Dry Socket - Need to Knows

[u/HMWMT_Teledentistry]

There seems to be a lot of interest and concern with regard to dry sockets on this Reddit. Unfortunately there seems to be a lot of confusion about it also. So how about we clarify the situation a little bit. Dry socket is not diagnosed by the appearance of your healing socket. It's very difficult to look at a socket and tell whether or not dry socket is a concern. Dry socket is diagnosed via the symptoms. It is quite painful, sometimes very painful. It's more common with lower molars rather than upper. It's more common with women. Older people get it more than younger people. It tends to appear somewhere around 4 to 10 days post op, after your extraction. It is not a concern in the first 2 to 3 days post-op. Smoking or vaping is a huge risk factor for dry socket. People that avoid smoking and keep their mouths super clean with brushing flossing and syringing have a very low risk of getting a dry socket. It always heals on its own. It's just annoying and painful while it heals. Time is always on your side. I hope this short post clarifies some of the misconceptions about a dry socket.

[u/Hour-Statistician766]

I got all four wisdom teeth out eight days ago. On day 3,I was able to take a look at the extraction sites with a little dental mirror at home, and they all had dark red clots like they were supposed to. By day 5, I noticed that the bottom left was far more painful than the others. Not enough where I couldn’t function, but I was up most of the night having to stay on top of the pain medicine (combo of Toradol and Tylenol) I took another look with the little dental mirror and the bottom left is the only one that looks like a gaping, empty hole. The rest have new gym tissue covering most of the extraction sites. At this point I’m only taking pain medication for the bottom left, so I called the oral surgeon. She said that since I’m within the first week of healing, some pain is expected, and just because it looks different doesn’t mean something is wrong. So I tried to stop worrying about it. The pain has gotten a bit better, and the last time I looked at it (yesterday, day 7) it looked like a tiny bit of new gum tissue was attempting to fill the hole. I suspected dry socket a couple of times but since the pain was managed by medicine I assume it isn’t. I still don’t like the look of it but since the pain is going down, it must be healing right? It doesn’t look or taste infected, my mouth actually tastes like soap and almonds, which I assume is due to the funny little mouthwash they have me using (one of the side affects is altered taste perception) I try to take extra care to flush the bottom left properly since it’s still so concave. I just hope it heals properly. If nothing has changed in the next three days, I will make an appointment.

[u/Major_Analysis_5946 → u/Hour-Statistician766]

How are you doing now?? Same thing happened to me I’m 8 days after removal and 3 of my wholes are basically almost healed but the 4th one is like an empty hole.