dry socket for over 3 weeks

[jujusmommy]

I had a tooth pulled 1/11, and have had dry socket ever since. I went back to my dentist 2-3 days after he pulled the tooth, and he packed it. 2 days later I went back and he referred me to an oral surgeon, who packed every other day until last monday. I got sick of no progress, (they said my bone is still exposed) no relief from the pain, and nobody knowing what to do. I decided to go back to my dentist, who took x-rays to make sure the root was gone and to check for problems in the surrounding teeth. He didn't find anything, so me put me on antibiotics, which by the way the oral surgeon said was useless. the dentist also said the packings the oral surgeon insisted on could be impeding (??) the healing. I asked him to pack it anyway, I am not comfortable with my bone being exposed with nothing covering it. I have an appointment tomorrow with the dentist to have the packing changed once again, (had it changed thursday, no progress) and I don't know what to do.

Should I go see the dentist, go back to the oral surgeon, or find someone else? I read a posting on here about a girl who had her bone scraped to make the socket bleed and start the healing over, whick makes since, but she didn't post anymore so I don't know what happened. When I mentioned it to the dentist he looked at me like I had lost my mind and said he never heard of such thing.

It still hurts, but not constantly. Occasional throbbing and shooting pains, and agony if the teeth around it come in contact with each other, which really sucks at night, because I am a clencher. any advice would be appreciated.

[Jerome Bogin, D.D.S.]

Are you sure that this discomfort is from the dry socket? This is an a long time to have a dry socket. My experience is that the pain is acute, the socket is packed every day for 2 to 3 days and the socket then heals. I think that the the pain would be more acute and longer lasting. It is possible that it is healing. Has the other teeth in the surrounding area been checked? I don't know if going to someone else would do any good, but I have heard of the procedure to currette the socket.

[mike1105]

an oral surgeon is best suited for this situation. ask him or her why it is not healing and what else can be done. scraping the bone to start bleeding and start the clotting process over is a common method of resloving this problem. if you smoke, and you continue to smoke during this situation, then you are the problem, not the dentists who are trying to help you. if you are not smoking, and you are not getting the proper answers or progress, then see a different oral surgeon.

[mike1105]

an oral surgeon is best suited for this situation. ask him or her why it is not healing and what else can be done. scraping the bone to start bleeding and start the clotting process over is a common method of resloving this problem. if you smoke, and you continue to smoke during this situation, then you are the problem, not the dentists who are trying to help you. if you are not smoking, and you are not getting the proper answers or progress, then see a different oral surgeon.

[mike1105]

ps--- antibiotics are indeed useless if your problem is strictly a dry socket. I would ask your dentist specifically why they were prescribed. unless there is evidence of infection it does not make sense.

[jujusmommy]

I do not smoke, and he did say the socket looked infected. Actually, I think his exact words were "I think your bone is infected" then he put me on amoxocyillin (??) I think I will go back to the oral surgeon tomorrow instead of going back to him. I'll ask him about the bone scraping stuff. Sounds painful, but I can't go on like this.

Thanks.

[mike1105]

you should see an oral surgeon, and your dentist should refer you to one.

[Teresa780]

I had my wisdom tooth removed in October of 2005.  It was an impacted lower wisdom tooth. I had dry socket a few days after the extraction.  He started putting a patch over the hole and said I still had bone exposed.  He kept putting the patch over the hole twice a week until about a week before christmas.  It started aching immediately after he took the patch off.  The pain got worse but, I dealt with it until around the first week in January, 2006.  He started putting the patch over my hole again twice a week.  I can tell when the medication from the patch is wearing off because it starts aching and throbbing.......not consistently.  I don't know if I should go to see someone else or what I should do at this point.

[mike1105]

another opinion can't hurt.

[ouchmytoothhurts]

Seek another opinion, put your foot down and insist on a timely resolution. My oral surgeon told the same thing about my dry socket.  2 weeks in excruciating pain was all I could take- I had been on antibiotics for the entire time and they did not help.  The "dressings" they were putting in were minimally helpful at best.  On the 14th day of agony I scheduled an appointment to have the tooth next to it extracted (I knew going in to this that the two teeth had problems- they were reccomending a root canal and a crown on the other one because the tooth was cracked).  

He did not suggest or reccomend it- nor was he particularly thrilled to do it.  The second tooth came out easily (unlike the first one).  Then he scraped away some soft bone that didn't look right from the area between the two extracted teeth that he "miraculously" discovered - the stuff tasted nasty - and viola!  Pain went from a 10 to a 3 or 4 after the novicaine wore off.  I now have two fat clots (one in each extraction site)and the gum is closed more on day 3 after the 2nd surgery than it was after 2 weeks after the first.

I am taking antibiotics like they are candy- foul stuff is still seeping out of the area- but my so called dry socket is no more.  I suspect you have something else brewing.  Don't know what they call the procedure where they clean out the extraction site to make it bleed again- but I would be insisting on it.

[ouchmytoothhurts]

This is from http://www.doctorspiller.com/extractions.htm
Sequestrii
"Whenever a dentist extracts a tooth, it requires that the bone that used to hold the tooth be expanded, or sometimes even fractured to allow the tooth to slip out of the socket.  Most of the time, these fractures are of the type known as "greenstick" fractures which means they are only partial fractures immediately around the top of the socket leaving the bone fragments still attached to the main body of the bony structure beneath.  In some instances, these greenstick fractures coalesce to release a bone fragment completely from the underlying bony structure.  Even when this happens, the bone fragments tend to heal and reattach to the main body of the bone during healing.  

In the oral cavity, however, the presence of oral bacteria, as well as noxious chemicals from the foods we eat and cigarettes we smoke can cause the healing to cease.  This is what causes dry sockets.  Bony fragments that do not heal properly often loose their blood supply and become "necrotic" (dead tissue).  Thus, the body begins the process of ejecting them from the healing socket, a process known as sequestration.  The process can be painful, and sometimes requires the dentist to reenter the socket to remove the sequestrum.  When the sequestrum comes out on its own, the patient often mistakes this piece of bone for a piece of tooth that the dentist left in the socket.

Sequestrii are a normal complication of extractions.  They are often unavoidable, and undetectable at the time of the extraction.  They are not considered to be a mistake the dentist made.  Once the sequestrum is gone, the healing resumes, the pain subsides and all is well."

[marine2822]

I had my two bottom wisdom teeth pulled two days ago, and before going back to the dentist, I was wondering if it is normal to have pain from the extractions. Because I was told about dry socket and according to the research I've done it starts about 3 days after the surgery. Or if there was anything I could do myself to treat it rather than going back to the dentist.

[awdrg]

hello i love weed and i just had my wisdom teeth pulled 11 hours ago and in about 17 hours my friend is thowing a huge party will smoking really cause a dry socket what are the chances.

i have thought about rolling a joint and smoking threw the nose or making brownies but i would rahter smoke threw my mouth please does any one know the chances on getting a dry socket??????????????????????????????????????????????

[Timaww]

I had a right 'rear-most' molar removed 7 days ago. Pain started to go away by 4 days after surgery. By day 5 I am detecting a really foul odor in my mouth and my site looks like it's closing up but it's oozing and hurts. I am going to try to see the doc tomorrow but do infections where your wisdom tooth used to be hurt? I have visible swelling as of yet.
Thanks,
Tim

[jaydalove]

I am posting this to hopefully gets some advice. I had all four of my wisdom teeth pulled on March 30th and I was wide awake. The upper two came out very easily! The bottom two did not. Especially the bottom left. He had to break it in pieces and dig it out. Well, on the third day I got dry socket on both the bottom two. It was horrible! I of course went back in to the dentist for several packings. I have not seen an oral surgeon once. I did however see several different dentists because my dentist went on vacation. Each dentist I saw had a different idea on how to treat my problem. One told me he never saw a hole so big! I had so many packings I don't remember how many. I know the last one I got was on thursday April 20th. Since then I still have pain mainly on the left bottom one. The hole is very big. The pain is not like before and I did think it was starting to heal. However, now the pain is pretty constant(left side) and it's swelling again. Also, my jaw is hurting badly. I cannot open my mouth very big or chew on that side which I was able to do before. I called the dentist office this afternoon and she said it's just the normal healing process. Is that what it is? It feels very different to me. The right one is not like that. Also, again the hole is still very big. I have to irragate it after every time I eat. When there is stuff in the hole, it can be excruciating!!! Is it ok to have this large hole completly exposed? I have now lost 8 pounds from this because of not being able to eat solid foods. I cannot afford to lose any weight! Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.