Bryanna, it has been two weeks this Thursday since the teeth were pulled. The two on the left side have healed great.

The bottom right is still giving me some problems especially after I eat. I am still trying to stay on soft foods but even that the socket hurts for a while after I get through eating. I am also using the salt and water trick about four times a day.
I am trying my best to keep it clean. When I went back last Monday to let the Dentist check things out he said it looked like a Liver clot ever what that is on the bottom right tooth. He didn't seem alarmed and said it should heal up fine.

It looks better than it did three days ago and I am not seeing any blood when I get up in morning now.

The socket is deep where the tooth was pulled on the right bottom. The left bottom and top are much better looking and almost healed up and not near as deep. Strange but the left bottom is almost in the same location of jaw as right bottom but yet not near as deep where he pulled it ??

The bottom left is the one that was easy to get out as it had the root canal done many years ago.

Bottom right never had a root canal but they were wanting to do one and I refused. Sometimes I wonder if I made the right choice ? but to late now.

The right bottom is the one he had problems getting out and the one he knocked the crown off next to it. He also slipped and hit my top teeth so it was definitely in there good. Is this normal for it to continue to hurt? It is not bad and Tylenol helps but annoying.

I notice it more when I eat something like a small graham cracker when I drink coffee in the morning. The coffee does not bother it, only certain foods especially the Graham crackers.

Tonight I am only drinking liquids for snacks as it is lots of trouble keeping the socket clean on the bottom right. I can take my toothbrush and clean it and it will not hurt or bleed so the socket has sealed up but much deeper than the other two. Thanks for any help on this.

I wonder sometimes if he cracked my jaw when he pulled this hard to get out tooth : but it does not hurt when I open my mouth wide.

Right now no pain and most of the day I am pain free. Seems like after I eat . Just never had this problem on the other teeth that were pulled in the past but that was many years ago and I was much younger. Tom

I just tried cleaning the socket with a wet q-tip and got lots of stuff out. Some of it looked like blood but the socket is much cleaner now. I used salt water and the pain seems to be gone for the minute. I am wondering if I need to go back and let them take a look to see if any infection has set in. It does not look the same as the other two but like I mentioned when cleaning it with the wet q-tip and using salt water it does look and feel much better. I would think it should not still be hurting after almost two weeks but I could be wrong. Like I mentioned. I wish now I would have just left this tooth in because it never give me any trouble in the past. The lady dentist did not see the need for a root canal but dentist #2 showed me on his x-rays it did need treating. I should have just waited until it started giving me problems. Now it is and I am not happy about all this at all. Go in feeling good and now after two weeks I am not. Oh well, I will give them a call and let them make the decision for me. Tom

Hi Tom,

The tooth was infected, thus the recommendation to root canal it or extract it. Irrelevant of symptoms, the tooth was sick. So it is a positive thing that you had it removed.

Based on your description I think you may be getting food packed in there when you eat. It only takes a minute or so for the discomfort or pain to set in after the food is packed in there. Over time, the packed food debris will rot and the socket becomes a perfect environment for infection.

I hate to tell you but processed starchy foods like crackers can get lodged in the socket and sit in there fermenting. Foods like nuts and seeds which don't get completely chewed can easily get stuck in the socket also.

I do not recommend that you use a Q-tip or anything else to clean out the socket because you can be pushing the debris further down into the socket. You also run the risk of contaminating the socket with bacteria from your hands. I also would not recommend that you brush the socket because the open wound, which is deep and into the jaw bone, is then being exposed to the germs and debris on the tooth brush. Not only that, the bristles of the brush are irritating to the tender unhealed tissue.

The liver clot ...... if this site is still developing clots after 2 weeks, then that could mean that the impaction of food, the q tip and the tooth-brushing of the extraction site could be disturbing the clots that keep forming. That's why they keep forming. The blood clot is not meant to be disturbed.

It is BEST to eat foods that are not going to get packed into the socket and rinse vigorously with warm salt water 3-4 times a day as a means of flushing out any debris that gets caught in the socket to avoid impaction.

If you feel that you are developing an infection in that area, then see your dentist again. Tell him about the food impaction and the q tip cleaning as he may want to look a bit further and may or may not irrigate it with saline.

Bryanna

Thanks Bryanna, I did call and they will see me at 10:30 this morning. I was wetting the Q-tip in salt water and gently letting the wet part pull the junk out. It did seem to work and I never pushed down on it.

Now my problem is when I am out and away from the salt water rinse and need to eat what in the world do I eat? I just cannot stay in the house all day and plan on playing golf tomorrow. I will try and eat some Vienna Sausage. I know it is not healthy food but I got to have something for energy.

Maybe I will take a bottle of salt water with me and try and rinse after I eat ? The problem is I stay hungry most of the time and feel like I am starving I have to keep my energy level up so I can take these people's money sort of easy for me to do as I am almost a scratch golfer and these young people still thing they can beat this old man. Does not happen to often

I will update you on what my dentist tells me but I doubt it will be much. Probably a wasted trip but I will go in and make sure I feel good this morning but only eat a bowl of oatmeal and I am again hungry one hour after eating I will just see how things go today.

Again thanks for your info. I really don't think the tooth on the bottom right ever got a good clot. It was hard pushing down on three sockets at once after the teeth extraction to make sure I did indeed clot good. Maybe I should have waited and had the right bottom pulled later. Anyway I am off to the Dentist. Later. Tom

Tom,

There is no reason for you to go hungry. There are plenty of nutritious foods that you can be eating, that are filling, full of protein and healthy fats.

A short list of healthy foods ...

Soups
Chilli
Home made vegetable and fruit smoothies of which you can add things like berries and seeds because they become liquefied so no need to worry about the anything getting stuck in the sockets. You can also add a tablespoon of a nut butter like peanut, sunflower, almond, cashew which provides healthy protein and fats. You can also add and some protein powder to the mix.
Eggs
Baked or boiled chicken
Baked or broiled fish
Most fruits... apple sauce, sliced apples, pears, mango, melon, banana, avocado ...
All vegetables cooked or steamed

Processed foods like crackers, oatmeal, chips, pasta, small grains, anything with whole seeds or nuts.... These things can easily get become impacted in the surgical socket.

You do not want to rinse more than 3-4 times a day max because you don't want to disturb the clotting action that is required to heal the wound. I think you may believe that you can eat something and then just rinse it out with the salt water. The texture of the processed foods get packed into the hole and do not rinse out easily. Whereas the whole foods that I have mentioned do not pack as easily into the hole nor do they ferment like the processed, sugar foods do.

I think you may looking for some quick meal foods and reaching for pre packaged processed and fortified foods. That may be what you are use to but in the scheme of things, they really do not offer you much nutritional benefit at all.

Home made soups with lots of cooked veggies and shredded chicken or shredded beef, chili, smoothies... these can be very filling and nutritious. You can add protein powder to any of these to pack an even more powerful protein punch. You can add a tablespoon of organic unrefined coconut oil to any of them and get the benefit of eating a healthy and filling fat. All of which provide nutrition and energy.

You can take a protein smoothies with you when you play golf. The fact that it is a liquid instead of a more solid food does not mean that it has less protein, carbs or fats. It's just in a different texture than you are use to.

Regarding the q-tip cleaning .... you cannot see if you are pushing debris deeper into the hole or not because the hole is a lot deeper than you realize. Any type of forced movement inside of that socket is not advisable.

Let us know what the dentist has to say today.
Bryanna

Again thanks Bryanna. The Dentist said like you to not use a Q-tip and use a small syringe filled with warm water. He said to irrigate the food out of the socket. I have already tried it and it seems to work ok.

He said it looked good but the food was causing the pain because it has not 100 % healed yet. He was shocked on how good the other two looked. The one of the left top did not even leave a hole but he put stitches in that one.

He said they were healed up great but give the other one some time and keep it clean.

No infection and once I get it clean now the pain stops. I wonder why he didn't mention the irrigation thing before but anyway it looks like the way to go.

He told me not to use any more salt water mix, that the healing is past that ? I still may use it on the bottom right tooth though just to be safe. What you think ? maybe listen to him but I do trust your judgement also.

All three sockets are still tender but the ones on the left are great and I don't think there would be a way to mess up the clot unless I bit on a bone or something to puncture it and I will not be doing that

He said it would take a while but the hole where tooth was removed in bottom right would get better and over time the socket would fill in ?

To be honest I have been eating lots of things from a can which is not very healthy but pretty good in taste. My blood pressure has been great and this morning just for the heck of it I checked my blood sugar. It was 88. I checked @ 2 hours after eating more carbs than normal and it was 120 so things are much better than before for some reason. I know I eat a meal the other night with at least 60 carbs and in two hours again I was at 120. I am not going to bother testing for a while as the B/P and B/S seemed to be doing great. I have not even done any walking but got to get started back soon.

Tomorrow I will play golf and take some smoothies with me and maybe something else that will not get in the clot. I will not have a way other than washing with water to get food out but I think it will be fine until I get home. Again, thanks and maybe I am on the mend. Tom

Tom,

The dentist did not mention the irrigating syringe before now because it is BEST not to use it for the first week or two. Ideally, the sockets should be left alone so as not to disturb the initial blot clotting. However, at this stage when starchy food gets trapped in the socket it's okay to gently irrigate the socket with warm water. But please don't over due it as it will slow down the healing. I would continue with the salt water rinsing every day, twice a day for another week or so.

Yes, walking would be a great exercise for you to do. OR... forgo the golf cart, hire a caddy to carry your bag and walk the golf course!! )

Have a good night!
Bryanna

Bryanna, have you got any idea how long this socket will continue to hurt? Tonight is feels like a toothache but there is no tooth. I have tried my best to keep it clean.

If I had know this one tooth was going to cause this much trouble I would have left it be and waited until it started hurting before I did anything about it.

I go into the Dentist office feeling fine. Now two weeks later after the extractions the one socket is still hurting.

I had baked chicken and sweet potato tonight and used the syringe to clean the socket as soon as I eat. It did not hurt until about hour ago, 3.5 hours after I eat.

I have not eaten anything since. I just had water to drink. I wish there was something I could do to speed up the healing process. The other two sockets are fine. No pain after I eat at all. Why this one is a mystery to me.

Tom,

I'm sorry you are still having problems with that one extraction site.

The toothache pain that you have can be due to the blood clot being disturbed early on after the extraction as well as the frequent cleaning of the socket... all of which can cause the bone to become dry. The initial blood clot or any (undisturbed) subsequent blood clots keep the bone moist so the fibrous tissue can form and integrate with the clot allowing the wound to close. The blood clot protects the deep wound and the bone like a blanket from germs and debris. But every time the clot dislodges, germs and debris get into the wound. To make matters worse, forcefully cleaning out the wound disrupts the healing in a similar way to the dislodging of the clot as it prevents or prolongs the fibrous tissue from forming properly leaving the wound open and the bone unprotected.

Another thing that prevents or prolongs the healing process is if the periodontal ligament was not removed in it's entirety after he removed the tooth. A retained ligament can easily become a source of a bacterial infection which could cause a toothache like pain.

So the toothache you feel is most likely coming from an exposed or unprotected jaw bone and/or remnants of the ligament, other debris, or a piece of the tooth. It is best to go back and see the dentist, explain the tooth ache pain and have him take an xray. The xray is helpful for the following reasons:

1) To see if the periodontal ligament was removed in it's entirety or if it's still in the bone.

2) To see if there is other debris or a piece of broken tooth lodged in there.

3) To check the status of the early stages of healing. The bone has not begun to fill in yet as it takes weeks or months for that to show radio-graphically and up to one year for the bone to fill in completely. The gum tissue closes over long before the bone fills in.

If the ligament is non existent, there is no bony fragments or tooth remnants present in the site, and no other signs of infection ... then it could be that the repeated food impaction and the cleaning of the socket may be what is interrupting the healing process. If that is the case, then ask the dentist what he suggests you do about it.

How much water do you drink in a day? What other beverages do you drink? Staying well hydrated and avoiding sugar and fake sugar substitutes are key elements in healing from oral surgery.

Bryanna

Bryanna, today I have had three 20 oz bottles of water and the day is not over. I had only the yogurt smoothies when playing golf and water of course. No solid food since scrambled eggs at breakfast and I cleaned the socket good after.

Driving up the road from the course I played this afternoon the tooth socket started hurting like crazy just out of the blue . I did use the syringe when I got home but I did not get anything out. It is looking better so maybe I will give it more time and stay away from any food that can get trapped.

If I continue to have pain I will call him next week and ask about x-rays again. I don't think I could mess up the clot now as it looked good and no blood in several days now.

I think looking back that this right bottom never formed a good clot like the other two. It was hard to apply pressure on three teeth at the same time and I don't think I had enough pressure on the bottom right and never got a good clot.

I sure hope he got all the extracted tooth out on bottom right. He claimed all went really well when he pulled them but yet he knocked off the crown next to the one I am having problems with now. He also hit my top teeth hard because this one tooth was hard to remove.

I know it has a deep socket. I could just fill it with water and drink from it the rest of the day while playing golf lol Again thanks for your help. I will continue to update you on how things are going.

Hope you and your family have a great holiday weekend. Tom