Anyone ever had dry socket?

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#1 Post by **Clover** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 2:44 pm

I had a wisdom tooth and a first molar removed under general last Wednesday, and I think I've got dry socket. Has anyone ever had this that could tell me what it was like? I don't want to bother the hospital unnecessarily. I've got a throbbing pain like toothache, a horrible taste in my mouth and my breath stinks. I have an adjustment next week and my poor ortho will probably land flat on her back with her legs in the air as soon as I open my mouth!

Ah well, worse things happen at sea. That's what I get for not looking after it properly in the first place. I will happily provide lurid details if anyone would like to scare their children into better oral hygiene

#2 Post by ***boom!*** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 2:47 pm

I have never had it but I have had my wisdom teeth pulled and bad breath aside, the pain was pretty tough for a while. It's my understanding that dry socket causes pretty horrible pain.

#3 Post by **kay** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 2:53 pm

Hi Clover,

I got a mild case of dry socket. I understand it occurs when the blood that covers the hole gets dislodged, causing it to be open. The combination of food and air going down it causes immense pain. I took ibuprofen for a few days and went back to the dentist who filled it with some aniseedy tasting stuff. It helped loads and along with a couse of amoxicillin (excuse the spelling!?!?!), it was better in no time.

I will be making my dentist stuff it again with my next extraction on the coming Monday just incase it happens again! I think you should contact your dentist and get this done also.

#4 Post by **JoeMama** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 3:25 pm

Hi Clover - I had a dry socket and ended up at the emergency room because the pain was so intense. They gave me a heap of pain killers and packed the hole full of this cloth covered in some sort of medicine. I'm sure there are varying degrees though. Maybe you should phone your ortho and ask their opinion about what you should do. Hope you feel better.

#5 Post by **Clover** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 3:38 pm

Thanks very much for the replies guys. The pain isn't really that bad, so I expect I'm just being a bit neurotic. I have a follow up with my OS next Wednesday anyway, as it was quite a difficult extraction. I'll just keep on with the salt water rinses in the meantime. And I'll try and keep my skunk breath to myself!
By the way, when I said in my earlier post about not looking after it properly, I meant the tooth itself when I was younger, not the extraction site

#6 Post by **Jillianleab** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 7:20 pm

When I had my wisdom teeth removed I had really rank breath for a few weeks. I think it was partly from the blood and open tissue, then the stitches dissolving. When you go in for your follow up appointment they will probably give you a syringe to fill with water and flush out the extraction sites. You will be SHOCKED and DISGUSTED at how much food comes out of those little holes.... so if a bit of food got down there that could be causing the bad breath and pain too.

#7 Post by **Lucifina** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 8:34 pm

I had dry socket and it was the most horrific pain I have had in my mouth yet to date...I have yet to have my jaw surgery though

I had to be repacked every other day for a month and went through 5 refills of Vicodin!

It was THAT bad. It was like blinding pain when you have tears just streaming down your face. Not like you are crying it is just the pain. It was not healing either. It was not until I asked the receptionist for a copy of my records *I thinks they have a secret button under the desk that says uh oh they ask for their record* that they sent in the bad a$$ nurse who packed it sooo deep that it actually healed.

Turns out that not only did I have dry socket but the other nurses were not packing it deep enough so it just got worse!!! Anyway that is all behind me now but I will never forget the pain. The syringe thingy really does work for getting things out of the holes. Clove oil helps with mild pain too, as well as Anbesol. I found the Clove oil by the Anbesol at the drug store, my surgeon recommended it...along w/the Vicodin of course

Hope you feel better soon!

#8 Post by **Ruby Tuesday** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 12:30 am

You should definately do something about it, in case it gets worse. Be VERY careful with painkillers. I had so much pain after having molars extracted that I got very sick and even damaged my liver with all the painkillers I took. Also had follow up visits with the dentist.

Please get the pain looked into ASAP!

#9 Post by **Clover** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 2:44 am

Hi everyone, thanks again to you all for taking the time to reply. I'm really sorry that some of you have had such a bad time with your extractions, the pain sounds awful. My pain isn't bad at all, and I'm only taking paracetamol for it.
However, this morning the swelling came back, dum dum dum! I've called the hospital and they've asked me to go in later this morning (it's 9.30am here). I'll pop back on later and let you know how it went. This thread might be useful for other people with problem extractions.
By the way, if anyone is reading this who is about to have an extraction, please don't worry. I've had two before this one and had no problems at all with either of them, you'll be fine

#10 Post by **Clover** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 2:17 pm

Yay, tha pain and swelling have gone

! Before I go into what happened at the hospital, I want to explain that my extractions were related to my jaw advancement surgery, since this site is supposed to be about braces. I had an impacted wisdom tooth on the bottom right, and still have a partially erupted wisdom tooth on the bottom left. My OMS wanted both teeth to be out of the way before he does my BSSO, so out came the impacted wisdom tooth, which was lying horizontally. Rather than remove the healthy partially erupted wisdom tooth, he and my ortho decided to remove a root treated first molar instead, and use my brace to fill the space with the second and third molars. Pretty nifty eh!

The jury is still out on the cause of the problems I had this morning. The Dr I saw today expained that it could be dry socket, or a pocket of infection. He actually praised me for keeping everything so clean, so that was nice. He used a syringe filled with corsodyl to flush out the extraction site six times. It bled a little and stank a lot, but didn't really hurt. He offered to numb me up if it got too painful, but I found that it just stung a bit. He then packed the little crater with this funny brown stuff which tastes foul. He said not to worry if it comes out as it only needs to be in for 24 hours to work. He then gave me three day course of strong antibiotics just to be safe, and told me to call if I had any more problems. The surgeon who removed my wisdom tooth came along to see how I was doing, which was really nice. I got to thank her for doing such a good job. She and the other Dr were having a joke, as the OMS who is doing my BSSO extracted the molar, and that's the one I ended up having the problem with! I have no idea why I had two different surgeons doing a tooth each, I'm assuming the female Dr is in training or something. They both said that my OMS is really good, and very experienced in advancement surgery, so that was good to hear

Once again, if you're about to have an extraction and are worried after reading this post, please don't be. I've had other extractions with no complications, and the Dr said the only reason I had trouble with this one was because it was so difficult. Even if you do have problems, I hope my post shows how easily they can be treated. One thing I've learned from this, if in doubt, call and ask. Everyone I spoke to today couldn't have been any nicer, and calling in was the right thing to do