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I can't see my blood clot...

K

Kuu

Junior member
Joined
Apr 2, 2016
Messages
3
Exactly two days ago now I had my upper right wisdom tooth removed after it had grown infected. Bleeding has more or less tapered off and, apart from the nasty taste in my mouth when I wake up first thing in the morning (a mixture of blood and the salt water rinse from the night before - yuck!) everything seems to be alright.

But...I can't see the blood clot in the extraction site. I'm not sure if I can even SEE the extraction site. I didn't have this issue with the lower wisdom teeth, and the upper left (which I had removed about three years ago) I think I could see the clot too. But not this one. I am obviously hesitant to probe the area too much with my tongue to see if that reveals anything in case I dislodge it by accident if it's still there.

I'm not experiencing any pain - at least for the moment - but I am extremely worried about this. How soon after losing the blood clot does the pain kick in for dry socket? It's the weekend so I can't really bother my dentist with this unless I start experiencing agony, but it's very worrying. Prior to extraction this one caused me some horrific migraines and I'm not eager to repeat the experience...
 
I wouldn't worry too much about yet, as it was a top molar and you aren't experiencing much pain. Bottom molars are far more likely to have dry socket and other issues (going through it myself!). I had a top wisdom tooth and bottom molar/wisdom tooth ("mutant tooth") removed a week ago. I can't see the top one very well, either, and I also could not see the clot. I had to have my husband look. My top one is absolutely fine and healing well!

Don't poke at it, just leave it be. My dry socket for my bottom tooth set in pretty much immediately once the numbing wore off, and really peaked on days 2 and 3. If you have a dry socket, you'll know. It radiates pain to your ear, jaw, adjacent teeth, it throbs, and no pain medicine makes it stop. Don't worry about it too much if you feel good right now, you're probably okay, but I wouldn't say you're completely out of the woods. Just wait it out, take your pain medication (if you have any), clean it, and let it be. That's really all you can do. Hope this helps!
 
If the pain comes on immediately once the clot falls out, that means it's probably still there...or it might even have healed over; that'd be nice! I've been using salt water after meals to keep it clean, and ibuprofen for any swelling, since I wasn't given any pain medication or anything. Hopefully it'll be OK. I hope you feel better soon too!
 
No pain yet, but I just had a sudden rush of blood from the extraction site...I think the clot fell out. I had a fresh one in it when I woke up this morning, but that fell out pretty early on during the day. I used the piece of gauze my dentist gave me and the bleeding stopped after a couple of minutes, but I'm not sure if that means anything.

I'm starting to panic more than a little about this - since I can't see the extraction site I can't tell if there is any clot left, and I'm pretty sure it won't have healed this soon, as it's only been 72 hours.
 
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