Eat Soft Foods And Avoid Crunchy, Hard, And Tough Foods
You should follow the dietary instructions provided to you by Dr. Emily or Dr. Dustin Dodds. Eat yogurt, smoothies, applesauce, pudding, and other soft foods after your surgery. After about a week, you can usually start adding more solid foods to your diet.
Choosing foods and beverages carefully: People should avoid anything that will irritate the dry socket, including spicy or acidic foods and carbonated drinks. Applying a hot or cold compress. People can place a hot or cold pack against their face to reduce swelling and pain in the area.
Dry socket may be caused by a range of factors, such as an underlying infection in the mouth, trauma from the tooth extraction or problems with the jawbone. The condition occurs more often with wisdom teeth in the lower jaw than with other teeth. You are also more likely than others to develop dry socket if you: smoke.
Lower teeth that have been removed are more likely to develop dry sockets than extracted, upper teeth. Though dry sockets can be incredibly painful to endure, they can be easily prevented.
When Can I Stop Worrying About Dry Socket? Until the full recovery of your extraction site, a dry socket can form if you fail to follow the care tips. Usually, a week (7-8 days) after wisdom tooth extraction, you can stop worrying about a dry socket as gums take this much time to close fully.
Dry socket is a painful condition that can easily develop, but there are steps you can take to reduce the risk. Make sure to rinse your mouth with salt water several times a day and gently brush your teeth.
After a tooth extraction, you should develop a blood clot in the socket (hole) that's left behind. It'll look like a dark-colored scab. But if you have a dry socket, the clot will be absent and you'll be able to see bone. For this reason, dry sockets usually appear white.
How will I know if my blood clot fell out? If you develop dry sockets, the pain will let you know that your wound is no longer protected. Swelling is also an indication you have lost your blood clot, as is the taste of blood in your mouth.
If you get a dry socket, the pain usually begins 1 to 3 days after the tooth removal. Dry socket is the most common complication following tooth removals, such as the removal of third molars, also called wisdom teeth. Medicine you can buy without a prescription usually will not be enough to treat dry socket pain.
However, some research studies have linked dry socket development to bacteria and trauma. These reasons are likely why dentists recommend eating a light diet without hard or sugary foods. Sugar sticks to teeth, bones, and gums causing dental problems, while hard foods can impact and hurt your gums/bones.
It may take several weeks for the gum tissue to grow over the socket. Food will probably get stuck in the socket until it has fully closed. This may cause problems with bad breath and a bad taste in your mouth. You can rinse with salt water (see page 4) to help keep your mouth clean.
Tip #3: Don't Brush the Socket or Use a Straw
If you have sockets that are healing, sucking a drink through a straw could dislodge the clot. The pressure of sucking on a straw can pull out the stitches and the clot, causing a dry socket. It's ok to enjoy a smoothie or milkshake, just use a spoon instead of a straw.
Dry socket usually occurs within 3-5 days of an extraction and more commonly in the lower jaw.
A dry socket pain doesn't always begin right away. It can take several days before the pain begins. Most of the time, the pain starts small and gradually gets worse over time. Other times the pain can begin without warning and can be excruciating in which case you should seek an emergency dentist immediately.
Only a very small percentage -- about 2% to 5% of people -- develop dry socket after a tooth extraction. In those who have it, though, dry socket can be uncomfortable. Fortunately, it's easily treatable. The socket is the hole in the bone where the tooth has been removed.
Maintaining proper oral hygiene after a dental operation is one of the most crucial ways of preventing dry sockets. Gently rinse your mouth on the first day, followed by gentle brushing on the second day, is a sure way to avoid infection and germs from destroying the blood clot.
Drink plenty of clear liquids. This also may prevent nausea caused by some pain medicines. Rinse your mouth gently with warm salt water several times a day. Brush your teeth gently around the dry socket area.
Additionally, dairy products are harder for your body to digest as they contain casein protein, which slows down digestion significantly and increases inflammation throughout the body. This can delay the healing process and cause more discomfort.
Most commonly, diet recommendations suggest liquids and very soft food only on the same day as your surgery, followed by transitioning to your regular diet in a day or two, although there are a few exceptions. However exactly when you can eat depends on both the type and extent of the extraction you've undergone.
In contrast, with a dry socket, the pain will improve and then suddenly get worse, which could be more painful than the extraction procedure. The pain of a dry socket may throb and radiate across a large area of the jaw or up towards the ear.
In non-smokers, dry socket is uncommon. It can still occur with negative pressure that occurs during drinking through a straw or vigorous spitting. It may also be more common in those who mouth breathe while sleeping because the mouth can dry out and the blood clot may break down.
Dry socket can occur anywhere from 2% to 5% of the time with the extraction of a tooth. Mandibular teeth are affected by this condition more often than maxillary teeth. Dry socket is most common in molar extractions and especially in wisdom teeth, where it can occur up to 30% of the time.