out and I have a slight needle phobia. I asked and the doctor gave me laughing gas before giving me the novacaine. I brought my ipod and closed my eyes for the whole time. The combination of the gas and the novicaine made it so that I was aware of everything that was happening, but nothing hurt. Much better that anticipating that horrible shot in the top of my mouth. Recovery wasn't too bad. However, one thing you should be aware of is that depending on whether you have any healthy gum left or none, the stitches need to stay in different amount of times. The side that had no healthy tissue left needed stitches in for 2 weeks. The side where there was some healthy tissues needs the stitches in for 4 weeks. Ugh! Question for anyone that knows, how can you tell if a gum graft has taken? After the first graft my periodontist said the sutures loosened and it may not have taken. The gum line looks normal, but there is a hard, lump right by my tooth that turns white if I press down on it.