Hi,
I had my No. 1 tooth pulled on Wednesday morning. It had a bad cavity for a long time and had started bothering me again.
I had just novicaine and the pulling itself went pretty easy. There was a slight tear in my pallett, which along with the hole in my gums was repaired with three dissolving sitches. I went back on Friday (48 hours) for a follow up appointment and the doctor said everything was pink and healing nicely, he trimmed the end of the sutures and said to call if I had any problems or other questions.
I was proscribed amoxicilin, percocets and ibuprofen.
I am a smoker, but didn't smoke for the first two days, until I saw my doctor. After that, I had half of a cigarette (around the 50 hour mark), but haven't smoked since. Initially, I had some bleeding issues, because it took the entire first night for it to stop bleeding, but since then its been OK. I haven't been eating vigorously, after the first 24 hours, I started rinsing with a sea salt/water mixture after anything entered my mouth other than water.
Now that it has been almost 80 hours since I had the tooth pulled (3 1/2 days), I'm nervous because the gums are still really tender around the socket and I'm quite terrified of getting dry socket.
I guess my question is two-fold. 1. What is the time-frame for developing dry socket? 2. Are there cases of dry socket where the pain is dull and not excruciating like most people report?