Do not disturb the wound. Avoid rinsing, spitting, or touching the wound on the day of surgery. Some bleeding or redness in the saliva is normal for 24 hours. Excessive bleeding (your mouth fills up rapidly with blood) can be controlled by biting on a gauze pad placed directly on the bleeding wound for 30 minutes. If bleeding continues, please call for further instructions. Swelling is a normal occurrence after surgery. To minimize swelling, apply an ice pack, or a towel filled with ice on the cheek in the area of surgery.

By the age of 18, the average adult has 32 teeth. The top jaw, or maxilla, has 16 teeth, numbered #1-16. The mandible, or bottom jaw, also has 16 teeth, numbered #17-32. Each tooth in the mouth has a specific name and function. The teeth in the front of the mouth (incisors, canine, and bicuspid teeth) are ideal for grasping and biting food into smaller pieces. The back teeth (molar teeth) are used to grind food up into a consistency suitable for swallowing. The average mouth is made to hold only 28 teeth.

The inside of the mouth is normally lined with a special type of skin (mucosa) that is smooth and pink in color. Any alteration in this appearance could be a warning sign for a pathological process. The most serious of these is oral cancer. The following can be signs at the beginning of a pathologic process or cancerous growth: These changes can be detected on the lips, cheeks, palate, and gum tissue around the teeth, tongue, face and/or neck. Pain does not always occur with pathology, and curiously, is not often associated with oral cancer.