If you still have your wisdom teeth...

Everyone seems to come away with something
after they have their wisdom teeth extracted...

If you haven't had your wisdom teeth extracted, please read on.

Even if your sockets are sewn shut with no hole what-so-ever,
be sure you still soak that side of your mouth with salt water.
This draws out liquids inside of your gums and prevents internal
infections from occuring.

I was thoroughly rinsing the side of my mouth that had exposed sockets.
The right side of my mouth is wonderfully healthy and pain free.
The left side of my mouth... is not. I now have a residual infection
on the closed side of my mouth.

They cleared out the infection when my teeth were removed and gave
me anti-biotics. Everything was quite normal until the swelling had almost
entirely gone away. No one has said it was my fault, but I know it could
have been prevented if I had given the same amount of consideration to
the side that I felt was impervious to infection as I did to the right
side of my mouth which had open sockets.