Can I Smoke Weed After Getting a Tooth Pulled?

A toothache can be painful and sometimes a tooth extraction is the best way for relief. What’s not so relieving is the confusion around tooth removal and smoking weed. 

If you just had your surgery, be careful about blazing a joint, let alone chewing on edibles. There are a few things that you need to learn to protect your vulnerable teeth, especially after a wisdom tooth removal.

What Happens After A Tooth Extraction?

So, you might be advised for a tooth extraction for reasons like an accident, infection, or the traditional ingrown wisdom tooth. The procedure for a tooth extraction is nearly identical, and almost never hurts under anesthesia. After your oral surgeon has removed your tooth and cleaned the gum, a pool of blood will form in the newly developed socket. This is important for healing and avoiding a dry socket. The blood clots and provides the necessary healing environment for a bone to be laid later for a dental implant. 

It is extremely important to protect the clot and prevent it from dissolving early. For this reason, your oral surgeon might restrict you from consuming certain things, but cannabis comes under a gray area because of its healing properties, and almost everyone can agree it helps with physical pain.

How Does Smoking Weed Affect A Dry Socket?

A dry socket or in medical terms, alveolar osteitis is a treatable condition that can form after a tooth extraction. After your dentist removes the tooth, blood rushes to the empty socket and forms a clot to cover the exposed nerves and bone. A dry socket forms when this clot prematurely dissolves or is removed by accident. You can easily notice this, if there’s a bone exposed where your tooth once was. 

It goes without saying, you should take extra care post surgery and this is why doctors advise not to use a straw, brush or even smoke. But smoke or not, you’re already inhaling and exhaling, so what difference does it make?

Smoking tobacco causes vasoconstriction. For people who are high, in simpler terms, it narrows your blood vessels, so it can increase the chances of getting a dry socket. But there isn’t enough medical research to say that smoking cannabis causes this condition, at least in parts other than the brain.   

It’s the secondary actions and effects of smoking weed after a tooth extraction that can adversely affect your healing stage.

• Heat

Naturally smoking cannabis means you’re puffing hot smoke, which can slow down and damage the clotting process. Avoid any source of excessive heat from reaching your affected area like hot drinks and marijuana

• Inhaling Action

The inhaling action for a normal cigarette, joint or vape creates a sort of sucking into a narrow opening like a cigarette filter, similar to a straw; this creates a pressure inside your mouth where the gums feel a slight pressure which can cause an unease in the clotting and contribute to dry sockets.

It isn’t worth putting your recovery at risk for a little puff. Avoid smoking weed for at least the first 24 hours and keep yourself hydrated.

When Can You Smoke Weed After A Tooth Extraction?

After your tooth extraction, the wound needs enough time to develop a clot. In most cases this is from 24–72 hours but can take longer. Smoking weed isn’t necessarily destructive for the blood clot, it is the heat and puffing action that can slow down the clotting. The socket needs a constant blood supply and later, enough time to develop a clot and the sucking action can easily dislodge the clot within the first 24 hours. 

Don’t get it confused, you can’t smoke for a little time, but you can totally use cannabis in other forms and with cannabis dispensaries around the corner, you can almost certainly find something that has a healing nature like this CBD Tincture. If you’ve never used tinctures before, this might be a good time to give these effective THC oils a chance and see the difference.

Using Marijuana for Medical Benefits

This might be a surprise, but smoking weed has many benefits and the medical industry has tapped into the potential of marijuana as a pain reliever. According to researchers, weed or more specifically, certain extracts can help with neural pain. 

But, how can weed help with my pain from tooth extraction?

After your tooth removal, the anesthesia will slowly wear off and you will feel pain around the new socket. The dentist might prescribe you painkillers, and most are some form of opioids that stop the pain signals from reaching your brain. Repetitive use of these can result in addiction and harmful side effects. To avoid this, you can use marijuana and CBD extract from the hemp plant. 

This extract is already being used by millions for chronic pain and has proven benefits, especially for people who can’t use certain medicines due to health risks. 

If you’re thinking about the best way to consume weed minus the heat and smoke, there are a few variations that work just as well or even better as you can travel with these in small quantities complying with the law. 

Edibles

If you’re a stoner, this isn’t the first time you’ve heard of edibles. They come in your favorite flavors and sizes with hemp extracts that are beneficial for pain. There is a range of products you can choose from like these boost edibles that contain 10 mg CBD or these cola gummies that use a THC extract and chocolates. What? Never had cannabis chocolate?

CBD

CBD or Cannabidiol works wonders in medical marijuana. It has no dependence potential, isn’t addictive, and does not repress human behaviors, and the WHO supports this claim. It is an active ingredient in cannabis among the hundreds found. 

You can get CBD capsules that affect the receptors and reduce pain. There is a range of capsules that are available with different dosages. They are not as quick acting as puffing weed, but they surely help with pain.

CBD Tinctures 

CBD tinctures are similar to oil tinctures but are extracted using alcohol, preventing any oxidation. You’ll find them mixed with some kind of oil in most cases. CBD tinctures are easy to use. They can be used as ordinary oil, for most effective use, take a dropper, and place a few drops under your tongue for at least 30 seconds and don’t swallow it instantly. If you digest it, the effect will take a few hours to start. You can use a hybrid tincture that has CBD and THC for an effective dose.

Takeaways

A toothache hurts like a kick in the gut, but what hurts more is not being able to smoke weed after a tooth extraction. You shouldn’t smoke weed for a few days after your tooth extraction or even attempt some DIY protection with gauze for a few puffs.  

This doesn’t mean you have to give up on cannabis. There are other forms that you can consume and get a kick (not the one in the gut) or a little high. Don’t forget to consult your oral surgeon on these things and opt for edibles, if you have a cannabis craving. 

For now, keep your stash safe and save your finest rolls for later. If you ran out of them, you can always get these premium pre-rolled packs

Taki Taki

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