Ongoing Dry Socket Problems

[sewho]

hello,

Had a bottom molar extracted 4 weeks ago and developed dry socket. Returned to the dentist after 1 week to have the socket scraped and new blood clot (ouch!) as well as packed with alvogyl. Then after another week the alvogyl paste came out and it became inflamed and painful so went back to the dentist. I wouldn't agree to any scraping on the 2nd visit, but she washed it with saline (not painful) and put a small amount of alvogyl and packed it loosely. I think today that packing has come out because it's inflamed again and starting to hurt.

Anyone know how long this will go on? Should I return to the dentist for more alyoglyl? It does stop it hurting when the paste is in there, but does it delay the healing? Would I be better off taking iboprofun anti-inflammatory pills for a while and seeing if it fixes itself up faster?

It seems like it will never heal. Why is it taking so long? Help!!

 

[Sofianhleihil]

Hello Sewho,
Sorry to hear about your situation...
I'm a dentistry student at the moment but I have some experience with this procedure.

You need to know first which is the cause for the clot being constantly disloged, you should avoid rinsing too much as this can lead to complications (with the clot), another reason could be that a foreign body (a piece of the tooth was left behind, though I doubt that this is the cause, if the surgeon scraped the surface again, he/she should have notices if something was left behind), It can also cause an inflamation at that spot.

As far as I know you might need antibiotics to treat the dry socket and hopefuly start the healing process.. you could ask the surgeon to place an antibiotic paste into the socket, and ask for his opinion on starting an antibiotic treatment.

Hope this helps.
Get healthy soon!

 

[sewho]

Just finished my 2nd lot of antibiotics this morning. They did seem to help so maybe that was the problem. Have taken some iboprofun last night which settled it down a bit. Have to wait and see how it goes today I guess.