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Will bone graft and suturing after wisdom tooth extraction prevent dry socket?

A

AnxiousAlice

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Joined
Jul 1, 2012
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58
Location
Florida USA
Will bone graft and suturing after wisdom tooth extraction prevent dry socket?

Question for dentists:

My wisdom tooth lower right will soon be extracted. It is fully errupted and has infection. Right not it is not giving me pain however, it has off and on and xrays are showing some abcess and it will need to be extracted.

One concern I have is dry socket after extraction. The tooth is quite large and will likely leave a large hole.

Apparently an option could be to do a bone graft covered with a membrane and sutured immediately after the extraction. Will this likely prevent dry socket.

I understand that this is perhpas a helathier way to go and that there is an added cost. But what is the advantage in both preventing dry socket and overall health in the long run. (This tooith will not be replaced by an implant because of it's location).

Other question is; since bonme grafting material is essentially donor material, what is the chance of any kind of disease or contamination from the graft material.

Thanks for any answers.

ALice
 
Re: Will bone graft and suturing after wisdom tooth extraction prevent dry socket?

The risk of dry socket is so low I wouldn't bother paying the extra TBH, but that's just me being a tight Scotsman again :)

You have to weigh up the possibility of reducing the odds from about 1 in 1000 to about 1 in 10,000 versus the cost and hassle of having it done. Do you have any other risk factors? Smoking, previous dry sockets, being female? (no, honestly!).

Bone graft materials vary, but they're all very sterile, so no chance of getting anything infectious from it, unless it has been seriously mis-handled before going into your mouth.
 
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