Ways To Treat Dry Socket

Rinse With Salt Water

One form of flushing out dry socket is to rinse with salt water. Dentists and oral surgeons recommend this practice as it can help eliminate bacteria within the mouth and keep the socket from becoming infected. Or, if it is already infected, can at least limit the infection from spreading to other gums. Patients should take about half a teaspoon of salt and dissolve it into eight ounces of warm water. Then, they should stir the mixture thoroughly to make sure the salt has dissolved entirely before rinsing their mouth with it by swishing the water around like mouthwash. Special attention should be placed on the socket to make sure it is thoroughly cleansed of any growing bacteria. Afterward, patients can spit the water out into the sink. The dentist or surgeon may also give patients a syringe to help rinse only the dry socket. This practice should be performed three times a day or at least after meals.

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Avoid Smoking

One important means of treating dry socket is to avoid smoking. This can also prevent dry socket from happening in the first place. It's best to avoid smoking entirely before the extraction, but if a patient can't manage this, limiting their smoking habit is still beneficial. Smoking should also be limited and avoided after the tooth extraction procedure. Patients can ask their dentist about how to manage their smoking habit, including if they have any advice on how to smoke cigarettes in a way that reduces the risk of developing dry socket. This might even be the best time for patients to stop smoking entirely, given that smoking has several different and serious health consequences. The best thing for an individual's oral health is to stop smoking, and their dentist will probably stick to that. If individuals already have dry socket, the chemicals in cigarettes can make the pain worse.

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