 Hello everybody, Andrea Mayeski here. How is everybody doing being at home? I know we are all on lockdown right now, but you know what? I am taking advantage of it if I can say that. I find we all complain about having to work, but now we're all complaining about being at home. So don't complain because there are people out there who can't stay home like nurses, health care professionals. Some of you guys do probably still have to work, but I am taking advantage by uploading lots of videos and doing my taxes and cleaning my house. So you guys take advantage, please, because once we can all get back into the swing of things, we can work hard. And how I feel to you guys is this will all teach us something. This will teach us that we can spend time with people we care about. We don't have to be working all the time and we can manage without making money. You know, I mean we need money, but you know what I mean. So please try not to worry, take advantage, and let's all just hang out together, okay? So what I want to talk to you guys about is I was reading the YouTube comments and somebody had an amazing idea for a video. It is to talk about post-op instructions. So thank you so much. I apologize. I cannot remember the name of the person who did suggest that, but what a good idea. So let's talk about different dental procedures and what you want to tell your patients as post-op instructions. So let's just start with, if your patient comes in for a composite filling and a meldom filling, let's do a composite fillings first. So those white ones. You want to tell patients that if they did have the local anesthetic that it might take a couple hours to come out. It could take up to seven hours, even until the next day. So what I like to tell patients is to be careful eating and do not drink or eat anything too hot because if their lip or you know tongue still has that numbing stuff in it, they won't be able to feel it until that freezing comes out. So especially if they do try to eat something, they could be chewing on their tongue like this and not know it. Okay. What I see in kids a lot of the time is they can't feel their lip or their tongue. So they're gnawing on it like this and then that can really hurt them. They can literally cut open their tongue. So tell the patient, tell the child, tell the parent, don't basically chew your tongue or your lip because once the local anesthetic comes out and you can start to feel things again, that would hurt. Say this many, many times. Okay, not just once. Say, please don't forget. Don't chew your lip or your tongue. You won't be able to feel it until the freezing comes out. But also let them know it might take a couple hours. It might take eight hours for me. I had a cavity once. I could literally it took forever like it took eight hours for the freezing to come out. And it was the tiniest cavity ever. It was horrible. So it could take two hours. It could take eight, eight hours. If they still obviously feel it the next day, that's not a good thing. And they need to call your office because they might have some nerve damage. But don't don't tell them. Don't don't tell them that for amalgams. You guys let them know that they should not eat on that side until the next day because amalgams take time to become hard. The offices that I've worked at over the past couple years, they don't even do silver fillings anymore, but a lot of them still do. So let them know if it is an amalgam, a silver filling, do not eat on that side at least until the next day because that could cause it to fall out. And as for the local anesthetic, it's the same post-op as for a composite. Just pretty much be careful. You won't be able to feel anything. Do not eat anything like too crunchy or too hot because you'll be doing this and you won't be able to feel it until it comes out. If a patient has a temporary crown on, think a temporary crown, a temporary bridge. I basically say the same thing. I tell them do not chew on that side until the next day because it takes time for that cement to be cemented. You know, it's not perfectly strong until the next day. It is strong, but you know what still, like you have to be careful, right? So tell them to not eat or chew on that side until the next day. For a temporary, let them know it's not meant to last forever. If it pops out, you know, yes, we should put it back on depending on when it does come off, but it's not meant to last forever. So let them know you do still have to come in to get the permanent one placed. Okay. Because a lot of them might think that the temporary one is pretty strong. They will do anything to it. And then, uh-oh, or they might be calling you the next day saying, um, a little piece of my temporary chip. It's probably not the end of the world. They don't have to come in to fix that because it's just a temporary. Now for a permanent crown, a permanent bridge, something like that. I still kind of say the same thing. I say, you know, do not chew on anything until the next day because it needs to give that cement time to actually cement, right? But it is permanent. It won't just pop out, but I do still say wait until the next day because you want it to give it time. They shouldn't suffer from any pain or anything ever, but of course tell them to let you know if they do. Something that I did forget to mention is if somebody's having a composite filling and a Melgo filling, even a crown, pretty much anything that you are doing inside the mouth. Let them know that this might feel a little bit different for a couple days to a couple weeks because we have to basically, depending on the procedure that you're doing, you have to shave away that tooth in some cases. You are close to the nerve. In some cases you are changing their anatomy so things won't feel perfectly normal. It takes some time to get used to it. So let them know that. Like if the patient calls the next day saying, I just had a composite filling placed, I'm quite cold sensitive. That is normal. They might even say I'm kind of hot sensitive. Like things just feel sensitive. That's normal. But if they call in and say to you, my cheek is puffy and I'm in pain. That's not a good thing. That is a sign of inflammation and possibly infection. They say to you, you know what, I couldn't sleep all night because I was in so much pain. Have them come in to have a look at that. But if they say, oh, it's kind of still cold sensitive. Well, it does take time. As for a root canal, same type of thing. You are in there cleaning out the nerve. They won't, that tooth won't feel amazing for a couple days to a couple weeks. If they call the next day and say, oh my God, I'm in so much pain. It's not normal. Then they should come in. But if they say, yeah, you know what, my tooth is still sensitive there. What's happening? Let them know. Like, listen, you just had a root canal. We had to give you the root canal for a reason because your tooth and the nerve was damaged. So it takes time to heal that up again. If they call back in like three months and say, yeah, my tooth is still kind of sensitive. Then you should have a look at that. You will probably take an X-ray just to make sure that everything is okay. But pretty much for any procedure, it is normal for the patient to be a little bit sensitive. Or to say, you know what, things don't really feel quite normal. It's just because they have to get used to it. With the exception of pretty much any procedure. If the patient calls in and says, my bite feels kind of high. Like I can't bite down properly. Then that does likely mean that you do have to polish it down a little bit because it is too high. That could happen because especially if you have given the patient local anesthetic, they can't feel their mouth. When you're telling them to close down, they can't really feel it. They think they're closing down, but they might not be perfectly. So you are trying to adjust their bite accordingly, but they might not really know what they're doing. So it is totally normal to let them know that if your mouth feels high tomorrow, come on in because it just means that we have to polish something down. Super easy happens all the time. It's just a little hard to do it now because you can't feel anything. So let them know that. What else you guys, can you guys think of any other procedures? Like those are kind of the more common ones. If we're going through dental hygiene procedures, like after a deep cleaning, let them know they will probably be a little sore. They can take Advil if they're not allergic to it. If they do have any pain and that you will call them tomorrow to make sure that they are doing okay. And to just pretty much do anything that's comfortable for them. If they're too sore, like maybe don't eat anything crunchy and just stick to something like soup or soft foods. You know, after a cleaning, I do tell all of my patients, I say to them, the gums will probably bleed a lot because I did have to get in there to really clean everything. But don't be alarmed. Do not see that and say I'm going to stop brushing and flossing because my gums are bleeding like crazy. Don't do that. Just keep up with everything and things will get better. If a tooth is being taken out, let them know to not suck through a straw because that's negative pressure. And if a tooth is taken out, there's going to be a hole there, right? So if they're sucking through a straw, that's negative pressure that can open up that hole. And that's very, very painful. Tell them not to smoke. Tell them not to drink alcohol. I say for at least 24 hours to be honest with you because you want that to heal. Let them know, take it easy, relax, and to call you if there's any issues. It will be sore because you took out a tooth. And once the local anesthetic wears off, it's going to be sore. But if there is so much pain that they can't handle it, they should call you. Because that could mean that that hole did open up again and it's not able to heal. They have to see you to do something about that. What other procedures you guys, I'm sure I'm forgetting some. Please let me know if I did in the comments and then I will continue on. So that was an excellent idea to talk about post-op. But if you guys do still have questions, let me know please. I'm so happy to help and I'll see you guys in the next one.