Originally Posted by Bryanna

Hi Kaleigh,

I am in the dental field and can offer you some information here.

Complete healing from a tooth extraction takes up to one year. During that time the site heals slowly but progressively providing there is no chronic infection.

It is typical to have some pain, tenderness, or discomfort at the site of the extraction for several weeks post op. If the site developed a dry socket or infection these symptoms can linger a bit longer. It is also typical to have radiating discomfort to other areas of the mouth, the face, the jaw, the ear... for several weeks after wisdom tooth removal as the jaw had to be opened very wide to gain access to these teeth. This opening puts a lot of stress on the jaw muscle and ligaments. But most of the time all of this discomfort subsides completely.

You stated that you "clean the extraction site". It is best to not put anything directly into the site like a q tip or your finger or anything that you would use to "wipe" the socket out because each time you do this, you disturb the clotting of the blood. The site is not meant to be dry and that is what happens when you deliberately go in and clean it out. The site needs to remain wet inside, not with water or peridex, but with the natural breakdown of the blood clot. Physically cleaning out the socket disrupts the blood clot and dries out the bone. A dry bone is painful and slows down the healing.

It is wise to rinse thoroughly with warm salt water 3-4 times a day. Keep your mouth very clean and eat nutritiously. All of these things will aid in the healing process.

I hope this helps!


QUOTE=KaliH;1080339]Hi! My name is Kaleigh and I had three wisdom teeth removed almost two weeks ago. I am nineteen years old and the removed teeth were the Two upper and one lower right tooth. No impacting on any.
I started having bad :abnormal pain around the 6th day after my teeth were removed on my lower right wisdom tooth and found out I had an infection way later on.
So I have been on antibiotics ever since last Tuesday July 1st and I had been washing my extraction site with perodex to help medicate and clean it better, until today when I switched over to warm salt water because my pain has been getting better and I think my infection is going away but my jaw pain is pretty bad and when I clean my extraction site it throbs and hurts, but it's not the bad infection kind of throb I was having before, it's more like a tender ache that takes awhile to go away. Is this normal and when will this go away?? I just want all this pain to be over with and I want to heal already and make sure my infection is for sure going away and that this tender feeling and jaw pain is normal?!?