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Molar removal 24 hours ago but no sign of a blood clot

  • Thread starter TooManyFillings
  • Start date
T

TooManyFillings

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Joined
Apr 15, 2008
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42
Unfortunately my dentist is closed right now so I thought I'd ask about the following here.

24 hours ago I had my lower right rear molar removed (note, not the wisdom tooth, that was pulled years ago). All went well and while I'm understandably not pain free the pain isn't bad at all. It varies a bit but it's either mostly absent, very slight soreness or maybe a 4 or 5 out of 10 on occasion when it decides to have a quick throb or two (which can happen if I talk too much for example). I take painkillers occasionally.

I'm on Amoxicillin because there was some infection underneath the tooth (as initially revealed on a CT scan).

On the advise of my dentist, as of today I'm placing Chlorhexidine in my mouth 3 times a day (only twice to far today). Note the word 'placing' - I'm not rinsing it around, just letting it sit in my mouth for a minute then opening my mouth to get rid of it (so trying to avoid spitting as I understand that can also disturb any clot).

I'm on a liquid diet (Ensure Plus drinks, water and ginger tea), no solid foods, no chewing. In short, I'm being extremely careful, even when drinking.

I should note that some dissolving stitches were also placed on the inner and outer sides of the gum but not over the socket to seal it (so that it can drain if necessary).

I haven't looked at the extraction site until today. What I see is healthy pink tissue and some tiny, short white streaks which I understand from doing some googling are probably granulating tissue. Could even be edges of the stitches that I'm seeing.

My concern is that there's no sign of a blood clot, yet from all that I've read there should be a visible blood clot. It looks like the gum tissue has already closed up and into the socket, presumably at least partly due to the stitches and I guess some swelling?

Based on looking at photos online what I'm seeing is definitely not a dry socket. I'm just puzzled about the lack of a clot, yet reasonably healthy tissue instead.

I tried to take some photos but it's awkward as the tooth was at the rear and the camera won't focus on the socket.

Any thoughts pleased based on my description?
 
Last edited:
Sounds fine. Sometimes the clots are broken down earlier than others, it's never exactly the same for each individual in every area.
 
Thanks a lot for the reassuring words, I had just assumed that any clot would hang around longer than 24 hours. I can now rest easy and quit worrying. :)
 
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