new here, and bloody scared for friday Aug 24th!

[gapmouthgirl]

hmmmmm........ wondering if the clot came out prematurely on the upper wisdom tooth site........ seems there is a bit of a hole there now where the clot used to cover completely. noticed this when i came home from work and checked my healing with my little mirror and flashlight (yeah, i'm fascinated by the healing process! lol).

no pain though, so dry socket is not really crossing my mind. tomorrow morning will be 5 days post extraction, so could it just be the clot has done it's work and a majority of it has now fallen out/off? i can't see any jaw bone there, still a dark black/red spot, just further in the hole than it used to be.

 

[fireandice1000]

It's good to see that you made it through. Your story sounds like quite a journey to me. You aren't far from me in age (probably older, actually) so this gives me hope. I might have to have my wisdom teeth removed in the future and it worries me a bit.

 

[carole]

Dry socket usually happens within the first 72 hours, so I think you will be fine. No pain or swelling = no need to stress You sound like you are doing really well.

 

[gapmouthgirl]

no pain at all, and just a bit of swollen gums still in the area, with the very infrequent tenderness. when i ride my bike to work i can feel my pulse throbbing/beating in that area of my jaw after, lol! then again, i go like hot snot on my bike, because i like the exhilaration of it

fireandice, i'll be 32 in not too long here. some days i feel 18, some 68. lol. today is a 'mid twenties' sort of day. i feel good! discovered yesterday that i've lost nearly 20 pounds since the start of summer, just by riding my bike. yay me!

carole, i agree, i don't think it's dry socket at all. i'm pretty sure i'd be banging my head against the wall in pain by now (24 hours after i discovered the 'less clot' situation) if it was. can't wait until i can brush my whole mouth though! been avoiding the whole back half on the left, don't want to hurt myself. the salt water rinses are sufficing, but it really is a mental workout to not move my toothbrush to that area!

 

[gapmouthgirl]

about ready to snip these dang stitches out!!! lol. one on the bottom jaw is loose and floppy now, and annoying the heck out of me much of the time. now that the swelling has gone down some more on the top jaw, the stitches up there look like something from a frankenstein movie, lol, criss-crossing the holes like little tight ropes that are not so tight any more. they said they are dissolvable, so i do hope they come out soon on their own, or else i will be taking them out myself. but then again, that will leave me with nothing to fiddle with when i'm bored, lol.

 

[carole]

I am glad you are doing so well, and you are doing well.

 

[gapmouthgirl]

whoever invented dissolvable stitches...... i'd like to have a word with you........ they don't dissolve all that great! lol.

the stitch on the bottom came out last night finally! yay! i was fiddling with it and felt it come loose on one side. gently tugged it out with tweezers and happy that it's gone. didn't even feel the stitch coming out, totally painless. my bottom extraction site is healed up so much that i cannot tell a wisdom tooth (well, what was left of a tooth) had been there a week ago now. the top stitches are still hanging on, but i think they'll be soon out too, i keep flicking one of them with my tongue and it's getting looser and looser by the day. healing up there is above and beyond textbook, and i'm happily eating just about anything now. avoiding most super crunchy things though, i don't want to poke the gums and make them sore.

yes folks, i did call my dentist yesterday, to make sure it was ok to take the stitches out myself. i would never have done so without giving them a call first.

 

[gapmouthgirl]

ahhhhh........ three of four stitches gone now. just flicked the third loose one free and got it out. thank jeebus! lol. they were getting so annoying. just one left at the upper wisdom site, but it's tucked in there good and i can barely feel it with my tongue. no more loose thread mouth, yay!

one thing i'm finding a bit odd though - i have no swelling any more around the actual extraction sites, but a space ahead of the top extraction sites that has had a missing tooth for a while now (at least a few years) is a bit swollen. not painful, just puffed up a bit. is this because the jaw bone in that area has eroded away and the soft tissue has more room to expand? this space that is puffy is where a tooth simply rotted out of my mouth before, roots and all.

 

[gapmouthgirl]

hmmmm....... this is concerning me a little:

my 2nd molar, top left, that i had extracted - the jaw bone at one edge of the socket is rather sharp under the gum and it seems the gum is not as thick there as it was even a few days ago. it's very thin and i can clearly feel the 'point' of the edge of the jaw bone underneath. should i worry that the gum is receding/thinning and my jaw bone will be exposed? i'd head into my dentist for them to take a look but i just lost my job today and can't afford the appointment

anyone else have this issue with extractions and the jaw bone after?

edited to add: just took a good look with my bright led flashlight and my little mirror and i have what looks like the jaw bone beginning to extrude past the gums on both the front and back cheek side of the 2nd molar extraction site, along with a bone spur in the middle of that, where the dentist did remove a little jawbone during my extractions. all three of these 'pointy' bone areas are quite white compared to the surrounding gum.
i think i'm heading in to my dentist tomorrow and i'll tell them that i'll have to owe them for the exam and any bone filing, because this is freaking me out a bit too much to just leave it.

 

[gapmouthgirl]

one more thing - my upper left wisdom tooth site. i had a bit of food stuck in the tiny hole that is left there last night, and very carefully dislodged said food with a q-tip. but when i was doing that i could feel the end of the q-tip touching what i think is jaw bone in the hole! this doesn't sound right, does it? more than 2 weeks after extraction and the jaw bone is still exposed in there? no pain at all, no inflammation, so i know it isn't dry socket or anything like that.

hoping y'all can give me some re-assurance on this!

 

[carole]

I am sorry I can't tell you what this is, I do think if you can go to the dentist tomorrow he will be able to have a look and tell you. It is probably okay but if you are really worried it is best to get it checked.

I am glad you are not in pain, this is a good thing. I wish you well, I am hoping someone with knowledge will be able to answer you and put your mind at rest.