The dentists at the Atlanta Dental Group,PC try hard to make the removal of teeth as gentle as possible. In fact, dry sockets do not occur often in our practice.          

          A dry socket begins hurting about three days after oral surgery. It's called a dry socket because the hole, or socket, that the tooth used to fit in become dry. Unfortunately, the pain from a dry socket lasts about a week after it begins.

          In most oral surgery patients, blood fills up the tooth socket left after a dental extraction. The blood hardens and protects the socket while the gums grown over the top of the hole. After six months, the hardened blood is replaced by bone that grows into the socket. This can be seen on a dental x-ray.

          In a patient with a dry socket, blood does not fill up the socket so the result is a dry socket. The gums can't grow over the hole because there's nothing to grow over so the dry socket remains open.

         Dentists don't know exactly what causes a dry socket. Dry sockets seem to occur more with lower teeth than upper teeth and females have more dry sockets than males. Dry sockets happen more often after difficult extractions. It may be that forceful pushing against the wall of the socket when the tooth is being removed cause the walls of the socket to become crushed. This prevents bleeding into the socket because the blood vessels have been crushed closed. Without normal bleeding a dry socket results.

          A dry socket begins hurting about three days after the extraction and the dry socket pain usually ends seven days later. Because we know the pain will end soon, if a dry socket does occur in our dental office, the dentists at the Atlanta Dental Group, PC choose not to pack a dry socket because the packing can result in additional irritation than can cause the dry socket pain to last even longer than normal.

      If you are having dry socket problems and would like to consult with a dentist, please call and make an appointment at 404-874-7428.