Exercise is good for your body. It keeps your heart and lungs healthy, and your blood flowing properly. It also helps to reduce stress.
The benefits of exercise are almost endless. But if you have undergone oral surgery, exercise can have a detrimental effect, and can seriously hurt your mouth.
ORAL SURGERY
Oral surgery is any type of surgery that is done in and around the mouth. This includes everything from a tooth extraction to reconstruction. Your oral surgeon has the experience and expertise to perform these procedures and provide you with the best chance for a full recovery. However, the key to making that recovery is rest. If you exercise regularly, you will need to take some time off.
PAIN
Resting is an essential element of healing. Your body needs time to repair itself, rebuild tissue and bone, even after something as seemingly simple as a tooth extraction. Pain is a normal occurrence after surgery, and most can be handled with over the counter pain medications.
If you exercise too soon after oral surgery, the jarring motions, bending over, and heavy lifting can exacerbate that pain, and make it unmanageable even with the help of prescription medications. Your body will also exhaust itself as it tries to repair your muscles and your surgical site, and you will significantly slow the healing process.
SWELLING
Much like pain, some swelling is to be expected following an oral surgery procedure. However, doing things that increase your heart rate and make your blood flow faster (bending over, heavy lifting, running), can cause too much blood to rush to the surgical site, resulting in more swelling.
BLEEDING
Getting your heart rate up can also lead to more bleeding. Jarring exercises, or exerting too much force, can dislodge clots and the blood that rushes to the surgical site will bleed. Dislodging clots slows the healing process and increases your risk of getting an infection.
Abstaining from your regular exercise routine, at least for the first few days, following your oral surgery is important to heal properly. As you start to feel better, you can gradually ease yourself back into your normal routine, so long as you do not experience pain or bleeding.
Contact our office to learn how to best get back into exercising following surgery.