Friday, September 28, 2007

The Dry Socket Diet and Why I Love Clove Oil

I never thought I'd be tired of ice cream. But I am. I had my wisdom teeth out 8 days ago. I actually did the whole thing awake, which was a bit unpleasant, but I didn't want them to put me to sleep, because my daughter still nurses just about every night. Sure, I could have pumped for a day, but I threw away the breast pump when she turned a year old. I had, like most women, a love-hate relationship with that thing.

Anyway, I developed this charming thing called "dry socket" in one of my little tooth holes. Apparently, this happens about 5% of the time (boy am I good at developing those 5% side effects and complications!), and it means your tooth hole probably didn't clot right, and as a result you have an open wound with bit of bone and/or nerve hanging out. It really quite painful. I found myself whining and moaning every night, and actually had trouble sleeping. The pain really wasn't helped by OTC remedies such as Advil or Tylenol at all.

So, because of all this pain, I pretty much wasn't eating much at all. I ate broth and ice cream. Occasionally, I'd try swallowing noodles in soup or bits of mushed up baked potato, but the effort involved was painful and usually ended up getting little bits of food stuck in the poor holes in my mouth. Ice cream is probably the most pleasant thing to eat, since it's cold, but after polishing off two entire containers of ice cream, I'm tired of it! In fact, in the past week, I've lost 4-5 pounds. So, folks, if you want to lose weight, try my dry socket diet! Eat all the ice cream you want and still lose weight!

Thankfully, my husband took pity on me (or he simply got tired of my incessant whining) and he called the dentist two days ago. They said they could see me immidiately, and they packed my poor little socket with a dressing covered in clove oil. Now, this really felt horrible at first. They have to jam that little dressing in there, and it's really quite disgusting and painful (I don't even want to know what the "squishy sounds" I heard were). But within a few minutes it felt a little better, and by evening, I was actually smiling! I slept well that night and even had the patience to stay up with the baby, trying to get her to do anything but nurse, since I've been trying to wean her for three months now. (But when you have painful wisdom teeth, 87 million painful sinus infections, and all sorts of other craziness, it's hard to try really hard to wean anyone.)

Today, after I got my socket re-packed (didn't hurt at all!) I actually enjoyed the clove oil taste. I love cloves! So I stopped by the grocery store and picked up some nice soups that I can blend up with my beloved hand blender (no chunks!) and made sure to steer myself towards the ones that would go well with cloves (mmm... pumpkin bisque...).

Yay clove oil! You saved my mouth!

31 comments:

Fanelope said...

I am not as thrilled about the cloves. Even drinking water sucks. I'm glad I found your post, I'm looking forward to feeling better this evening and perhaps smiling. What's really funny is that I have an 8 month old daughter!! Thanks for the pick me up!

Anonymous said...

So funny, I just returned from the dentist smiling, also had a dry socket after having just 1 wisdom tooth removed. Also nursing my 15 month old and tried to avoid medication until I just could not take it anymore. Thanks for sharing the story!

Anonymous said...

I can't stand the taste of cloves! But I do like the idea of losing weight. Thanks for sharing your story.. Glad that hope just might be on the horizon..

ThinkTankTed said...

Ughhh. Dry Socket here this week too...worst pain ever...Dentist said he has had female patients that would rather go through childbirth again. It was bad, but I am betting those women are wide-hipped fertility goddesses who have had less difficult birth experiences than the ladies I know.

JDice said...

I got all 4 of my wisdom teeth pulled on a Friday by that follwing Monday I was in excruciating pain. Made an appointment and was told I had a dry socket. It has been a week and all I've been able you eat are foods that are easy to swallow with minimal chewing. I got my second clove oil pack put in today this one being triple the size and saturation of the first one. The pain I felt when they put it in was insane I.dont know how he fit all of it in the hole. I cant go back until monday and today is friday maybe thats why he used so much. I would rather have 5 babies back to back then feel pain like I've felt with this dry socket. Yes you do lose weight Ive dropped 8 pounds in a week because of this.

Ashley Vasos-Aust said...

I enjoyed your story, but I have to disagree about the clove oil taste! The nurses and oral surgeon were so nonchalant about the horrific taste of the cloves, I really had no idea what was about to go down. I'm almost 19 years old and I had all 4 of my impacted wisdom teeth removed at once. So, 10 days after the surgery I was due for my post-op appointment. Well 2 days before that, my jaw and teeth themselves began to ache like crazy. Not to mention the smell in my mouth was building to be worse and worse. Changing the dressing was the key to the aches and smell! Too bad the dressing is uncomfortable to jam into the socket, and it's taste is sooo menthol-y it burns and no amount of liquid can make it go away!

Renee said...

I feel much better with the treatment...I can eat, not in pain, did not have bad experience w/dentist putting in the medicated gauze...glad I made appt., I was walknig around with gauze all day and taking ibuprophen..the whole thing was getting expensive

Anonymous said...

I had just one tooth pulled Thanksgiving Day in the ER because it had partially shattered (very long story) and was in some serious pain two days later. I found the Red Cross Toothache kit at my local CVS, thankfully, because it was still the holiday weekend and not a single dentist was to be found! On Monday I had the area cleaned, fragments removed, and packed with more clove dressings. Because I am diabetic I will have a few more weeks of this mess. I can't even tolerate cold, hot, or anything but near room temp food. I am very sure I am keeping the chicken broth makers in business and can't wait to enjoy something resembling food!!!

Anonymous said...

clove oil instant pain relief dabbed on and around socket with cotton bud works every time zzzzzz

alabamamama1985 said...

I am going through the same thing I had three wisdom teeth removed on a Sunday that Friday I had developed dry socket. I wasnt able to go to the dentist so I got online and saw how I could possibly fix it myself,read about the emergency toothache kit and this particular posting said to take the tiny cotton balls soak them in the clove oil and shove them in the hole. It took 4 of those suckers to fill the hole but after that I was fine UNTIL I decided the next night to change them out. What a mistake I was able to get the first one out no problem but the last three was complete hell getting them out I literally had to grab the same tweezers I used to put them in there bend it to make it like a stick and fish them out of there. HORRIBLE. Please people dont do that! There was ALOT of blood involved too. The next night I decided to stuff a whole piece of guaze in there with the clove oil but the whole piece wouldnt fit only a tiny piece would and thats with me using those same tweezers to jam it in there. The next say it was kinda coming out so I removed it boy did it look disgusting when I took it out. Now I have just given up and called the dentisit who of course cannot see me today but he said to do the saltwater rinse and flush out the hole with the irrigation syringe again. He also said for me not to eat anything that could get in there which is almost everything lol. He's gonna see me tomorrow and he said he is going to permenately take care of it tomorrow. Which I was glad cuz I do not live close and I was worried about having to go there several times to get the gauze switched out.I am about to go to my weight loss clinic appt so we will see if Ive lost any weight. Moral of the story dont do your own dental work for the love of PETE!

Anonymous said...

Hey guys! I have some weird genes in my family..long story short is I'm 37 years old and still have baby teeth! Yes I know you think it's not possible but it is. Myself along with my sister and 2 of my cousins are cursed with this problem. My grandmother still had every baby tooth in her mouth when she passed at the age of 88, and could eat anything she wanted without pain. But this according to several dentists was due to the fact that my grandmother didn't take care of her teeth like we do and still had enamel left. Where as I have brushed almost all of mine off. But because of this I am in the process of getting teeth pulled. On top of it all what perm teeth i do have have jacked up roots so my reg dentist can't pull them oh no I have to see a oral surgeon. So in the last year I have had 8 teeth cut out(previous teeth have been removed without a dry socket happening) so before these being removed I had never had a dry socket... But the os I have now apparently does not believe in stitches because I have developed a dry socket each time. And every time I have lost the blood clot as soon as I have got home and changed the gauze. I'm in real pain with this one...I had 3 removed this past Friday...one was a baby tooth and the gum is sore but nothing to bad, the 2nd one was already broke before surgery so just soreness there. But the 3rd one had a root that curved into my sinus cavity and it is the worse pain worse than it felt before. I can't get back into see dentist till Tuesday due to holiday weekend and them being closed Monday. The pain goes from throbbing in the gum around the hole to my eye.... I have iced it, rinsed with the mouthwash I was prescribed taking the pain meds and nothing is helping!!! I think after this heals I am finding a diff oral surgeon.......

Unknown said...

So my husband and I decided to take care of any health problems before we have a baby. This includes my vitamin deficiency and wisdom teeth being removed. Well the operation went okay and no problems as of pain it sucked. So I noticed that it hurt to talk and the stitches pulled this is the 2 day. I thought they we post to be gone. Called the doctor say oh that's fine keep talking. Day three still in pain. Day for feel hungry and my mouth still hurts. 5 day pasta I should be okay to eat this!?! Nope this is when I noticed one big problem. There's a whole on the side. The same side where the stitches broke. So yeah I'm pretty much tired of foods that are soft and it's over 2 weeks(more then likely won't eat till it heals). My appointment will be here soon and they are getting a earful. I've never been this annoyed.

Unknown said...

I went in to have #3 extracted last Wednesday.
They ended up having to do a surgical extraction...
Today is Monday and it still hurts soo badly.

It wakes me up at night. I feel like I'm taking 2 ibuprophen every 2 hours. I ice it and only eat SOFT foods, which still HURTS so badly. I have stiches that are suppose to desolve on their own, and I finally called the dentist today to ask if the pain was suppose to last this long or be this severe because it was surgically extracted or what the deal was.


He told me to keep taking Tylenol and wrote me a prescription of antibiotics... told me to call back wendesday if no improvement....

I HATE HATE HATE Cloves, even the smell of them makes me gag... is there any other suggestions? I do not know if it is dry socket or not.. but I'm assuming with the amount of pain that has to be the case. How long will it take to heal if I don't get it packed? does anyone have experience?

Unknown said...

Love this post! Loved reading everyone's situations too! I definitely have dry socket too I'm on day 7 of horrible pain that won't go away! I'm taking Motrin every 6 hrs and Percocet when I can bc its so bad! I'm a nursing mom too and have been pumping and dumping for 7 days and I'm done with that too! 🙌 To nursing moms!!

Unknown said...

Hey I'm so sorry your going thru that. day 7 was bad enough for me, I couldn't handle it anymore, I'm a receptionist and it was agony at work. I finally went back to the dentist... turns out I DIDN'T have dry socket, I had 3 bone fragments that needed to be cut out and removed. 12 more stiches... that was last Wednesday, and I am feeling AMAZING now. Thank the lord. So I think that if it last long enough go to the dentist and get it checked!! Maybe its something other then dry socket. I would have been waiting in excruciating pain for weeks . I'm so glad I finally sucked up my pride and went in, I was so worried I was going to feel guilty for giving myself dry socket.




I hope everyone starts getting better SOON!!!

Unknown said...

Sesame oil is very soothing

Anonymous said...

Just had one of these evil bastards, on day 7 now, had it packed yesterday 3 hours later the pack fell out, ive eaten so many painkillers its unreal (organs-kidney/liver probably need a holiday now) never come across anything as painful, in fact, id rather give birth to all my 4 children again in succession rather than this constant pain, one whole week just doing nothing at all and trying without success to rid my body of it! if i still drank alcohol id have flushed the bugger out with a few drams, at least id have slept through the pain! if you are suffering too GET WELL SOON xxx

Denise Sanderson said...

Had dry socket once before and left it. This time after another double extraction (not wisdoms) I recognised the signs and was back to the dentist within days. Clove oil might taste foul, but for the pain relief, it's ace. I'm praying my packing doesn't come out before my next trip to the dentist because the pain is evil. Good luck to everyone with this problem. Here's to speedy healing and solid foods!

Evangeline said...

Superb i really enjoyed very much with this article here. Really its a amazing article i had ever read. I hope it will help a lot for all. Thank you so much for this amazing posts and please keep update like this excellent article.

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Junior said...

Does anyone know how long a dry socket usually take to close up? Thanks!

Unknown said...

So I've had the worst luck as well the last few months. It all started with going to the dentist to get my wisdom teeth referral to a surgeon. They took my bp. Turns out I was in critical state at 182/115. Heart rate in the 40s. After seeing multiple health professionals for months, we finally reduced my bp to normal with meds. Never found the cause to my bp, yes I exercise, and my weight is healthy. Also, I'm only 23 with no family history of high bp. Almost had a stroke, but got help quickly enough. Anyway, with my bp finally at normal with meds, I could get my impacted wisdom teeth out. Went to the hospital at 5am, left around 1pm. With my high bp, I was a high risk patient with concern of a heart attack. Again I'm only 23, wtf?! 5 days after surgery, I wake up crying in agonizing pain. As strange as it is, it's nice to hear everyone talk about the pain. Nobody is going to fully understand how painful a dry socket is unless you've had it. Anyway, I'm apparently extremely anemic, so my body was incapable of forming a blood clot. So even though I followed all the rules, my body just wants to hurt me. They stuffed it with gauze and clove oil (omg, the horror). I removed it with tweezers on day 2 as instructed (again omg, the horror). I asked for help on pain management, and they said 1000 of Tylenol and 800 of ibuprofen every 6 hours. They won't give me clove oil or stuff it again because it delays healing. Funny enough ibprofin raises bp, and now I'm getting dizzy and feint again. Anyway, it's nice to read everyone's stories, because it's reassuring I'll survive. Right now I'm tired of my body lottery trying to kill me. This is ridiculous. One positive in this mess. I had a migraine for 4 months straight, no breaks. They thought it was my bp, but even the normalizing of my bp had not fixed the chronic migraine. Since my wisdom teeth have been removed, I've had no headache for one week!!! Woot :)

Unknown said...

I'm glad I came across this blog. Yupe I have 2 dry sockets. Except only one has pain radiating from it. I just came back from the dentist and they jammed the clove oil pieces into the hole and told me to bite down on a gauze over it.

I'm still not sure how to eat around this or whether or not I should release the gauze now. It's been almost 2 hours. Of course the clove oil bits will stay in but the thick piece of gauze is still there. I just don't want to eat soup,custard or ice cream and clove oil bits come out.

Ramya said...

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Unknown said...

Cloves may taste like 💩 but THANK GOD FOR THEM!

Unknown said...

I just got treated for my second dry socket today. About 8 years ago I had my bottom right wisdom tooth removed bc it was infected. At the time my insurance would only remove the problem tooth. I ended up with a dry socket AND shingles in my 20s. I seriously would give birth naturally vs having that combination again.
So about 2 weeks ago my other bottom wisdom tooth, which was partially impacted, got infected. So they took all 3 of my remaining teeth out. This was on a Tuesday. By the weekend I was in so much pain. My top teeth are healing perfectly. I tried to be tough and put off going to the dentist but I finally got to the point where I had to go.
So they packed it with the cotton dipped in clove oil. Ew! It’s giving me a headache. Does the clove taste last until the packing comes out? I’m trying to drink flavorful things until I go back Monday. Help!!!

Unknown said...

Yes this is truly painful gross stuff, dry socket,would not wish it upon my worst enemy hmmmmm. I had a back molar extracted a week and two days ago and I knew the afterward pain was not normal, so I was taking prescription strength anti inflammatory which is fine in the short term and thankfully helped. I finally said enough is enough and got emergency appointment with the dental clinic and they did the clove pack deal yuck �� is right!! Taste all nasty and feels weird AF. And I got a hint of infection on top of it so mean. Anyway glad I found this site thanks for your stories. And someone recommend I pray the rosary still have to do that! ��✌��

Jeyapragash R said...

So Funny.... Great post..

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Oris Dental said...

Really very nice post.Thanks!

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Great article.Thank you!

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dominique6026 said...

Hi, I loved reading everyone's comment, I had one of my molars pulled on Thursday, today its Wednesday and I am constantly in pain, I called the dentist and she gave me stronger pain killer that I can take in the evening as I work during the day.
tonight I'm thinking of getting some ice cream for the pain, I'm sooo hungry just want to eat all the time, what I found was that the Weetbix Up and Go is pretty good, however I went through 2 of them already, along with Jelly, I can kind of eat 2min noodles but must be a bit watery otherwise it's difficult to eat. Giving birth is way Less painful than a Dry Socket.
How long does it take before it officially heals

Dr.Senthil Kumar said...
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