• Dental Phobia Support

    Welcome! This is an online support group for anyone who is has a severe fear of the dentist or dental treatment. Please note that this is NOT a general dental problems or health anxiety forum! You can find a list of them here.

    Register now to access all the features of the forum.

Dry Socket Diary

H

Hunter73

Junior member
Joined
Sep 20, 2017
Messages
18
So, I have the dreaded dry socket and I thought it might be useful to people to read about the healing time and how it happened because it seems to be something people fear more than anything. Here is the story so far and a bit of information about me:

I am a woman, I am 43 and I do not smoke.

Six days ago (Thursday) I had my upper right wisdom tooth extracted under local anaesthetic. It took over an hour to extract and one of the roots broke off. The moment the anaethetic wore off I was in a lot of pain and had no sleep but I assumed this was because the extraction had been traumatic. Pain meds: None Pain scale: 6/10

On the second day, the pain was bad enough to need a combination of paracetamol and ibuprofen and I went to work as usual even though I was tired, I thought I would only be suffering for one day. Pain meds: 4 doses of 1000 mg paracetamol and 3 doses of 400mg ibuprofen. Pain: 5/10

On the third day, the pain seemed to subside and was more manageable. Pain meds: 4 doses of 1000 mg paracetamol and 3 doses of 400mg ibuprofen. 5/10

On the fourth day (Monday), I had to leave work early because I was in agony and my face was starting to swell slightly. I went straight to the dentist, I did not wait for an appointment, I just parked myself in his waiting room. Thankfully, my dentist saw me quickly. He cleaned out the socket with a little syringe and prescribed antibiotics (augmentin) which I started to take that evening. He did not pack the socket as he said it was just an infection. That night, I was in too much pain to sleep despite taking ibuprofen and paracetamol. Pain meds: 4 doses of 1000 mg paracetamol and 3 doses of 400mg ibuprofen. Pain: 8/10

On the fifth day (Tuesday), I was in too much pain and too tired to go to work so I took the day off. I did not go back to the dentist as I was waiting to see whether the antibiotics had any effect. Pain meds: 4 doses of 1000 mg paracetamol and 3 doses of 400mg ibuprofen. Three applications of clove oil. Pain: 8/10

So here we are on the 6th day (Wednesday). I have been back to the dentist so he can check the socket. It is feeling better and no longer needs a combination of pain killers. I managed on paracetamol only throughout most of the day. He said it looks much better but has a little dry socket. I am hoping to taper off the pain killers as I do not like to take them long term especially ibuprofen. Pain meds: 4 doses of 1000 mg paracetamol, 2 doses of 400mg ibuprofen (one of which was at bed time). Pain: 6/10

I'll keep this thread updated because one thing I'm having difficulty finding is information on how long this will take to heal, how much pain people are in and how their dry socket is being treated. I am finding that I cannot function without pain killers and I am not a person who takes pills frequently. My socket is also not packed. I don't want to ask the dentist to pack it as it seems as though it's started to heal a little and I read that packing can slow it down so we'll see. :)
 
I forgot to add that I have been using Corsodyl twice a day to clean the socket and salt water rinses less regularly.
 
It's day 7 and the dry socket feels a lot better. I ate my first textured food for a week today and was able to function on three doses of 100mg of paracetamol. I'm hoping to stop the pain killers completely tomorrow because the pain has diminished a lot. The hole also seems to be closing well. Pain: 3/10 Pain killers: 3 doses 100mg paracetamol 1 dose of 400mg ibuprofen at bedtime. I am on the fourth day of Augmentin.
 
OK so it's Monday and it's been 1days since the upper right wisdom tooth came out. I stopped the antibiotics on Saturday and the socket still feels sensitive and a little painful at times. I hope all the infection has gone because the dry socket is definitely healing over and I would be so upset if I needed anymore antibiotics. I have another follow up appointment tomorrow so I'll update again then.
 
It's been a month and the socket has healed over now. There is no more pain, just a bit of gumminess where the tooth was.
 
OK so it's Monday and it's been 1days since the upper right wisdom tooth came out. I stopped the antibiotics on Saturday and the socket still feels sensitive and a little painful at times. I hope all the infection has gone because the dry socket is definitely healing over and I would be so upset if I needed anymore antibiotics. I have another follow up appointment tomorrow so I'll update again then.

Oops by one day I mean one week. o_O
 
Back
Top