Socket after extraction appears much deeper, no pain, but general unwell feeling

[malyka]

Socket after extraction appears much deeper, no pain, but general unwell feeling

Hello, I'm new to this forum. Sorry for the long post, but it's been 11 days since I had my lower molar extracted, and I'm still not feeling well, and have incredible amount of anxiety.

As I said, I had my lower molar extracted 11 days ago. It was in poor shape, multiple reconstructions, plus a large dental cyst at the root. After the extraction, everything seemed to progress normally, although longer than usual (I'd had several teeth extracted, and never before it took so long to heal). However, I had a lot of anxiety and phoned my dentist several times. He assured me that everything seemed normal. I was very careful with rinsing gently - several days of chlorhexidine rinse, than salt water.

The blood clot formed well, got covered in fibrin, and the socket was very shallow - basically everything on the surface. However, 5 or 6 days after extraction, I noticed that the socket appeared more narrow and deeper. It looked like the gums were raising on both sides, so I thought this was normal. I also noticed that the top fibrin layer now looked darkish, but my dentist had warned me not to panic, because fibrin stained easily. I had little pain, which slowly disappeared by day 7, no fever, and no swelling.

By the evening of the 9th day, I felt like the socket was bothering me slightly - no pain, just a bit of discomfort. I rinsed as usual and went to bed. Yesterday (day 10) it bothered me more during the day - I felt like the gum was slightly inflamed, and by the evening I started having slight throbbing feeling, and the gum line around the socket looked a bit inflamed. I worried that because the socket was deeper I couldn't rinse it properly. Here I did something which was maybe a mistake. I went on the Internet, found some dentist's advice to rinse the socket with a syringe without needle. I took a small syringe, took off the needle and carefully rinsed the socket. I'm not sure if it was the right thing to do. I tested syringe on my hand, and it was very gentle - more dripping than squirting. After I rinsed the socket a couple of time in this way, a very small white piece came out (no more that 1 millimeter). I got scared and stopped. After this rinse, I experienced an immediate relief - all unpleasant feeling stopped and my gums felt normal.

BUT this whole thing finally made me take a small torch and look inside the socket. And it appears much deeper than I thought. It is definitely filled, I see the top layer, but it is now 2-3 millimeter deep, while at first it was completely shallow. Also, the gum line inside looks rather tender and a bit reddish. It looks like the clot had receded deeper into the gum. And now I'm back to extreme anxiety. Is this normal? Is part of clot missing? Am I developing an infection? Was I wrong to rinse with a syringe??

Today is 11th day. I have no pain, no swelling, no elevated temperature. What bothers me are two things:

1. Is it normal for the extraction socket to become deeper like this?
2. Since the extraction, I've been plagued with constant fatigue, listlessness, generally feeling not like myself. This seemed to be gradually becoming better, but over the past couple of days I feel like I'm back to square one. I feel fatigued, listless, unable to focus on any task, and low appetite. This bothers me more than anything else. Could it be a sign of developing infection?

 

[malyka]

Re: Socket after extraction appears much deeper, no pain, but general unwell feeling

Ok, I wrote this anxiety-fueled post yesterday. Today I'm feeling much better. The socket somehow looks less deep, and there seems to be a new layer of whitish tissue in there. No pain, no fever, no swelling.

It feels like I had some kind of setback over the past couple of days, and now the healing process (hopefully) has picked up again. But I still feel tired and exhausted all the time. I've felt like this since the extraction, and I'm sick of feeling like this! It's been 12 days - I want to get back to my life already!

I had several teeth pulled out years ago, and never before I had such a long recovery process. Usually it was basically back to normal by day 5 or 6. I also never had such anxiety after previous extractions (though this was before you could google scary pictures on the Internet, so there is that).

Writing about all this does help. I would also appreciate it if anyone just told me that all will be well - especially someone who had a long recovery process...

 

[Tmd]

Re: Socket after extraction appears much deeper, no pain, but general unwell feeling

Hi, I can relate. I had 3 teeth extracted on Wednesday. One was an old very infected root canal. I developed ulcers around the site. My stitches came off yesterday with the membrane, completely freaked me out. My dentist assured me all is ok but im going to try to pop in today so they can look at it. I have a big gap and I too feel like this is going to be a long road. I too have anxiety and it is taking over my life. Hang in there. It has to heal, right? It will just take time. We need to be kind to ourselves.

 

[Tmd]

Re: Socket after extraction appears much deeper, no pain, but general unwell feeling

Hi-just wanted to give you an update. I went to see my dentist today. He said all is good, no infection but it is going to take a lot longer for my hole to heal. For me its more of a vertical slit if you will. I don't want to go into the details but it was a really infected tooth so a lot more damage than a regular extraction. He gave me a syringe too so I am right there with ya on that too. I think I have at least another week if not 2 until I complete close up. Just wanted to let you know you are not alone! It is very emotionally taxing I can agree with you on that as well.

 

[malyka]

Re: Socket after extraction appears much deeper, no pain, but general unwell feeling

Hi, Tmd! Thank you for your support! I'm glad that you're doing so well - you are right, everything will heal!

My update: yesterday felt unwell and exhausted again, even had slightly elevated temperature in the evening. Today I went to my dentist. He was very thorough - he looked, and prodded, and took an x-ray. The socket itself is healing as it should. It is taking so long because of the cyst - it was very big. The socket is completely covered, and a new bone tissue is already growing inside. So this is good news.

As for why I'm feeling unwell, his best guess was that the stress of the extraction triggered something else - most likely sinus or throat infection. He was dead right - he said it before I even mentioned that I've had sore throat and some cough since after the extraction. He took a look at my throat, and it does look inflamed, but of course he is not qualified to prescribe for this. His advice: eat well, sleep well, take vitamins, take nice sunny walks, and if it does not get better, go to a GP or a throat specialist.

So it's good news on the one hand, but annoying other issue on the other. Emotionally taxing, you are right! Never mind, we'll get there!

 

[Tmd]

Re: Socket after extraction appears much deeper, no pain, but general unwell feeling

Hi, just wanted to check in to see how you are. My extraction site seems to flare up and calm down but no real pain. Today the tooth next to it is very sore. Ironically I too feel sick today just like u. Exhausted, dizzy and not wanting to eat. Ugh....will it ever end?

 

[malyka]

Re: Socket after extraction appears much deeper, no pain, but general unwell feeling

Hi, just wanted to check in to see how you are. My extraction site seems to flare up and calm down but no real pain. Today the tooth next to it is very sore. Ironically I too feel sick today just like u. Exhausted, dizzy and not wanting to eat. Ugh....will it ever end?

Oh, Tmd, I'm so sorry to hear that! I know how it feels! If it's any consolation, my pattern was very similar. I felt better by the end of the first week, but then seemed worse again on day 10-11 (that's when I started this thread). My socket also seemed more infmaled/irritated at some point, but then calmed down, and this happened several times. It finally calmed down by day 14.

I also had some soreness in the nearby tooth. It is root canaled, so I worried about it, but then it settled down.

By the way, my dentist told me that I overdid it slightly on the salt water - there was some irritation around the socket edges. He also said that after two weeks (I saw him on Wednesday) and with everything healing properly I could rinse with water only. So moderation is key - keep it clean but don't overdo it!

I'm finally feeling human again since yesterday (day 16 after extraction). Still not one hundred percent - throat a bit sore and some fatigue, but MUCH better. It really just takes time.

Do you have good relationships with your dentist? Mine was very supportive. He told me several times that if I don't have substantial swelling, pain or fever, it's all just a normal healing. But it helps a lot if you have an opportunity to call and ask, just to calm your mind.