There are a lot of things that can go easily wrong in your mouth, so you have to be very careful at all times, especially if you have just been worked on by your dentist in central Leeds. Healing is very important in order to maintain the health of your mouth, even more so if you have just had a tooth pulled out. What normally happens naturally here is that once a tooth has been removed, the hole will be sealed over with a blood clot that will fall out once the gums have sealed up. If however you get clumsy with your toothbrush, the way you eat, or if you choose to smoke straight after the extraction, it will cause the blood clot to fall out prematurely and then you run the gauntlet of getting a dry socket. Essentially this means that you will have the bone of your jaws below exposed to the air and open to infection- and it could get quite nasty if you are not careful. If it happens, you’ll need a daily dressing from your dentist in order to help the healing process and it could take a good week before your gums start to recover from the shock. The dressing will be soaked in a special paste that aids this healing and you are going to have to wash your mouth with either salt water or a medicated mouthwash until the hole seals itself up.