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Dressing for dry socket

M

meridae

Junior member
Joined
Jun 4, 2013
Messages
1
So having successfully gotten through some major dental work (two extractions and around seven fillings - thank goodness for sedation) I'm now stressing and angsting about the healing.

After increasing pain from the extraction site of my lower right wisdom tooth, I went back to the dentist today (having nobly resisted the urge to just amputate my head - long weekends and dental pain do NOT mix) and was told I had dry socket. The dentist rinsed the socket and put in a medicated dressing (that tastes FOUL but is better than the pain!) and ahhh, relief. He said that I don't need to go back to have it changed and that it will dissolve???

Is this right? And what happens if it comes out? (I'm so paranoid about it coming out - I mean the clot came out, right, what's to stop the dressing falling out). Do I go back and get another one put in? How long does the dressing actually need to be in there for? He said dry socket takes about ten days to heal, so do I have to hope it stays in there that long, or does it do it's thing in a day or two and then it doesn't matter if it stays in there or not? How does this dressing thing work? Am I supposed to continue with the salt rinses?

So confused! I keep having a look in the mirror and have to resist the urge to poke at the dressing cos it looks like it's coming out. Must not fiddle with it!

(So glad the treatment is over and was mostly problem free despite years of neglect).

(Must also say that this site really helped me work out just what scares me about the dentist - I even realised I'm more frightened of having fillings than extractions!)

Ta!

Meri:grin:
 
I got lost in that blizzard of questions sorry :)

The dressing stuff has already done most of its work, it slowly releases the medication into the area, then breaks down. Your clot didn't just fall out, it didn't form properly in the first place.

You can carry on with the salt rinses if you really want to.

Is that everything?
 
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