Bone Spur by wisdom tooth?
 

So I had my wisdom teeth pulled, and I noticed a tiny bump that was very hard by one of the sockets, I ignored it and it's been about 6 months and suddenly the spot hurt, a LOT. To the point I couldn't even smile without it hurting and this all happened in a matter of in 24 hours from no pain. I went to the Dentist on the 3rd day and they said it was a bone spur (I thought maybe it was some sort of infection) and after a quick glance the dentist saw two spurs, and then used a "bone file" to get rid of them. I was numbed so I felt nothing but now I'm not sure what really happened. Did the dentist make an incision and file my jaw directly? Or did they file through my gums, or what? I had to hold some gauze there for like 30 minutes as I was bleeding, I'm just trying to understand if this was a jagged socket that was poking through my gums or what. Thanks!

It is common to have some splintering of the jaw bone after a tooth extraction. In fact, the splintering can occur at different stages of the healing. They are called bony fragments, bone splinters, bone slivers, bone spurs.... all the same thing.

These pieces of bone can be super tiny or larger. They are pieces of the jaw bone that have split off during the extraction and got lodged against the socket or embedded in the tissue. Eventually they work their way up through the surgical area and poke through the gum tissue.

They can be painful or sore. Sometimes they fall out on their own .... sometimes they need a little help coming out.

If a piece of the bony fragment poking through the gum tissue is large enough to be grasped with surgical tweezers or forceps then there is no need to make an incision. If the fragment is barely poking through, then a slight incision or slit in the tissue is made to gain access to it.

If there is a need to actually file down the jaw bone, then an incision would be made, the bone would be filed and sutures would be placed.

Hope this information is helpful.
Bryanna