‘Incidence Of Dry Socket\' In Benin City: Analysis Of 21 Cases

Abstract

‘Dry socket' quite often complicates extraction of teeth. The purpose of this study was to analyse the cases of dry socket seen in our hospital in order to provide baseline data for future comparison and prevention. The case-notes of all patients who had intra-alveolar extractions between 1994 and 2002 were obtained from the medical records Department of the Dental hospital and analysed for age, gender, tooth/teeth extracted, mode of extraction and treatment. Of the 11, 572 teeth extracted within the review period, 0.18% of the extraction sockets were infected. The lower molar sockets (76.2%) were more commonly infected than the sockets of the other teeth. Extraction sockets of females were more commonly infected than males. About 60.0% of dry sockets occurred in the age group 18 to 30 years. The average time of reporting pain and infection of socket was 3.4 days although 35% of patients who had pain reported within 48 hours of extraction. Zinc oxide/Eugenol dressing was the mainstay of treatment after irrigation of the socket with normal saline. The low incidence of dry socket in this review shows that it is not a common complication of tooth extraction in our hospital.

Keywords: Dry socket, incidence

Annals of Biomedical Science Vol. 2 (2) 2003: pp. 82-87