What Does A Dry Socket Look Like? How Long Is The Healing For A Top Wisdom Tooth Extraction?

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Chetan Agrawal Profile
Chetan Agrawal answered
A dry socket can be an extremely painful byproduct of not following your dentist’s instructions after you have had a tooth extracted.  A dry socket looks like the gums have receded from the hole instead of closing in on itself.  The bone underneath is generally exposed causing direct contact with the varying temperatures and the varying firmness’ of foods.    This is caused when you accidentally dislodge the natural plug created by your body to enclose the hole.  Sucking on a straw, smoking a cigarette, and other failures to maintain your open wound as instructed can cause this to occur and cause long periods of discomfort.  There are differing remedies and it is best to see your dentist regarding the severity and possible remedies available to you. 

Healing for any tooth extraction will generally take one to three weeks but can vary considerably by individual.  Wisdom teeth, eye teeth and molars generally take longer because of the size of the holes that are left to heal.  The healing time can be affected by many different things to include, presence of infection, before or after, size of the root and condition of the tooth.  Wisdom teeth can be impacted or have other issues that make it necessary to surgically extract them.  Surgery of any kind is risky but it can add to healing times depending on the amount of cutting needed and any bone breakages that may occur. 

The best advice for any dental surgeries or routine extractions would be to follow the instructions from your dentist including at least one full day knocked out on pain killers because your body heals better when you are sleeping!
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
I'm on day 7 of a right bottom molar extraction and I was still in a lot of pain, EXCEPT the pain was good some days and then REALLY bad some days, so I was convinced I didn't have a dry socket.  HA!  I went to Urgent Dental Care last night and oh yes I do have a dry socket.  He packed it with some type of packing which was only slightly uncomfortable and only took 1 min. Tops!  After that I was pain FREE in 2 mins and I'm still pain free this morning.  Thank goodness!
If you have a dry socket or even think you might, go back to the Dentist and get out of that horrible pain, it's un-necessary....oh and my dentist didn't charge me for the little packing he put in, because he said I'd suffered enough..LOL...he said it was only like ten bucks anyway.
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
My daughter got a dry socket 2 days after she had her tooth pulled I don't know what they look like but if you get one you will know because its about 3 times worse than a tooth ache.So if you don't smoke or spit a lot after the tooth was extracted you don't have to worry. You will have a hole where the tooth was for a while I wouldn't worry about that its normal. The hole will close up when the gums heal so trust me you don't need to worry. I hope this helped.
thanked the writer.
Anonymous
Anonymous commented
I had dry socket after I got ALL 4 wisdom teeth extracted. The dry socket itself doesn't look any different, but OMG the pain is horrible. The treatment for it is to go back to the Oral Surgeon and they will put in what is called "packing". It feels like a bunch of chewing tobacco or something. Kinda like shredded cabbage and it is brown and spicy. Try to keep it in your socket because it has numbing properties and it makes your tongue feel funny. I won't even tell you what the doc said it was made out of. :( yuck. Good luck and quick healing to you!
Anonymous
Anonymous commented
Thank you for your info i had my tooth pulled monday and it is very very pain full.It was my molur tooth the dentist was going to put a crown on but to pain full with fake tooth So I had them pull it out a week later and with in two days I have a dry socket. I was in so much pain I went back to the dentist he didn't do any thing for me so I have been taking tylenol. The pain goes under my jaw line up to my ear.
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
The odds of getting 1 is 5 % smoking is the main reason due from sucking on a cigarette I smoke but I took light drags I was fine you will know what a dry socket is b/c its extremely painful
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Anonymous answered
I had my upper left molar pulled on Friday afternoon (Its now Sunday) and the pain came only after the numbing agent wore off and for the rest of that day. In day 2, my jaw was soar and I could only open my mouth about half an inch before I felt pain/discomfort (vicodin really helped) but there was absolutely no pain with my mouth closed.

A few tips so that you're good to go 24 hours after extraction:

Keep in mind I am not a dentist nor does my advice in any way constitute medical advice.

1. My molar was out about a quarter of an inch.
2. I did not eat anything, suck on a straw, spit, etc for the first 24 hours.
3. My first meal was almost 30 hours after the extraction.
4. To loosen the jaw stiffness, rinse with a saline solution (salt water) a few times a day and your jaw will loosen up.

The upper-right molar is embedded in the gum and might be a little more problematic so I'll keep you guys posted.
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Anonymous answered
I had a tooth pulled out I spat a lot was the taste of blood, if you can taste blood 4 or 5 days after the extraction, something is wrong, I had to go back, I had an infection right down in the bone, after about 12 injections he was able to go through the clot and down to the bone getting all the muck out, I still have to be careful of anything too hot or cold at the moment, and I have to hold a cold cup near the extraction part so no blood gets back in the bone, it does look like it is healing now, but it is still a worry, must of been to that dentist 8 times at least, if this is correct now, I  will complain, and wont go their ever ever again.

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