Dry socket is a complication that occurs quite often and is a common problem that can prove to be quiet painful. In medical terms it is healing of wounds after extracting a tooth.

The socket is the area that surrounds the teeth.

What is Dry Socket?

A dry socket is a situation where a blood clot starts forming once the tooth has been extracted. Granulation tissue, also called the healing tissue, is typically expected to replace the blood clot which may fail to grow or be disrupted after beginning to grow resulting in the creation of dry sockets. Once this starts happening, the healing is not as fast as it is expected to be. Typically, the dry socket persists anywhere from 3 to 5 days and is very painful. It is accompanied by bad breath, foul odor, greyish secretion, and excruciating pain in the mouth.

How Does Dry Socket Happen?

No particular cause can be attributed to that of the occurrence of the dry socket. Often dentists feel that could be due to a not so successful extraction procedure in general. Some say that it is due to excessive smoking as the healing tissues do not get ample amount of oxygen it needs to heal forth as well.

Treatment

Removing the dry socket can be a painful procedure. The best possible way would be to treat the pain before trying to do away with the socket.

If one feels that the healing procedure and time taken in abnormal, it is imperative to consult the dentist rather than ignoring and letting matters worsen.

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