Day one, and the first six hours
Oozing for several hours is normal and is not the same as bleeding. Firm, continuous pressure on folded gauze is what stops it, and the usual mistake is changing the gauze every few minutes to check. Bite down and hold for a full thirty minutes before looking. A damp black tea bag works in place of gauze if you run out; the tannins help the clot organise.
Ice does more for day two than anything else you do on day one. Twenty minutes on, twenty minutes off, against the cheek over each surgical site, for the whole of the first day. Cold applied after the swelling has already formed does very little, which is why the window matters.
Take the first dose of analgesia before the local anaesthetic wears off rather than waiting for discomfort to arrive. Staying ahead of it takes less medication than catching up to it. Eat cold and soft, sleep with the head elevated on two pillows, and use no straws, no smoking and no rinsing at all for the first twenty-four hours.
Days two and three: the swelling peak
Most people expect the day after surgery to be an improvement on the day of surgery, and it is not. Swelling builds for roughly 48 to 72 hours before it turns, so day two or day three is the worst of it. Bruising along the jawline and down the neck may appear at the same time, and yellow-green discolouration a few days later is the bruise resolving, not an infection.
Jaw stiffness peaks alongside the swelling, because the muscles that close the jaw sit directly over the surgical field and object to being retracted. Opening may be limited to a couple of finger-widths at its worst, and it eases over the following week. Gentle opening and closing several times a day helps; forcing the jaw wide against resistance does not, and neither does keeping it shut.
This is the point at which warm compresses replace ice, and at which a warm saline rinse — a teaspoon of salt in a cup of water, allowed to fall out of the mouth rather than spat — starts to help. Most patients return to desk work on day three. Physical work and exercise wait longer, because raising the blood pressure raises the chance of restarting the bleeding.
Days four to seven
From day four the direction of travel should be consistent: less swelling each morning, more opening, less need for analgesia, and a wider diet. Most patients are off prescription analgesia and managing on over-the-counter medication by day four or five.
The one deviation to take seriously is pain that had been improving and then sharply worsens, usually between day three and day five, often radiating towards the ear and accompanied by a bad taste. That is the pattern of a dry socket, and it is treated in a short visit rather than waited out.
Fever above 38°C, swelling that starts growing again after day three, difficulty swallowing, or pus discharging from the site are the signs of infection rather than ordinary healing. Any of them warrants a call the same day.
Week two onward, and what is still healing
Sutures dissolve over one to two weeks. Some fall out earlier, which is not a problem in itself — the gum edges have usually adapted by then. Exercise typically resumes at about a week, building back rather than restarting at full intensity.
The socket itself closes over at the surface during the second and third weeks. Underneath, bone fills the space over three to six months, which is why a lower third molar site can still feel slightly different months later and why an implant plan waits on the same clock.
Food packing into a lower socket is common through weeks two to four. A gentle irrigating syringe, supplied at the post-operative visit, clears it without disturbing the healing tissue. Poking at the site with anything rigid does the opposite.