Dry Socket

For almost a week I had only slept about three hours per night because the pain was so intense. I had not even taken a Tylenol in over a decade, but now I was cycling maximum doses of Advil, Tylenol, and Oxycodone. It wasn’t enough. At times the pain became so intense that I writhed in agony on my bed and beat my fists against the wall just trying to get through the minutes and make it to the next dose of painkiller, which only slightly took the edge off. Dry socket is one of the most painful things imaginable.

Like most people, I have gone through many painful experiences in my life. When I was five years old, I broke my pinky riding an ATC. When I was twelve, I broke my collar bone riding a dirt bike. As an adult, I once stepped on a nail at a construction site, and it went all the way through my foot and poked out the top. As an electrician, I have been shocked by 110, 220, and 277 volts. I have even been tasered by the police for 22 seconds straight at 50,000 volts. None of these things even came close to the pain I experienced due to dry socket.

Dry socket, also known as alveolar osteitis, is a condition that can sometimes happen after an adult tooth is extracted. In my case, it was one of my wisdom teeth. The condition involves the blood clot at the extraction site coming loose and exposing the raw bone and nerve endings beneath. The pain then radiates through that whole side of your face, head, and neck, and turns each nerve ending into a cruel implement of torture.

When I went to the dentist to have my wisdom teeth extracted, although it was not a pleasant experience, everything seemed to go well. I stayed awake through the procedure and was given a local anesthetic. As I lay on my back with my eyes shut and my mouth held open, the dentist seemed to bear down with all his might as he sought to rip out teeth that had been firmly embedded in my mouth for many years. To the sound of the crunching and cracking of my own teeth, I felt him pushing, pulling, and downright yanking until they finally came loose. It seemed more like the work of an auto mechanic or a demolition worker than a medical procedure. When it was all over, everything seemed fine, and I was sent home with instructions on how to recover, which I followed to a T. The first few days were normal, but then the incredible pain began. I had developed a dry socket.

I wondered if other people had experienced the unbelievable levels of pain I felt. Many people online told their own horror stories. One lady even mentioned that she had given birth to eight children naturally, but that her experience with dry socket was worse! One person said they would have been willing to have their jaw amputated. Some people mentioned that clove oil provided relief. I put clove oil in my mouth, and it felt exactly like inserting a hot poker from the fireplace into the socket.

It is ironic that something so tiny can cause so much pain and take your entire body out of commission. In the words of scripture, “Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth!” The Bible also says regarding the body that if “one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.” There are a lot more dramatic ways to get injured or experience suffering, but in my experience, this little invisible torment is the absolute worst. May you never have to experience it yourself.