If you are scheduled for a root canal in the near future, you might want to learn everything you can in order to make the recovery process as easy as possible. To help you with that, you should take a few moments to review the following tips.

Sleep With Your Head Elevated

For the first few nights after getting your root canal done, you are going to want to sleep with your head elevated. This will help reduce the amount of swelling that you will have to deal with and you might even find that it helps reduce any pain that you might endure, as it helps take the pressure off of the tooth that was worked on.

Do Not Smoke Right Away

If you are a smoker, you are going to need to refrain from smoking for the next few days. This will help you avoid infection. You will also find that you are able to heal much faster when the sensitive area is not hit with a lot of cigarette smoke.

Use Ice For Swelling

You might experience a little bit of swelling after you have you root canal. If that is the case, then you are going to want to apply a pack of ice to the swollen area and leave it there for about a half an hour. Then, every hour or so, you will want to apply more ice for about ten or fifteen minutes in order to keep the swelling down.

Rinse Your Mouth After Eating

Use lukewarm salt water to rinse your mouth throughout the day and after every meal. While this is not something that you have to do at specific intervals, you should at least do it after eating and then once when you wake up in the morning. This helps to make sure that any saliva buildup is rinsed clean from your root canal after waking up. You should continue to do this for a couple of days while the root canal area is trying to heal.

As you can see, there are a few things to keep in mind in order to help with your root canal recovery. Of course, you might also want to speak directly with your dentist like Baker Allan DDS in order to determine if there is anything else you need to do in order to keep your health on track and to recover as quickly as possible after the procedure.