Pointy bits and lumps after extractions

[INFJ]

The one lower molar, lower left... it feels like the edges of the extraction site feel pointy? You can see the pointy around the darkest part of the clot. Does that make sense? The other site is smooth all around but the lower left is pointy in the two spots across from each other. No pain unless I press on them, then slightly tender. I’m on day 12.

 

[Gordon]

The pointy bit is the bony crest at the back of the tooth socket, perfectly normal.

 

[INFJ]

^ Thank you so much!

Another weird (maybe?) thing popped up... on the lower right extraction site (day 14) there is like a little bubble of gum tissue? near the back of the site? Like a bump of tissue? Doesn’t not hurt at all, wouldn’t even know I had it if I didn’t look closely. What is that? Could it be due to the wisdom tooth so close to the site? The wisdom tooth does feel slightly sore when biting down at times. What is the gum bump though?

 

[Gordon]

OK, apologies if I've dumbed it down to an insulting level, trying to avoid too much jargon...

When you have an extraction done, it makes quite a big hole in your mouth. (No sh*t Sherlock!) As a result your body pours reconstructive cells into the area to, well, mend it

There will be little areas like this where some of these cells congregate in higher numbers. It's part of the normal healing process. If you sliced one of them open and had a look under a microscope (DON'T ACTUALLY DO THIS) then you'd find it was full of epithelial cells, some bone generating cells and lots of white blood cells (to munch away superfluous bits) to make room for the new bits to put it all back together again.

If you keep watching, you'll see the little little lumps and bumps come and go, it's actually a fairly interesting process (if you're a sad geek like me anyway).

The hole will gradually fill up from the bottom, you can see the highly specialised granulation tissue already forming in the hole, (the sort of greyish/yellow stuff), and then epithelial cells will spread over the top from the edges to seal it all up.

The posh name for it is "Healing by secondary intention" you can find out more details from Google if you're interested.

 

[INFJ]

Thank you so much for the explanation! It makes so much sense. I wish I had you for a dentist.