Dry Socket? When will it heal.

[Am4nd4]

Hi all! Im 16 years old and i'm very confused as to what's happening as I ask my dentist many questions and she never directly answers them so i am beginning to not feel confident in her practice. It started on Monday I had 2 upper pre-molars pulled for my orthodontic treatment. The left side took about an hour for her to pull out and was very difficult and the right took about 10 minutes. After this she poked and prodded both holes a lot to make them bleed because I wasn't bleeding enough. I then went home and followed all the after-care instructions. I did not drink through a straw, did not rinse around my mouth, did not spit, did not touch either extraction sites with my tongue or finger. I am not on a contraceptive pill and not on my menstrual cycle. I also do not smoke. Once the local aniseptic wore off I was in a lot of pain so I did not eat for 2 days and I only drunk water. Finally on day 3 the pain was excruciating on the right side but pain killers did assist in pain relief. I went back to the dentist and she didn't even ask me where the pain was or how bad it was. Instead she just looked straight in the mouth and said "I think it's a dry socket" she told me that half of it was healed and the other half was a dry socket? She cleaned out the hole and filled it with some sort of medicated fabric? The pain did not instantly go away but instead lingered for a while until I took pain killers which helped a lot. I felt no pain at all until around 9 o'clock at night when I was about to go to sleep. I then a woke in terrible pain around 3:30am so I took some pain killers and tried to get back to sleep. This morning I looked at the extraction site and saw that whitish coloured stuff is growing over the medicated fabric? Is that normal? I'm worried as the dentist told me to go back three days later (Saturday) to have the dressing replaced? Also it is normal for all this to happen? Also is the pain supposed to persist or lessen? I asked her this but she pretty much answered my questions with more questions and I'm just very confused. Also I get my braces on in 4 weeks time and I have to get more moulds & xrays of my teeth in 3 weeks, will the dry socket be healed by then? Please help?

 

[Zuri Barniv]

Usually the medicated fabric is replaced every day or two to prevent the kind of pain you are having. With or without the fabric, a dry socket heals on its own in about 10 days after the extraction. Hang in there.