After 2 days of wisdom teeth removal, pain, swelling and other discomforts like bad taste, bad breath, etc go away. But if the pain, swelling, and other dry socket symptoms like bad breath, bad taste increases in your mouth. Then you may have a dry socket or alveolar osteitis.
You must avoid smoking, drinking hot liquids like tea, coffee, etc, drinking alcohol, and products which contains alcohol, mouthwashes (because they contain harmful ingredients including alcohol), spitting out excessively, talking excessively, eating solid food, drinking fluids like water, juices, etc with the help of straw, etc.
These the biggest mistakes people do after tooth extraction. Also, not every dentist or oral surgeon will tell you about these. Maintaining healthy oral hygiene is also an important factor leading to dry socket wisdom teeth. You should avoid brushing or flossing your teeth for the first 12 to 24 hours of wisdom teeth removal. Afterward, you may brush your teeth gently or rinse with lukewarm saltwater.
You should avoid smoking cigarettes because they contain nicotine. Nicotine may reduce the blood supply in your mouth, and cause the blood clot (that forms naturally after a tooth surgery) to dislodge partially or completely.
A blood clot forms automatically after a wisdom tooth extraction. This works as a barrier between the external bodies like food particles, air, etc and the open nerve endings of a removed tooth. Hence, it helps to increase the healing process after tooth removal.
Smoking, drinking alcohol and other hot liquids, poor oral hygiene, drinking with straw are the major reasons behind the development of a dry socket wisdom teeth.
Drinking alcohol leads to the formation of a dry socket because alcohol may dissolve the blood clot completely. Hot liquids like coffee and tea etc contain caffeine as an active ingredient. Like nicotine, caffeine may also reduce the blood supply in the mouth area, hence the blood clot may remove partially or completely.
You should avoid all the actions which lead to the removal of a blood clot. You should never drink juices or other fluids with a straw, because the sucking motion of your mouth may also remove a blood clot.
Alveolar osteitis is the most painful condition. This causes severe, sharp pain in the jaw, neck and in the head. You can not treat a dry socket at home. So, we must revisit your dentist or oral surgeon again and discuss this situation.
If you are confused about how to diagnose a dry socket. Then don't worry about it. Because I am also sharing the alveolar osteitis symptoms in this article.
Pain, aches, swelling are common which goes away after 2 to 3 days of tooth extraction. But if the pain increases over time, and causes the increase in swelling and other discomforts like bad breath, infection, bad taste, etc, then you may have a dry socket.
If you open your mouth in front of a mirror, then you can see an empty white socket which is called an alveolar osteitis.