Previously on the tooth extraction adventure, I had 2 teeth taken out at the back of the right side of my mouth, on the bottom and top rows. I had gotten to Day 3 of the process, which was the danger zone for Dry Socket, with increasingly intense pain that requires prompt further dental treatment.
Did I survive or end up with Dry Socket pain noted as worse than childbirth?
Thankfully and pretty obviously, I survived.
The object of this posts is to document what happened after my extraction for anyone else who may have to go through the same thing. This is only my experience and not medical advice. If something feels seriously wrong, smells bad, tastes bad, gets dramatically worse, or you’re worried, speak to your dentist.
A few things I missed from the last post:
- I had been gently rinsing with warm salt water after meals, as advised. Not aggressive swishing, more head tilting and letting the water fall out. Basically, tasting like the sea and pretending that was normal.
- I avoided straws, spitting, coughing, and sneezing where possible.
- I also avoided poking the area with my tongue
The previous post was written retrospectively around Day 3. From here, these are smaller updates as the days progressed.
Day 4
On the pain scale, I’d say I was at about a 6 out of 10 when I woke up.
On previous days, I had been waking up at around a 7, closing my eyes, and waiting for the painkillers to kick in before becoming a functioning human being. On Day 4, I could at least function with my eyes open, which felt like progress.
Not to be too graphic, but where the dentist had used an area near the front of my mouth as leverage to remove the tooth, I think it left some bruising. I had pain further forward in my mouth as well as around the extraction sites.
There was still a “something is there” feeling on both the top and bottom sides, but the heavier ache was mostly on the bottom.
The soft food diet continued. I remained deeply jealous of people eating normally, but I knew the risks and stayed boring.
I did make one mistake this day. I got a little cocky with the painkillers and thought I’d just take them when I felt I needed them. Seven hours later, I realised I had started chasing the pain instead of staying ahead of it.
Lesson learned.
Day 5
On Day 5, I was still waking up at around a 6 out of 10 on the pain scale, but the soreness had shifted more into my jaw and up towards my ear. My hearing even felt very slightly affected.
This sensation was not completely new to me. I’ve had trismus before, where I couldn’t open my mouth properly after another tooth was removed under general anaesthetic. At the time, I was given what looked like flat ice cream sticks to bite down on progressively to train my jaw open again.
I also sometimes get a similar feeling around my ear and jaw during aeroplane landings. I’m not saying it was the same thing, but it was familiar enough that it didn’t feel completely alien.
Then I went to the mirror and tried to open my mouth to see what the site looked like, only to find I couldn’t open it two fingers high.
That was enough for me to realise my jaw probably needed to be left alone for a while.
I think the jaw soreness, combined with the healing socket, made everything feel worse than it actually was.
Day 6
Day 6 unexpectedly brought a slight increase in pain, focused mostly around the jaw, with the discomfort travelling up towards my ears and eyes.
The upside was that I could open my mouth a little more and actually see what was going on. All I could really see was a greyish site and not much else, which I understand can be part of normal healing. It was not pleasant to look at, but it did suggest things were progressing.
Ibuprofen continued to be my best friend. As on previous days, it did the best job of dulling the soreness.
Nothing felt as intense as the dry socket horror stories I had read, so I personally felt less worried about that by this point. It was still unpleasant, though. The pain seemed to radiate from the bottom jaw up towards the top, and I think the area was simply still very actively healing.
Day 7 and beyond
On Day 7, the pain finally started to decrease.
It still changed depending on how I was lying down. If I leaned on my left side, gravity seemed to pull my cheek onto the affected areas. If I leaned on my right, it felt comfortable for a minute, then ramped up again as the pressure changed.
The sweet spot seemed to be lying on my back, slightly tilted to the left. Very specific, very annoying, but effective.
After that, the pain gradually faded day by day. The reliance on Ibuprofen became less and less.
As of writing this, I’m on Day 12. I can still “feel” the gaps, and there is some mild discomfort when moving my jaw, but I am firmly out of the dry socket disaster zone and on the way to healing.
Hopefully this helps anyone else going through the same procedure, as I was intensely researching prior and after to make sure I was as prepared as possible.
The middle days can feel weird, sore, and slightly alarming, but in my case, the gradual improvement did eventually arrive.
Which makes me smile, with 2 less teeth for now.
What do you think?