After dental procedures involving anesthesia, it is common to experience numbness in the mouth. This numbness is caused by the anesthetic's effects on the nerves in the mouth and usually wears off within a few hours. However, there are some things you can do to help speed up the process of regaining sensation in your mouth.
One of the most effective ways to unnumb your mouth after the dentist is to rinse your mouth with warm salt water. The salt water helps to draw out the anesthetic from the tissues in your mouth and can also help to reduce any swelling or inflammation. To make a salt water rinse, dissolve one teaspoon of salt in eight ounces of warm water. Rinse your mouth with the salt water for 30 seconds, then spit it out. You can repeat this process several times a day until the numbness in your mouth has subsided.
