How to Prevent Dry Socket

How to Prevent Dry Socket

If you want to know how to prevent dry socket, first you will need to understand what dry socket is. A socket is a hole in your mouth bone where the tooth was removed. Dry socket may occur when the blood cloth that was formed in the hole, get exposed to air, food and etc. Dry socket can be a really painful complication. It may occur after 2-3 days after tooth was removed. Usually, dry socket can occur after a lower wisdom tooth extraction.

A medical term for dry socket is alveolar osteitis. Osteitis is bone inflammation and the alveolar is jawbone which supports teeth.

Symptoms

When any kind of extraction happens, patient will feel the pain of course, especially if the teeth were impacted like back wisdom teeth. However, you will notice dry socket only few days later and the pain will be increased. Here are the main symptoms:

  • Mad pain that start few days after the procedure is usually a dry socket
  • Bad taste and smell in the mouth
  • Pain that radiates to your head and neck
  • Difficulty opening mouth

How to Prevent Dry Socket

It is important to know how you can prevent dry socket as it might be a really painful time for you.

  • Try not to drink through a straw for a couple of days as the pressure created by sucking liquids through a straw can dislodge the cloth
  • Do not rinse your mouth too hard so the cloth can stay on its place peacefully
  • Do not smoke for 72 hours as sucking on a cigarette makes the same action as sucking through a straw. Also, when you are smoking your mouth is drying out. It might be one of the causes for you to get dry socket.
  • If you are woman and you are using oral contraceptives it is more likely for you to get dry socket

Treatment

  • If you have a dry socket and the pain is so intense, your doctor will more likely to give you additional analgesics prescription
  • Do not smoke or drink through the straw till dry socket symptoms disappear
  • Placement by the dentist within the socket of a type of sedative dressing (zinc oxide, eugenol, and oil of clover), which soothes the inflamed bone for a period of time

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