Originally Posted by kate9989

Hello! In looking for some advice for my issues, I found this forum and figured I'd post my situation.

I had 3 wisdom teeth removed on 9/10/15 - two on top and the bottom right. Both top and bottom on the right were impacted and the top left erupted about a year ago and never caused me any trouble. I did not have a fourth.

Healing was hell. I had a reaction to the pain killers and had severe vomiting for a few days and then my bottom right side got a dry socket and it was the worst pain I've ever had. I went to get it packed once, but did not go back again and instead took motrin + tylenol to manage the pain as I don't like bothering the dentist for her to tell me "pain is normal with a dry socket"


Anyway, the pain finally started to subside yesterday but today I woke up and my bottom right side was a little swollen. Oddly enough, the extraction site feels better than ever and my teeth sensitivity is gone.

With the swelling, it feels like a sore muscle but hurts quite a bit. I discovered that area is where the "masseter" muscle is and it can sometimes be strained during the procedure, but I'm not sure why it would suddenly start to swell now after 3 weeks.

My boyfriend seems to think swelling = infection and I don't think he is wrong, but I have no other symptoms of infection. I feel mostly fine, I don't have a fever, no swollen lymph nodes or anything.

Any idea why I'd have swelling now? 3 weeks after my extraction? I plan on going to the dentist tomorrow, but I'm just worried and wanted to see if anyone had any idea what's going on! So far, research has led me to believe it's either an up and coming jaw infection or muscle trauma.
Thanks for reading!


Oh, i'm 26, have pretty excellent oral hygiene I'd say, never had cavities, have been rinsing and irrigating with a syringe and warm salt water only, and have been following all instructions to a T. There is a fairly large hole, but it seems to be healing fine. No pus or weird smells and it's not red or anything.