Dry Socket

First wisdom tooth, I went for an extraction. Due to my high metabolism, the anesthetic effect was off halfway thru the extraction. I was crying. Had an inflammation days after.

This time round, due to the condition(inflammation, size of the tooth, alignment and phobia from the last extraction) I opted for sedation. What did I end up with? Dry Socket! arghh....can I get any luckier!


Extracted from Wikipedia:
In dentistry, a dry socket is a layman's term for alveolar osteitis. The alveolus is the part of the jawbone that supports the teeth, and osteitis means simply “bone inflammation”. It is an irritation of the bone open to the oral cavity after the loss of or premature disintegration of the blood clot.

Signs and symptoms
As with any extraction of a tooth, some pain is to be expected, as the gums surrounding the former location will be damaged to a certain degree. This is especially so in extractions of impacted wisdom teeth, which may not have properly erupted; in these cases, the gums are cut open to allow access to the tooth, then sutured shut.
However, a dry socket typically presents as a sharp and sudden increase in pain commencing 2–5 days following the extraction of a tooth, most commonly the third molar. It can also be accompanied by a foul taste or smell.

The pain, which often radiates up and down the head and neck, can be extremely unpleasant for the patient. It will often cause pain in the ears as well. A dry socket is not an infection, and is not directly associated with swelling because it occurs entirely within bone — it is a phenomenon of inflammation within the bony lining of an empty tooth socket.

True alveolar osteitis, as opposed to simple postoperative pain, occurs in only about 5–10% of extractions (primarily of the lower molar teeth). No one knows for certain how or why dry sockets develop following dental extraction but certain factors are associated with increased risk.

There is no real treatment for dry socket — it is a self-limiting condition that will improve and disappear with time — but certain interventions can significantly decrease pain during an episode of dry socket. These interventions usually consists of a gentle rinsing of the inflamed socket followed by the direct placement within the socket of some type of sedative dressing, which soothes the inflamed bone for a period of time and promotes tissue growth. This is usually done without anesthesia.[4] The active ingredients in these sedative dressings usually include natural substances like zinc oxide, eugenol, and oil of cloves. It is usually necessary to have this done for two or three consecutive days, although occasionally it can take longer. Because true dry socket pain is so intense, additional analgesics are sometimes prescribed