Worried about dry socket

[iamthechicken]

Had bottom molar out almost 48 hours ago. I was very good about following the dentist's instructions to a T. (still am, also on antibiotics and rinsing with salt water beginning yesterday)

However, this morning, I have noticed that my breath is not too good and I still have some tenderness and swelling on my face on that side, though it has gone down somewhat. The area right below my ear also hurts. The tooth that is now gone was infected slightly, so I am a little worried.

Is there anything I can look for by looking at the site of the extraction that would tell me if I should call the dentist?

 

[Gordon]

Dry sockets are extremely painful. If you've got one you won't need to ask about it.

I'm a bit concerned at the fixation that so many of you seem to have developed with this very rare event. Is there something you've read online somewhere that's doing it? Perish the thought, is there something on this site that's causing this fear?

I think you need to get this in a wee bit of perspective here. Dry sockets are incredibly uncommon.

There was a period about 6 years ago when I was enrolled in some research into dry sockets by a University researcher. At the time I was extracting around 1000 teeth per quarter, that is over 300 teeth a month. The research period lasted for 3 months and the idea was that every time a patient returned with a dry socket we would record a load of details about the extraction and send it off to the researcher who would try to find some correlations from our results.

During this particular period I had precisely NO patients attend with dry sockets...

I still extract about 400 teeth per annum and I haven't had a dry socket this year. There's nothing special about me, honestly, they're just a very rare event indeed!

 

[iamthechicken]

Thanks!!

About the pre-occupation with this, I don't know about the rest of my fellow patients here, but as soon as I told a friend I had an extraction, she responded with her horror story about dry sockets. Not to mention the very specific directions from the dentist about preventing it.

I suppose when you are afraid of dental work, dentists, etc, you tend to magnify everything and worry about it. (just my layperson armchair psychiatrist talking)

 

[brit]

I'd never heard of it until finding this website so when I had wisdom teeth out it wasn't a concern for me as I'd never heard of it. Maybe it's explicitly spelt out in aftercare instructions these days?
You are right though lots of recent posters have definitely got it high on their worry list.

We'll have to agree to disagree about there being nothing special about you though !
What percentage of dentists in the world help patients for free over the internet?

 

[iamthechicken]

Broke down and called the dentist.

She said the bad taste is because of the tissue there healing.

She also said that if I truly did have that, I would be crying from the pain, which, obviously, I wasn't.

 

[Mary]

Glad to hear it.It never hurts to call your dentist.

 

[brit]

It never hurts to call your dentist.

the hurt word..ouch

 

[Mary]

Huh
What did I type something wrong.
Oh I get it.....
it never HURTS to call your dentist.ok