Infection while on antibiotics after extraction?

[Joee]

TL;DR: Was on antibiotics for a couple weeks (at least) before extraction and continue them after extraction. Is it normal to have a flare up of infection symptoms while on the antibiotics right after the tooth is removed? First day after extraction was better, second day after extraction has swollen gums and lymph nodes. My be normal? More detail below.

I had the last molar on the bottom right before the wisdom tooth removed Thursday. It was infected for probably a month (probably longer) before it was finally extracted and I was on antibiotics for the last 2 weeks of that time right before the extraction. They went ahead and extracted it because the antibiotics just weren't taking the infection away. Dr said he could see infection coming out as he was extracting.

I'm now on a new round of Amoxicillin 500mg 4x day. Today is the second day after the extraction (not counting the day it was extracted). On the first day after extraction, I felt a lot better, with the lymph nodes calming down and the pain going away and just not feeling sick from infection. Today, day 2 after extraction,, my gums are now very swollen and tender around the extraction site and my lymph nodes are pretty sore and swollen. It's pretty apparent that there is infection there, probably left over.

So my question is, does it sound normal to have an improvement like I did on the first day after extraction, and then a flair up of pain and infection symptoms the very next day, even though I'm on antibiotics and had taken them for a while before the tooth was even extracted, or is something wrong? I had kind of figured that since I had the antibiotics built up in my system, once the source of the infection was removed (that poor tooth), the remaining infection would just kind of fizzle out. This seems more like an actual active infection that's being fought and coming to a head and such.

 

[Dr M]

Do you have any x-rays or such to give us an idea of how large the infection was prior to extraction? How are the rest of your teeth looking? Could be something else entirely contributing to the infection not clearing up. Did you consider that maybe you have a dry socket, which is common 3-5 days after an extraction?

 

[Joee]

Unfortunately I don't have the x-rays/didn't see them but for second. I do believe it was rather infected though. I'm day 4 post extraction and it's still very sore, but there are signs that the infection is starting to go away. I think it was just a very big infection and that the tooth was contributing significantly, not allowing any of it to clear up while it was present. I'll update the post later on so others get an idea of what's possible when it comes to infections. Thank you for your reply!

It doesn't appear to be a dry socket. It started out like it should: a red jelly like clot in the socket that eventually filled up to gum level. After a day or so, it's changed to various shades of a white-ish substance that is covering the wound. Hopefully this is the good stuff I've read about there made of blood vessels and such, and not just puss and food particles and doesn't count as protection against dry socket.