Is it possible to remove or treat teeth for women during menstruation?

Over the course of a month, serious hormonal changes occur in the female body.
General well-being and state of health largely depend on them. During menstrual bleeding, a woman often experiences severe discomfort, so some medical procedures and manipulations are contraindicated for her. Let's figure out whether it is possible to remove a tooth during menstruation? After all, this surgical operation is highly stressful and is not always easily tolerated by patients. At the Line of Smile dental clinic there is no clear policy not to operate on “these days.” But we always try to take into account the cyclical nature of women’s physiology, since surgery during menstruation can negatively affect further wound healing. Therefore, it is important for the client to be honest during the consultation with the doctor and not be embarrassed to ask to reschedule the planned operation. However, if an x-ray shows that there is an infectious focus, removal is carried out on an emergency basis, regardless of what day of the menstrual cycle we are talking about.

Periods are so different

Critical days are an individual thing, and it would be difficult to find two women in the world who would experience the same sensations during this period.

Menstruation can last 2-3 days for some women, and 5-7 days for other women. Some people begin to feel the approach of “date X” a week in advance through tenderness and swelling of the mammary glands, nagging pain in the lower abdomen, mood changes and fatigue, while others are taken by surprise by their periods because they do not know what PMS is.

The critical days themselves cause discomfort to most women: they feel weakness, severe pain in the lower abdomen, increased breast sensitivity, drowsiness and irritability, and a desire to eat a lot (usually sweets). You have to give up many things, including sports, because the very thought of physical activity causes laziness and reluctance to do anything.

But there are also special women who can safely be called happy: they do not notice any physiological or behavioral changes, feel great and continue to lead their previous lifestyle.

Changes in the body

Despite a woman’s feelings during her menstrual period, changes in the body occur even if she does not notice them. These include:

• Opening the cervix
• The synthesis of the hormone estrogen increases, hormonal levels change
• The uterus begins to contract rhythmically
• The inner layer of the uterus is shed and comes out with a small amount of blood

If we talk specifically about dental treatment, the following features may hinder it:

• Weakened immunity increases the risk of infection and inflammation
• Blood clotting is reduced, so there is a risk of bleeding
• Sensitivity and receptivity increases, so the pain threshold may decrease
• Hormonal changes may contribute to the rejection of filling materials

When visiting the dentist, you need to inform him about your critical days.

Many women are not aware of such changes, so they go to the dentist during menstruation, although it is better not to do this.

What can you do when visiting the dentist?

Critical days are not an obstacle to all dental health procedures. You can completely calmly perform hygienic procedures: professional mechanical and ultrasonic cleaning.

Important! On the first day of menstruation, it is better to refuse any type of intervention.

If we talk about treatment, the following are conditionally acceptable:

• Treatment of shallow caries followed by filling
• Teeth whitening and enamel remineralization
• Setting braces
• X-ray of the tooth

During the appointment, the dentist and the patient should discuss all the nuances of treatment and the peculiarities of a woman’s well-being during her period and decide what would be best.

Taking an X-ray

Many people consider the X-rays used to perform the procedure to be very harmful. Most prejudices are associated with the negative impact of x-rays on the menstrual cycle. Therefore, many women are afraid of this manipulation during menstruation.

In fact, all experiences are completely groundless. X-rays are directed exclusively to the area of ​​the gum where the root of the diseased tooth is located. The woman’s body, in particular the pelvis, is reliably protected by a special coating. The specialist takes the picture instantly; no radiation can cause harm in such a short period of time. Therefore, no contraindications or features of the use of this type of diagnosis during the period of regulation have been discovered to this day.

What is the danger?

Sometimes, even if you feel normal, dental treatment can be dangerous. This is due to all the changes occurring in the female body:

• The sensitivity of teeth increases, so without anesthesia a woman may experience severe pain
• Hormonal changes may cause rejection of a foreign object or substance, such as metal posts or filling material.
• Blood clotting is reduced, so serious manipulations, including tooth extraction, are contraindicated due to the risk of bleeding and increased likelihood of infection
• Fillings placed during menstruation change color faster

During menstruation, anesthesia is less effective.
Important! During menstruation, drug pain relief is less effective.

In addition, sometimes a woman rushes to the dentist if, on the eve of her period, she experiences aching pain, the location of which is difficult to determine. During PMS, the tissues swell, the fluid puts strong pressure on the jaw nerve endings, and the sensation may resemble an acute toothache.

In general, everything usually goes smoothly and without complications if you follow precautions.

Basic safety rules

To avoid possible negative consequences, it is advisable for a woman to make an appointment with a doctor in advance and schedule a visit to the dentist on a day when her period has not yet begun or has already ended.

However, no one is immune from sudden toothache or menstrual irregularities, and sometimes it is necessary to treat teeth during menstruation. How to protect yourself from complications?

• Be sure to warn the doctor about “these days” so that the dentist takes this fact into account when prescribing treatment
• The day before the intended treatment, you need to stop drinking alcohol and smoking, as well as coffee and energy drinks.
• Before visiting the doctor, you need to eat a hearty meal, but no later than 1-1.5 hours before
• If the need for treatment arises due to acute pain, you should not take painkillers on your own. If a woman does take an analgesic tablet, she must tell the doctor about it.
• Don’t take risks and treat teeth without anesthesia
• After dental procedures, you should immediately go home and remain calm. Hypothermia, overheating, physical activity, water procedures (shower, swimming pool, sauna, bathhouse) are strictly prohibited
• Be sure to follow your doctor's recommendations
• If pain, discomfort, or bleeding occurs within several hours after treatment, you should consult a doctor, unless he has warned you about the possibility of these symptoms
• The treatment site should not be touched with your tongue, much less with your hands.

You should not drink or eat food for some time after treatment

Immediately after treatment, you should refrain from drinking water and eating, even if the doctor did not give such instructions. Excessive mechanical irritation of the damaged area is useless, and leftover food can cause infection.

Folk remedies for pain relief

In order to wait for the end of your critical days as painlessly as possible and, as a result, a postponed visit to the dentist, you can use home methods designed to alleviate the symptoms of dental ailments. The following methods are recommended by many dentists:

• Rinse with saline and soda solutions. You need to boil water, cool it, add soda or salt at the rate of 1 teaspoon per glass, and rinse every one and a half to two hours. You need to continue the procedure for several days in a row until the painful symptoms completely disappear.
• Lotions with mumiyo. This product perfectly disinfects the oral cavity and relieves inflammation. The lotions can be applied to both the diseased tooth and the gums, and kept in the mouth for a maximum of 5 minutes. It is optimal to repeat the procedure every hour and a half, but no more than 10 times during the day.
• Chewing dry propolis or rinsing with an alcohol solution from this product. Action – analgesic, anti-inflammatory. Propolis has the unique property of “sealing” small cracks and holes in teeth.
• Tampons with essential oils (clove, fir). Apply a few drops of oil to a piece of cotton wool and apply to the disturbing area. Essential oils will improve your general condition and reduce pain.
• Rinse with decoctions of chamomile, calamus (root), calendula or sage. To do this, pour 20 grams of any of the herbs with 200 grams of boiling water; to enhance the effect, you can additionally boil the infusion in a steam bath. After preparation, strain the mixture, cool and rinse your mouth every hour.

These methods can be used at any period of menstruation, but should not be abused. At the end of menstruation, a woman must see a dentist.

If you can't postpone your visit

Even if the visit was scheduled in advance, it will have to be canceled if you feel unwell. It would be blasphemy to go to the dentist with general weakness, severe pain in the lower abdomen, nausea and fear. If a woman is horrified by the mere thought of pain relief, drilling and filling, she needs to call the clinic and cancel the visit.

Reference! Delaying treatment for 3-4 days cannot significantly affect the further course of treatment and the likelihood of complications.

However, there are situations that require an immediate visit to the doctor. This, for example, is severe pain that is not eliminated by pills, swelling of the cheek, abscess and other inflammations. In these cases, every hour counts, so the most reasonable solution is to come to the appointment and ask the doctor if it is possible to limit yourself to only a visual examination.

When can't you wait?

You should consult a dentist in any case if there is a need for it, but whether treatment will be carried out depends on the diagnosis. Dental procedures cannot be postponed in the following cases:

• Acute unbearable pain that is not relieved by painkillers
• Accumulation of purulent exudate in soft tissues (abscess, suppuration in dental canals)
• Swelling and swelling of soft tissues
• Heavy bleeding
• Swelling of the cheek on one side (flux)
• Cyst formation

In some cases, despite menstruation, it is necessary to see a dentist

In these cases, postponing treatment even by a day may no longer be timely. For example, if an abscess in the mouth opens inwards, the purulent contents can spill into the dental canals and penetrate into the bone tissue, causing blood poisoning.

Reference! It is advisable to visit a doctor even if you are planning a long trip or business trip in the near future, and there will be no opportunity to get an appointment with a dentist.

During the examination, it is necessary to inform the doctor about the problem and worries so that he can select the most optimal method of treatment and choose the right drug for pain relief.

Methods of dental treatment during menstruation

There are few methods of dental treatment as such. But even among them, not all are allowed during menstruation.

Sealing

Filling is the simplest and most common method of dental treatment. The doctor sees a small carious cavity and decides to remove it using a drill and close the resulting hole with filling material. The procedure is painless, quick, does not cause discomfort to the patient, and the tooth ultimately looks like new.

However, there are pitfalls here. During treatment, it may be discovered that we are talking about secondary or deep caries. Secondary caries develops under the installed filling and is not always visible to the naked eye. The doctor, starting to drill a tooth, suddenly discovers that the small carious cavity is enlarging, and a large lesion is visible under the old filling.

This is dangerous for the patient:

• Severe pain
• Possible need to clean out dental canals and remove nerves, i.e. apply anesthesia
• Risk of bleeding

For this reason, a tooth should be filled:

• If the doctor is sure that caries is superficial
• If you are experiencing severe acute pain
• * if acute complicated pulpitis is diagnosed

In the latter case, the dental canals are first cleaned and a temporary filling is installed, which is not prohibited during menstruation.

Prosthetics

One of the long-term processes of dental treatment is prosthetics. In this case, you can agree on a treatment schedule with your doctor.

Prosthetics is a multi-stage process that can take from several days to several months.

Without going into details, there are two types of prosthetics:

• Treatment and preparation of the tooth root for the installation of artificial crowns
• Complete tooth extraction followed by installation of metal pins or implants

The most complex and time-consuming are those types of prosthetics that involve the removal of tooth roots. In this case, treatment is strictly planned day by day, and changes, even minor ones, are extremely undesirable.

During menstruation, it is allowed to carry out any manipulations related to prosthetics (grinding, treatment, making impressions), except for the introduction of metal pins and implants, which can be rejected.

A decision is made on an individual basis to remove the cracked root, cyst or granuloma.

X-ray of a tooth

Many procedures are impossible without radiography. Moreover, with the help of an image, you can study in detail the location of the channels, detect inflammatory processes in deep tissues and select the most rational method of treatment.

X-rays are considered harmful, but they are safe during menstruation because the exposure lasts only a few seconds.

Teeth cleaning

Professional teeth cleaning - traditional or the more advanced AirFlow method - are completely safe and non-traumatic procedures that are carried out without the use of anesthesia.

There are no contraindications to their use during menstruation. The woman does not experience discomfort, her condition does not worsen and the risk of complications is zero.

Tooth extraction

Tooth extraction is the most controversial procedure regarding menstruation. Some experts advise postponing tooth extraction for several days, others insist on immediate intervention if there is no other option, the tooth hurts, and there is a risk of serious inflammation.

Important! It is necessary to remove teeth during menstruation only if the patient is experiencing severe pain. If this is a planned extraction and the tooth does not bother you, it is recommended to reschedule the operation.

What procedures are acceptable?

During menstruation, it is generally not recommended to perform surgical interventions in the oral cavity. When it comes to dental prosthetics, it is permissible in cases where the main large-scale and most invasive procedures have already been carried out (nerve removal, tissue preparation, installation of pins, gum retraction, implantation).

Without fear of harm to health, you can take impressions of the jaws, try on and adjust dentures, take x-rays, install braces, carry out fluoridation and remineralization, as well as treat superficial and initial caries.

On a note! Of course, if you go to the clinic to treat ordinary caries or carry out non-invasive procedures provided you are in good health, for example, professional hygiene, teeth whitening, nothing bad will happen. However, you need to be prepared for possible consequences: increased discomfort in the dentist’s chair, hypersensitivity of enamel and mucous membranes, bleeding gums during and after procedures.

Tooth extraction during menstruation

The decision to remove a tooth during menstruation is made jointly by the patient and the dentist. Usually the doctor relies on:

• Diagnosis
• Disease severity
• General condition of the patient and her well-being
• What manipulations need to be done

If a woman feels well, but the toothache is persistent, most likely the dentist will decide on surgical intervention. In this case, the doctor must observe safety measures: select the correct dose of pain medication, administer a drug that improves blood clotting, and carefully monitor the patient’s well-being.

After tooth extraction, you need to monitor the patient’s condition, measure her blood pressure and, if all is well, give the necessary recommendations and send her home.

Use of anesthetics

All surgical procedures are performed by Smile Line doctors using highly effective modern anesthetics. This guarantees the absence of pain during tooth extraction and makes the procedure as comfortable as possible.

Usually, when working with the first to fifth teeth, infiltration anesthesia is used. The dentist gives an injection, after which a separate area of ​​the oral cavity “goes numb” and becomes insensitive. If it is necessary to pull out the sixth, seventh or eighth molar, the roots of which are very large and deep, they resort to conduction anesthesia.

Ability to postpone deletion

The option to postpone deletion appears in several cases:

• The tooth does not hurt, does not bleed or is inflamed
• A woman feels unwell and complains of severe abdominal pain.
• The patient has low blood pressure
• The date of removal coincided with the first day of menstruation

It is better to postpone visiting a doctor during your period unless there is an urgent need for it.

In these cases, it is safer to wait 3-4 days rather than perform surgical procedures, which may be difficult for the girl.

If a patient comes to the clinic with acute pain, the doctor may recommend taking an Analgin or Ketanov tablet, or using folk remedies that relieve toothache (rinsing with a soda-salt solution, chamomile solution).

Briefly about implantation

This is a dental operation to implant artificial roots in place of lost teeth. Implants are installed using two-stage and one-stage treatment protocols. The classic method involves the implantation of titanium rods in two stages: first, installation of an implant, and six months later, prosthetics with crowns.

One-step protocols allow the installation of artificial roots with immediate loading of the prostheses. Treatment takes only a few days. These technologies are used simultaneously with the removal of a dental unit (simultaneous implantation), the loss of several elements, or in the complete absence of teeth (zygomatic, basal implantation, All-on-4 or All-on-6).