What happens if a dry socket goes untreated?

You’ve just had your wisdom teeth extracted, but now there is an intense pain in your mouth that won’t go away. It may be that you have developed dry socket, one of the most common complications after tooth extraction. Ignoring dry socket can lead to severe consequences and additional dental problems. Let’s find out what happens if a dry socket goes untreated.

Understanding Dry Sockets

Before we dive into what happens when you ignore dry sockets, let’s define and understand it.

When a tooth is extracted, a blood clot forms in the empty space where the tooth was located. This blood clot helps to protect the bone and nerves as they heal. However, sometimes this blood clot dissolves or dislodges before healing occurs resulting in exposed bone beneath it – this condition is called dry socket or alveolar osteitis.

People who smoke cigarettes or use tobacco products are more likely than non-smokers to develop dry sockets because smoking weakens oral tissues – another great reason to quit smoking!

Other factors like high levels of estrogen (like those found during pregnancy) also increase risk because hormones soften oral tissue resulting in blood clots being less likely to form properly.

Signs You Have A Dry Socket

How do you know if you have a situation? Or simply put how do you identify it?

Dry sockets typically occur 2-4 days following an extraction; pain from them usually peaks around three days post-procedure. Here are its distinct signs:

  • Intense pain at least two days after surgery.
  • The pain doesn’t lessen with over-the-counter medications.
  • Unpleasant taste/smell emanating from your mouth within four-to-five days after having teeth removed.
  • Visible white bone underneath the site of removal.

It’s crucial not to ignore these symptoms even though trips back for extractions aren’t exactly desirable events; treating it early can help prevent further complications.

Ignoring Dry Sockets: What Could Happen?

When left untreated, dry sockets can result in pain and infection that prolongs the healing process. As time goes by, it increases the chances of developing more severe dental complications such as:

1. Infection

A broken-down-blood clot allowing bacteria that enter your mouth from food or drink infiltrating your bloodstream produce infections like cellulitis – an illness resulting from a bacterial skin infection- setting up shop around where you had teeth removed isn’t exactly what anyone wants.

Infections are treatable at first when they’re small and have yet to reach dangerous levels; however, failing to address them only makes things worse. Make sure to see a dentist ASAP!

2. Ongoing Pain

Dry socket pain is classified as one of the most painful conditions related to tooth extractions…so let’s say ignoring it isn’t going to give you a cramp that feels divine- If anything its going hurt! Leaving this untreated could mean weeks-to-months of suffering per patients stuck in this predicament before it solves itself/handles completely.

This prolonged ache can cause difficulty eating/speaking normally and even lead to people taking sick days off work.

3. Abscess

What if Left Ignore? You may not realize how much pus will build up until too late – think “lump” forming! To sum it up nicely because we cannot mention specific terms on here – ABSCESS formation.

An abscess happens due to an infected site with pus accumulating in pockets between tissue layers near or around (supra/deep tissue) extraction sites for teeth creating lumps …again not Pleasant but reachable via treatment options available today with doctors’ expertise assisting all accordingly!

Abscesses require antibiotics/treatment depending on severity/duration needed based on extensiveness/how long (chronic condition?) someone has let things slide. This course of action may also require dental surgery.

4. Damage to Nerves

When dry socket interferes with healing, the underlying bone can be exposed for longer periods, leading to further consequences like nerve damage resulting in paresthesia – a condition that causes numbness/permanent loss of sensation around extraction sites.

Paresthesia effects can last anywhere from days-to-weeks or even permanently so don’t ignore symptoms and instead seek treatment because no one wants long-lasting oral damage!

Treatments For Dry Sockets

Severe dry sockets may demand medical interventions such as blood-clot extending-paste application packaged along with prescriptive painkillers right after surgery by dentists who perform extractions – but if there’s swelling/discoloration signaling an infection present- antibiotics could help keep it under control while you gather yourself up during recovery time!

Other at-home remedies patients can use include:

  • Rinsing your mouth with saltwater every few hours.
  • Brushing gently near site(s) without creating movement wounds-healing
  • Avoid smoking…
    you know what they say: “take care of YOUR teeth; loose them one-by-one”!
    There are commercial home kits available (which often contain clove oil, a natural analgesic) found quite effective depending on situations varying.

Reading between the lines shows just why ignoring unpleasant sensations following tooth extractions isn’t advisable.

Wrapping Up

Dry sockets aren’t desirable results anybody wishes after teeth removal operations, yet sometimes we end up enduring these adverse consequences anyway through negligence/not paying adequate attention towards their manifestations/knowledgeable treatment options.

Now You Know Better – If you sense something off/wrong down there request rapid effective assistance immediately rather than prolong suffering needlessly becoming messier complicated risks-based scenarios going forward won’t happen unless left unattended either.- always inform duly advised…

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