An investigation in the incidence of dry socket and factors affecting the incidence

Abstract EN

“This retrospective study is part of a thesis submitted to the University of Manchester in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of MSc in oral surgery in 1995.” Objective: To investigate the incidence of dry socket in patients who underwent dental extraction at Manchester dental hospital during 1994, and to evaluate the effect of age, sex, site of extraction, multiple and single extraction, kind of extraction, general health, oral hygiene and smoking on the incidence of dry socket.

Methods: Data related to this study were picked up from the records of oral and maxillofacial surgery department.

The target sample of this study comprised of those patients who revisited the clinic with pain complaint following dental surgery and subsequently diagnosed by the dentist as having dry socket.

The files of those patients have been fully reviewed where other related data were collected such as: age, sex, site of extractions, single or multiple extraction, type of extraction, modules of treatment, smoking and oral hygiene condition of the patient.

Results: The total number of the patients who underwent dental extraction in 1994 was 4092.

The number of teeth extracted was 5516.

Only 108 patients returned with 115 dry sockets giving a dry socket incidence of 2.6 % of cases and 2.1 % of the teeth extracted.

Dry socket has been found to be affected significantly by age, site of extraction, type of extraction, oral hygiene and smoking.

Conclusion: The etiology of this condition is considered to be multifactorial as the incidence was affected by the previously mentioned factors.

Also it is concluded that dry socket is a self-limiting condition and the different types of treatment did not affect the course of the disease, which usually takes 10 - 14 days to resolve.