In most dental patients, blood fills up the open socket left after a wisdom tooth extraction. The blood hardens and protects the wisdom tooth socket while the gums grown over the top of the hole. With normal patients, without a wisdom tooth dry socket, the gums often completely grow over and close an wisdom tooth extraction socket in a week or so. 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 wisdom tooth dry socket, blood does not fill up the extraction socket or the blood clot is lost for some reason. The result is a wisdom tooth dry socket. The gums can not grow over the extraction socket because there's nothing to grow over and the wisdom tooth dry socket remains open. This open wisdom tooth dry socket causes a constant dull throbbing pain and the patient with a wisdom tooth dry socket can often have a foul smelling breath and bad taste in the mouth. The wisdom tooth dry socket pain can sometimes even be felt in the ear.

          A wisdom tooth dry socket begins hurting about three days after wisdom tooth surgery. It's called a wisdom tooth dry socket because the hole, or socket, that the tooth used to fit into becomes dry. Unfortunately, the pain from a wisdom tooth dry socket lasts about a week after it begins. The dental name for a wisdom tooth dry socket is acute alveolar osteitis. Acute means all of a sudden. Alveolar is the name of the bone that supports teeth. "itis" means inflamed and osteo- means bone. Osteitis means bone inflammation. So acute alveolar osteitis means sudden inflammation of the bone that supports a tooth.

          Dentists don't know exactly what causes a wisdom tooth dry socket. Wisdom tooth dry sockets seem to occur more with lower teeth than upper teeth and more with females rather 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.

          Anything that can dislodge a forming blood clot can cause a wisdom tooth dry socket. Forceful spitting or sucking though a straw can pull a blood clot completely out of it's socket and cause a wisdom tooth dry socket. Patients should wait at least a day before rinsing with warm salt water to avoid possibly dissolving the new blood clot. When salt water rinsing, spit gently to avoid pressure on the clot. Carbonated beverages should be avoided for fear that they may bubble the clot out of the socket. Alcoholic drinks may prematurely dry out the blood clot.

          Avoid smoking for a few days after dental extractions because smoking may disturb blood clot formation and cause a wisdom tooth dry socket.

          The dentists at the Atlanta Dental Group,PC try hard to make the removal of teeth as gentle as possible. In fact, wisdom tooth dry sockets do not occur that often in our practice. It is our belief that the more trauma to an extraction site, the more chance a wisdom tooth dry socket 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 to the extraction socket intact.

          Patients who have recently had oral surgery should avoid anything that may irritate the extraction socket or anything that may cause the blood clot inside the extraction socket from being dislodged. Follow our oral surgery post operative instructions carefully.

          The dentists at the Atlanta Dental Group, PC believe that the wisdom tooth dry socket should be left alone and that we should support the wisdom tooth dry socket patient nutritionally and with pain medications to ease the wisdom tooth dry socket pain. Fortunately, like a cold, a wisdom tooth dry socket pain almost always goes away by itself after several days.

          Over the counter pain medications such as Tylenol, Motrin, or Alleve do not help a patient with a wisdom tooth dry socket. In most cases a narcotic pain reliever is needed and can be used with over the counter medications.

          Many dentists pack a wisdom tooth dry socket with medications that help decrease the pain. However, the packing process can itself irritate the wisdom tooth dry socket and when the pan medicine wears off in two hours, the pain sometimes returns worse than before the wisdom tooth dry socket was packed. We reserve the use of wisdom tooth dry socket packing only for severe cases of wisdom tooth dry socket. Fortunately, we have very few severe cases if wisdom tooth dry socket.

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