... from a few days ago... or is it normal to have a hole where the tooth was extracted no a few days later? I had a top right molar extracted a few days ago and last night after swishing with a stronger salt water rinse ( I just found out) than I shouldn't, I noticed the hole where my tooth was feels deeper( and looks like it) than just a few minutes prior to rinsing. Could I have washed to blood clot from 3 days ago away? Or could it be okay? ( normal)If I were to LOOK at the area... what should I expect to SEE? I am having much neck/head pain ( still) as it most likely aggravated an already sore med issue in those places. Please help! Any place online to VIEW pics of this??

For one thing, Kitten, you have to leave the cavity alone, stop poking at it, stop looking at it and it will heal up and you will have no more worries. What did you do, poke your finger in it to see how it was doing ? Not a good idea, it is an open wound for now until your body heals it naturally. And it will. If you normally clot easily (from a cut or whatever) then you will clot easily in this cavity.

Let it be and heal.

Tick

Kitten,
It is normal to have a hole where the tooth was removed. The blood clot does eventually disappear and it will take some time for the area to close. In the mean time do as tickle said, keep your fingers out of the hole! Keep rinsing gently with warm salt water. If you are having pain you should go back to see the dentist who removed the tooth.

Please help. I am wondering does the blood clot wash away on its own? I am 12 days after tooth extraction and my gums and hole are not closed yet. I don't see nothing no white tissue or nothing in the hole after washing with salt water. Was wondering since the hole heals from bottom up I am not in any risk of dry socket correct?? As long as I rinse with salt water? ALL ANSWERS GREATLY APPRECIATED THANK YOU ALL!

After 12 days, there IS NO blood clot! You are well on the way in the healing process. If you are worried, go to the dentist!

I just want to know the hole is big you know... and food keeps getting stuck and jammed in there.. and I keep chewing on one side.. and it is making my jaw bones hurt.. is there any possible way the dentist can give me something or put something for the gums to close faster... I know everybody heals at different rates... but I was wondering it is now my 14th day po extraction... am I out of dry socket land?? And I was wondering by when the gum will close up and fill with bone? I am not a smoker or anthing like that... I will await your reply.. u been a superb help greatly appreciated I will refer you to others flossie have a wonderful day

The socket will close in good time. Some times it takes MONTHS for it to close completely. Like I mentioned before, to put your mind at ease, go back and see the dentist who took the tooth out. I'm sure he will reassure you that everything is healing nicely.

What color is the blood clot after tooth extraction suppose to be?

What color is the blood clot after tooth extraction suppose to be?

Red

Hello all ! I am on my 12th day after LOWER MOLAR extraction. I am a smoker but I did "quit" for 4 whole days after it was removed. I swear I had night terrors about the dreadful "DRY SOCKET" ! I am noticing my clot is basically gone, but my hole is WIDE OPEN!! As a smoker you could imagine my anxiety! I did contact my dentist and she said all is well and it seems to be healing nicely. She said no worries, but if it would make me feel better to continue salt water rinses as "I" deemed needed ! I have no pain, and had next to no pain after it was pulled. I have a ZERO pain tolerance and was afraid my mind would tell me it hurt when it didn't. ALL is good ! It is kind of scarey to at one point try so hard to keep the clot , then it starts shrinking, and you see a hole ! Trama! But I hope my post helps! I have a pretty good size hole and no pain. Rinsing with salt water even 12 days later seems to help "ME" feel better, gives me a piece of mind !

I just want to know the hole is big you know... And food keeps getting stuck and jammed in there.. And I keep chewing on one side.. And it is making my jaw bones hurt.. Is there any possible way the dentist can give me something or put something for the gums to close faster... I know everybody heals at different rates... But I was wondering it is now my 14th day po extraction ... Am I out of dry socket land? And I was wondering by when the gum will close up and fill with bone? I am not a smoker or anthing like that... I will await your reply.. You been a superb help greatly appreciated I will refer you to others flossie have a wonderful day

Rabbo, I had a tooth pulled three weeks ago (21 days) that still has a pretty big hole (food gets stuck in it and so forth). I went to the dentist today and he looked at my previous sites before he pulled the teeth he pulled today. My holes are healing fine, including that deep one.

It takes a long time for the bone to fill in. The flesh fills in first. At 14 days post, I would think you are totally and completely out of danger of a dry socket.

Kitten, I would think there's no problem. I had 7 teeth extracted the first time, 8 the next. That next time, I had a hole that was deep, but none of the others were. (See my message to Rabbo in this post.) I didn't think to ask the dentist why that hole was huge and the others weren't, so I'm no help as to "why".

Thanks CBIRTH21

You totally brought me back from the brink of freak-out-ville!! I've been trolling the net trying to find someone in my similar situation, as I too am a smoker and had my wisdoms out two weeks ago. I feel no pain but the whole there was freaking me out... phew

I'm totally freaking out what colour is the clot suppose to be? A dark red?
Cause that's what I'm seeing and I literally can't sleep, I'm scared of getting dry socket.
Please give me some peace of mind

i'm totally freaking out what colour is the clot suppose to be?? a dark red??
cause thats what i'm seeing and i literally can't sleep, i'm scared of getting dry socket.
please give me some peace of mind

Of course it is supposed to be dark red. Clot is blood and you need it in that area to promote healing.

I am trying to figure out something. I am a smoker and I had my lower wisdom teeth cut out and ended up with Dry Socket, which believe me people you nevedr want to get!! I just had a lower molar cut out on Friday and today is Sunday and I noticed that part of my blood clot is gone. I have taken all precautions and even extra precautions since I am a smoker. I have not had any really severe pain, but it worries me that part of the clot is gone and scared to death that I am going to end up with Dry Socket again. Has any one been in this situtation or has any suggestions?

I LOVVVEEE YOUR ANSWER I THINK ME AND YOU ARE THE SAME! I am day 3 post surgery and I smoked about 3 -4 times a day since extraction (heavy 15 year addict) with a wet gauze in my extraction site and trying my hardest to pulll on other side, I also rinse with salt water right after. I spend my days researching dry sockets and my nights scared to death I'm going to take one wrong pull and get a dry socket... MY QUESTION TO YOU IS how do I know my bloodclott is forming? I don't feel any pain so I'm guessing I don't have a dry socket yet but when looking at the ooth I just see a hole no real bloodcloot.. I keep Google imaging bloodclotts in tooth and just can't find a picture of how my tooth SHOULD be looking after extraction. I don't know when ill ever be in the clear and scared this extraction is going to rin my life ! Help !

p.s. when I take out the gauze I see some brownish dar stuff on it.. wdf is that ? Did you see that ? I smoke weed by the way

The brownish dark stuff is the blood clot,gitoo. Now stop smoking for a few days and keep that tar and nicotine out of your mouth that causes infection.

You should not be keeping the gauze on the extraction site. Dentist put that there to stop the bleeding.

The object of coming to this website, folks, is to get qualified answers about your problem from the experts, which is a lot better then 'wondering if anyone else had been in my situation'.

Hello everyone! I belong to the club of recently extracted teeth - yesterday to be precise, upper right molar - what seemed like the biggest tooth in my mouth was having the most troubles (infections, root canals and finally cracked) - I was glad it was out - almost like removing a tumour!

Anyway, I have been searching the web about blood clots, and I haven't found anyone answer this one yet - this morning I felt like a soft ball of something had come out of the socket (which was most likely the blood clot that had formed over night) - my question is, can blood clots fall out but then re-emerge? When having soup later today something similar came out - When I look in the mirror the extraction site looks exactly the same - a big hole.

I am currently in no pain, although I am taking ibuprofen every 4 hours seeing as it is my first day post-surgery.

What do you guys think? Can some blot clots fall out but re-occur and therefore aid healing? Dry socket is surely everyone's worst nightmare and I'd hate to deal with that over Christmas - eek! I am not a smoker and am avoiding straws and sucking through them - although when eating soup earlier today the long rice noodles did require a certain degree of suction - is this not a good idea?

Sorry for the lengthy post - but just wondered - if one blood clot goes does another come along?

Thank you for any answers that will help put me more in the picture :)

Hi tooth, no, once blood clot is gone another one does not appear. But I don't think you could feel it 'falling out', so probably still have it. Yes, no suction at all, even noodles. Rinse mouth out gently with salt water and if you are not in any pain, you are probably okay, even on the ibuprofen. Because as far as I am concerned, nothing stops pain in the mouth!

Hello!

Well, I guess you must know what you're talking about :) so thank you for the reassurance.

I did feel something "gunky" come out (I couldn't look at it though as I was in the company of other people :)) If that wasn't the blood clot what else could it have been? Just a dislodged part?

I have manned up and looked my tooth in the eye straight in the mirror and there isn't a gaping hole which I suspected that there would be - it seems to be a shiny dark red to white in some areas surface. No more noodles for me - promise, to help keep it all calm.

Ibuprofen has helped - I have stopped taking it now (day 2) and feel a little sore but far from what I experienced when my wisdom teeth came out, ouch!

How long before I can start eating noodles and drinking tea? :)

Thanks tickles!
Xxx

When can you start eating noodles and drinking tea? What did your dentist say?
Did he give you a list of dos and donts to adhere to?

You know why the blood clot is there, don't you? It is there because new blood fights infection. So I wouldn't have hot tea (have iced tea) or lukewarm tea and pass on the noodles and the suction for a couple of weeks. You will see the hole get smaller day after day.

I had a dry socket once and had a pontic over it (middle tooth in a bridge) so there was nothing that could be done to help it and it's no treat. I recently had the rest of my upper teeth removed and got a full upper plate, and had the dark red clots in the sockets for awhile but they are just there temporarily until the healing starts and a few days later they disappear.

So it's the first 2 to 3 days that are critical and that's where you're most at risk of a dry socket. Think of this as an open wound and you need something over it until you get a scab on it and then it's fine as long as you don't fool with it and take off the scab.

So tooth sockets work pretty much the same way and you will start to heal up right away but the blood clot helps protect it in the mean time. The key here is not to disturb the healing too much or you will have problems. The alternative to the blood clots in the initial stages is massive inflammation, otherwise known as a dry socket, which is your body's Plan B but it's a plan you don't want to see put in place.

So the best thing is to not worry about and not fool with it, keep your fingers and your tongue out of the thing, and just let your body do its work. Antibiotics can help prevent infection, and some dentists don't prescribe anything unless you ask, so bring this up with him or her whenever you get teeth pulled.

Even the dry socket

Sorry I didn't finish that post :) Even the dry socket is part of the healing process and does help you on your way when you need the help, and your body doesn't care about the pain it only cares about protecting itself. So if you get one, sure it does hurt but it's nothing to really worry about long term and is preferable to what could end up being a dangerous infection if you didn't have the reaction.

So if you do get a dry socket you just need to suck it up and there's not a lot the dentist can do other than pack it up and wait for the thing to be over. It does end though and you will then be on the road to recovery.

Sockets definitely take some real time to completely heal, as mentioned by others, and it's because bone just doesn't grow that fast. Your mouth is prepared for such incidents though and knows what to do, which is to fill in the hole with new bone and also grow some gums to close it off. It takes 6 months on average for all of this to happen, although the hole will close much sooner than that.

The bottom line here is that if you need to worry about any of this, you won't need people on here to alert you, your mouth definitely will instead, and in pretty clear terms. So if you're not in agony and it's been more than a few days the coast is probably clear :)

I am pretty sure I have dry socket. My mouth IS in pain as I type. It has been 7 days since the extraction but pain started 3 days ago. I had my back top right tooth extracted at a free clinic that is not open during the week only Thursdays and won't be open this week, so my check up would be 2 weeks post extraction. I'm not sure what to do right now, I feel like going to the ER. I can't call my dentist because well they aren't there! I can't see the socket because they stitched it so I wouldn't be able to tell if the blood cot is there but oh boy do I feel the pain. Pain to my ear and up my face to my eye! I put some gauze on it and it had pus on it with a smidgen of blood. Any advice here?

I am pretty sure I have dry socket. my mouth IS in pain as I type. It has been 7 days since the extraction but pain started 3 days ago. I had my back top right tooth extracted at a free clinic that is not open during the week only Thursdays and won't be open this week, so my check up would be 2 weeks post extraction. I'm not sure what to do right now, I feel like going to the ER. I can't call my dentist because well they aren't there! I can't see the socket because they stitched it so I wouldn't be able to tell if the blood cot is there but oh boy do I feel the pain. Pain to my ear and up my face to my eye! I put some gauze on it and it had pus on it with a smidgen of blood. Any advice here?

You are in another thread here so you are not going to good answers.

Why did they stitch it?

If you are seeing infection go to the ER.

Its 5 days after my tooth was pulled. It was red at first, then a few days later it started getting white over the top. Then on the 5th day, I noticed half my clot was gone. I've been rinsing it out with mouthwash. Now I just want to know if I'm at risk for "dry socket".

@Trista. Any disturbing mouthwash action is going to remove the clot. Any rinsing, and you should do it with salt water, unless it is very gentle, will dislodge the clot which is your healing element.

This is an old thread you piggybacked on, not a good idea for qualified answers. You should have started your own thread with a new post.

There is actually a lot a dentist can do for a dry socket and it is considered an emergency situation if you have one. The dentist will pack the socket with a special padding that is covered in Eugenol. Eugenia is very strong clove oil extract. It will help numb the pain. This process helps protect the nerve that is exposed which is the root of all the pain. Pun totally intended. The process is repeated daily until the pain subsides then weekly or biweekly determined by the dentist.