A dental dry socket is a terrible experience that you would never wish on an enemy. It's strange because it begins about three days after a tooth extraction. Dental patients can be totally pain free and very comfortable for the first three days after the oral surgery with no dry socket symptom at all. Then the pain begins and it's bad.

           Once the dental dry socket pain starts, the dental pain lasts a week after it begins so it ends ten days after the tooth removal. There is no really effective dry socket treatment. The very best dry socket treatment is to rest and eat well. Eating well helps the surgical area heal faster. Narcotic analgesics, such as Tylenol Number 3 or Percocet, usually help.

           The dental dry socket occurs because the blood clot within the tooth socket can not be nourished since the blood supply has been cut off to the area. This is probably because of the trauma to the gums surrounding the tooth. We now know that the blood going to teeth is primarily from the gums, not the arteries inside the jaw. Careful surgical technique and minimal surgical flaps can often reduce the incidence of this problem.

          The dentists at the Atlanta Dental Group PC try hard to make the removal of teeth as gently as possible. In fact, a dental dry socket does not occur often in our practice. It is our belief that the more trauma to an extraction site, the more chance a problem will develop. All of our incisions are kept to a minimum and the gum tissue is disturbed as little as possible to help keep the blood supply intact. If you would like to consult with Atlanta Family Dentist, Dr. Mark Allan Padolsky, please make an appointment by calling 404-874-7428.