Dry Socket

[Eastender]

Hi What causes a Dry Socket or Infection in mouth after a tooth extraction? and no I have not smoked either. Thanks

[teag1rl]

Apparently they are more common in women and esp women taking contraceptive pill, people over 30 and smokers. It's to do with the blood failing to clot adequately I think.

http://www.animated-teeth.com/wisdom_teeth/t3_wisdom_too th_removal.htm#complications

[Ethmer]

dry socket

In dentistry, a dry socket is a layman's term for alveolar osteitis, a disruption to the healing of the alveolar bone following extraction of the tooth.

Alveolar osteitis occurs when the blood clot at the site of a tooth extraction is disrupted prematurely. This leaves the alveolar bone unprotected and exposed to the oral environment. The socket can pack with food and bacteria. The pain typically commences 2-4 days following the extraction. This is often extremely unpleasant for the patient, as symptoms include extreme pain (sometimes worse than the toothache that indicated the extraction), a bad taste and smell in the mouth, bad breath, and swelling in the infected area. There may be lymph-node involvement.

Smokers have been shown to have a greatly increased risk of developing alveolar osteitis after tooth extraction. This is thought to be due to the decreased amount of oxygen available in the healing tissues as a result of carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke. It is advisable to avoid smoking following tooth extraction for at least 48 hours to reduce the risk of developing this "dry socket".

While this condition only seems to occur in 5-10% of extractions (primarily of the lower molar teeth) it seems that women are at higher risk than men for developing dry socket. Of the women that have developed it, the majority take an oral contraceptive. Dentists should recommend their female patients to have extractions during the last five days of their menstrual cycle to minimize chances of developing dry socket because the estrogen levels are lower during that part of the cycle.

[Eastender]

Hi Ethmer you have near enough answered my question thankyou. Could I have had perhaps a infection or abcess under the extracted tooth which was invisable to the x-ray. thanks

[MrXLA]

I would imagine it is very likely that you had an abscess/infection beneath the tooth but it would not normally be invisible to an x-ray and was probably the reason for the extraction in the first place. An extraction site.socket acts as drainage for infection (the reason for removing the tooth). In some people dry-sockets occur without any known cause. The strongest association is however with smoking, which you said you don't, it is worth noting however that if you have ever smoked it can compromise the blood supply to the area and delay healing.

Difficult extractions, in particular lower wisdom teeth are associated with dry sockets, probably as a result of increased surgical trauma.

Hope this answers your question, take care hope you heal up soon