Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Treatments and drugs
By Mayo Clinic staffTreatment of dry socket is mainly geared toward reducing its symptoms, particularly pain. Dry socket treatment includes:
- Medicated dressings. This is the main way to treat dry socket. Your dentist or oral surgeon generally packs the socket with medicated dressings. You may need to have the dressings changed several times in the days after treatment starts. The severity of your pain and other symptoms determines how often you need to return for dressing changes or other treatment.
- Flushing out the socket. Your dentist or oral surgeon flushes the socket to remove any food particles or other debris that has collected in the socket and that contributes to pain or infection.
- Pain medication. Talk to your doctor about which pain medications are best for your situation. If over-the-counter pain relievers aren't effective, you may need a stronger prescription pain medication.
- Self-care. You may be instructed how to flush your socket at home to promote healing and eliminate debris. To do this, you'll be given a plastic syringe with a curved tip to squirt water, salt water, mouthwash or a prescription rinse into the socket. You may need to continue to do this daily for three or four weeks.
Once treatment is started, you may begin to feel some relief in just a few hours. Pain and other symptoms should continue to improve over the next few days. Complete healing typically goes smoothly and generally takes about 10 to 14 days.
- Adeyemo WL, et al. Clinical evaluation of post-extraction wound site healing. Journal of Contemporary Dental Practice. 2006;7(3):40-49.
- Roberts JR, et al. Clinical Procedures in Emergency Medicine. 4th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2004.
- Neville BW, et al. Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology. 3rd ed. St. Louis, Mo.: Saunders Elsevier; 2009:150-153.
- Hita-Iglesias P, et al. Effectiveness of chlorhexidine gel versus chlorhexidine rinse in reducing alveolar osteitis in mandibular third molar surgery. Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. 2008;66:441-445.
- Noroozi A, et al. Modern concepts in understanding and management of the "drysocket" syndrome: Comprehensive review of the literature. Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology & Endodontics. In press. Accessed Sept. 9, 2008.
