What is the Likelihood of Dry Socket After Wisdom Teeth Removal?

An interesting article titled “A re-audit to assess the incidence of alveolar osteitis within the Oral Surgery Department of a teaching hospital” appears in the 2017 edition of Oral Surgery written by Qalandari and Dargue (vol. 10, pp. e22-e29). In the article a discussion is made of determining the chances of experiencing dry socket after wisdom teeth removal in the oral surgery department of a hospital in Britain. Alveolar osteitis is the official name for what is commonly known as dry socket and is a common complication after wisdom teeth surgery. Dry socket is when there is pain in and around the extraction site after surgery which increases in intensity between one and three days after surgery and there is also a partially or totally disintegrated blood clot within the socket. The authors were interested in what the current incidence … Read more

Wisdom Teeth Tweets From Twitter

In the past some wisdom teeth related tweets from Twitter have been shared on this site. See for example the posts Wisdom Teeth Removal: Tweets from Twitter and Indications for Removal of Wisdom Teeth. Below are some more recent wisdom teeth related tweets that have been shared on Twitter. 1. Related to Dry Socket 2. Related to Growing Pains 3. Related to Nerve Damage 4. Related to Sinus Complications Hopefully you found the above tweets interesting and or relevant. From the tweets many people were not happy about experiencing dry socket after having wisdom teeth removed. Others were not happy with pain and/or headaches experienced when their wisdom teeth are growing in. Still others had concerns about nerve damage from having wisdom teeth extracted. Further other tweets were related to sinus complications experience after having a wisdom tooth extracted. If … Read more

Are female patients using oral contraceptives undergoing wisdom teeth removal at higher risk of dry socket?

An interesting article titled “A higher incidence of dry socket may be related to the use of oral contraceptives after impacted mandibular third-molar extraction” appears in the Oct. 2016 issue of JADA by Yumi Ogata and Yong Hur (Volume 147, Issue 10, pp. 840-842). The article discusses some of the issues surrounding whether in female patients undergoing impacted mandibular wisdom teeth removal, if the use of oral contraceptives increase the incidence of alveolar osteitis (also known as dry socket) when compared with female patients who do not use oral contraceptives. The researchers explore 3 electronic databases (MEDLINE via PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and Elsevier ScienceDirect) for relevant articles published up to April 2014. Two reviewers independently conducted quality assessments of the included studies by using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and resolve any disagreements through consensus with a third reviewer. The authors included 12 articles that reported on … Read more

The Effect of a Single Dose of Antibiotics Prior to Wisdom Teeth Surgery

An interesting article titled “A Systematic Review on Effect of Single-Dose Preoperative Antibiotics at Surgical Osteotomy Extraction of Lower Third Molars” appears in the 2016 Journal of Oral and Maxilofacial Surgery and written by Karoline Brørup Marcussen and et. al. (vol. 74, pp. 693-703). The authors sought to conduct a systematic review of randomized controlled trials to evaluate the effectiveness of a single dose of preoperative antibiotics for preventing infection and alveolar osteitis [dry socket] in lower wisdom tooth surgery performed with osteotomy. Using antibiotic prophylaxis to reduce the incidence and severity of postoperative complications in surgical removal of impacted lower wisdom teeth is controversial. All randomized controlled trials  (RCTs) evaluating the effect of all types of prophylactic antibiotics administered 20 to 120 minutes preoperatively versus no antibiotics or placebo on the incidence of infection after surgical removal of lower impacted wisdom up to 1 week after surgery, were reviewed by the authors. In the search, 196 search hits were found. … Read more

Does the Menstrual Cycle Effect the Possibility of Developing a Dry Socket After Wisdom Teeth Removal?

An interesting study is described exploring the possibility of the menstrual cycle affecting the possibility of developing a dry socket after wisdom teeth removal. This study is presented in the article titled ” Effect of Menstrual Cycle on Frequency of Alveolar Osteitis in Women Undergoing Surgical Removal of Mandibular Third Molar: A Single-Blind Randomized Clinical Trial,” by Majid Eshghpour, Naser Mohammadzadeh Rezaei, and AmirHossein Nejat, appearing in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (vol. 71, pp. 1484-1489, 2013). The article explores the association of between the menstrual cycle and the frequency of dry socket (alveolar osteitis). The authors report that various studies have shown a chance ranging from 5-30% of the possibility of developing a dry socket (alveolar osteitis) after wisdom teeth removal. (See the complications page of this website to see more on dry sockets http://www.teethremoval.com/complications.html) In the … Read more