Dry socket or infection?

Dear Sirs,
my husband had hiss wisdom tooth extracted (left low) and after 2 days of pain he has been told that he has a dry socket. So a week passed by and the pain became worse so when he went back to the doctor his doctor told him that he has to do an X-ray. On the X-ray he said everything was ok. After some time of more pain he went back to the same doctor and now I could see that in the place of the hole (dry socket?) there was some kind of little pink swelling. So the doctor told him he has an infection and he should take antibiotics. He didnt take antibiotics, just rinsed with antiinflammatory herbs and after a week when he went back to that doctor he told him there is no more infection and everthing is ok and that next appointment should be after a month or so. So after some days my husband is in pain again and he returns to the same doctor and he tells sayd infection again and again antibiotics. So im worried first im confused can dry socket become infected ??? if so then maybe the infection came form the doctor himself since each time he is pushing something into his mouth. and how can I tell if he has an infection or dry socket? there is some pink swelling still in the place where a hole was....but its much smaller now....so what do you think? thanx a lot.

[Jerome Bogin, D.D.S.]

A dry socket usually occurs 2 to 3 days post extraction with acute pain. The treatment is packing the socket with a medication that will stimulate healing because the clot from the extraction has dissolvedfor some reason and that leaves a raw area which can be very painful. I do not treat that with antibiotics because I do not feel it is an infection in the true sense of the word. If in fact your husband has a clinical infection then I would want to know what the cause is, and then I could treat it appropriately.