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What You Need To Know About Weed Smoking and Oral Surgery
So, you are having your wisdom teeth removed or other serious dental surgery? However, you smoke weed for either recreational or medicinal use. The $1,000 questions are:
- Do I even have to stop smoking?
- When can I start smoking weed again?
I will answer the above question later in this article.
I am not Doctor and I do not even play one on TV. Therefore, this article is not giving you any recommendations, as its purpose is to guide you in the right direction;so, you can make your own educated decision.
What’s The Problem With Smoking Weed After Tooth Extraction?
Smoking tobacco or cannabis is not recommended right after wisdom teeth removal or any oral surgery as smoking anything right after oral surgery can hurt the healing process after a tooth extraction or getting your wisdom teeth pulled. The main reason for this is that smoking can limit blood flow to your gums, which will slow the healing. And the dry mouth associated with Cannabis use can also impede your recovery. The primary reason though why you need to stop smoking after wisdom teeth or any teeth extraction is because of the risk of getting a “Dry Socket.”
What is Dry Socket?
After oral surgery, like getting your wisdom teeth removed, blood clots should start forming at the area where your wisdom tooth was extracted. When you get Dry Socket, either the blood clot doesn’t occur, or the blood clot disappears before you are properly healed. It results in your nerves and bones being exposed to the elements. (Air, food, bacteria, etc.) You will feel intense pain where your tooth previously was, and also, the nerves on your face will likely be affected.
As you can imagine, it is excruciatingly painful and expensive as it can’t be cured with over the counter medicine. So, you will need to make an extra emergency visit to your oral surgeon, who will flush out the empty socket with water and then prescribe you antibiotics and pain killers. Your impatience in not waiting to smoke can result in severe pain and an increased delay in you being able to start up again.
Why Does Smoking Cause Dry Socket?
When you suck during smoking, the beneficial blood clot, in your empty tooth socket, is more likely to be dislodged. Also, the cottonmouth that is associated with weed can increase the chance of getting a dry socket or other complications.
Watch this video for more info on dry socket.
How Long Should You Wait To Smoke Weed After Tooth Extraction Or Any Type Of Oral Surgery?
Is Smoking Weed After Getting Wisdom Teeth Out Not Recommended?
Nirvana Dental’s website states that you should wait to start smoking after 72 hours at the very minimum. And according to the website, HelloMD, you should wait at least five days before either wisdom teeth removal or tooth extraction.
Are Edibles An Acceptable Alternative?
Edibles are better than smoking weed. However, the dry mouth side effects caused by marijuana are bad for your gums, which can result in the healing process after wisdom teeth removal being delayed.
What About Vaping After Wisdom Teeth Removal?
Vaping after tooth surgery is just as bad. The problem is that you are still sucking when you are inhaling.
Should You Not Smoke Weed Before Dental Surgery?
Unfortunately, the answer is yes, as THC has an adverse reaction on certain anesthesia (I.E., Propofol), where cannabis users will need higher doses than they usually would need if they were not to smoke. As a result, THC can either make your anesthesia ineffective, and you could even wake up mid-operation. Additionally, one study has shown that THC use, up to 72 hours before surgery, can increase your risk of tachycardia. (when your heartbeat goes faster than 100 beats per minute) Per the study, the reason for this was that marijuana somehow negatively reacts with anesthesia.
That more anesthetic is needed has been proven in a study in New Zealand that found that those cannabis smokers who were daily users needed more than twice the amount of propofol for procedures like colonoscopies. Also, other common anesthetic and medicine required cannabis smokers to use more anesthetic than non-cannabis smokers.
The number of days you should stop smoking cannabis before any surgery varies greatly from doctor to doctor. And it also depends upon how much you smoke. For example, an Oral Surgeon’s website states that you should stop cannabis for at least two weeks before you have your surgery. However, Harvard’s medical blog says that, at a minimum, you should not smoke the day you have surgery. Also, these recommendations include all types of marijuana use, including edibles.
The Great Unknown
As you likely already know, cannabis is labeled a schedule 1 drug, which means that the federal U.S. Government deems that cannabis is a drug of abuse and has no medicinal purpose. As a result of this ridiculous classification, it is nearly impossible to do any research concerning marijuana’s medical uses. Also, the lack of research means that the effects of marijuana and anesthesia cannot be researched. However, studies have shown that marijuana, and to a lesser extent, tobacco, has been proven to have adverse reactions to the most common forms of anesthesia.
Conclusion
Pre and Post Surgery
First of all, follow the advice of your Doctor. Also, if smoking soon after surgery is a big issue for you, look and see what the Doctor’s policy is concerning cannabis before you even see the Doctor. Therefore, if your Doctor seems extreme when it comes to smoking before surgery, you should perhaps look for a new doctor. I would though highly recommend that you tell the anesthesiologist that you do smoke. After the surgery, follow your Doctor’s advice. Notwithstanding, I would wait at least a week until after surgery to start with weed again.
Researching cannabis’s relationship with oral surgery both pre-surgery and post-surgery can be quite confusing. Concerning before surgery one oral surgeon says you shouldn’t smoke two weeks before surgery. However, Harvard’s medical school blog states that you shouldn’t smoke the day before or the day of surgery. And, to get even more confused a study showed that smoking weed within 72 hours before can increase the patient’s chance of having a serious heart condition. So, personally, I would follow my Doctor’s orders and err on the side of caution when it comes to smoking weed or tobacco.
FAQ
Smoking Weed Before And After Oral Surgery
Before Oral Surgery
Should I stop smoking weed before I have oral surgery?
Unfortunately, yes, you should stop smoking before you undergo wisdom teeth removal or even a simple tooth extraction. The problem is that that THC may result in you having to need more anesthesia. THC requires more anesthesia as if you do not get enough anesthesia you may wake up unexpectedly during surgery. To be safe, you should stop smoking weed at least two weeks before any surgery, which will knock you out. I.E. Propofol.
After Oral Surgery
When can I smoke weed after wisdom teeth removal?
The answer to how long you should quit smoking weed before getting your teeth pulled is not cut and dry, as my research has found various contradictory answers as I found times ranging from 72 hours to five days before either wisdom teeth removal or tooth extraction.
Miscellaneous
Dry Socket
Can you get dry Socket smoking weed after oral surgery?
Yes, smoking anything can reduce the chance of beneficial blood clots appearing, which in turn can cause the painful complication of dry socket to appear.
Vaping
Is it safe to start up vaping after wisdom teeth removal?
No, the sucking action of vaping weed or smoking anything is what can cause complications after oral surgery.
Precautions
Below are articles on what you should or should not do if you smoke weed.
