Dawson's Parade of Self Pity and Pain

Due to a wisdom tooth extraction and a subsequent dry socket, I've been feeling sorry for myself extensively. Fortunately, with the aid of our newly acquired fast internet, we've been able to learn several home remedies.

The wallowing began last Sunday night at around 4 AM. My left wisdom tooth made an appearance. It hurt and looked bad so I went to the one walk-in dental care option in town. I arrived at 8 AM, and just four short hours later, an actual real life dentist was examining my mouth.

She said, "you can go to Anchorage and get it done or I can take it out now. Either way the wisdom tooth has to come out." I didn't feel like waiting, so I took the instant tooth removal option. But I didn't get the feeling she was pumped about doing it.

The process took about an hour. A few numbing shots to the mouth, then out came the saw. After the saw, the pliers. The pliers kept slipping off the tooth and smashing into my other teeth as she torqued with all her might to no avail. "Oh, I see the problem. I need to saw off a little bit more of your jaw." The saw comes back, then the pliers. Finally, after a few tries the tooth is cranked out and I am 25% less wise. Three wisdom teeth remain buried in my head. And after this one, I'm not too pumped about interrupting their slumber.

That was all fine and dandy. I went back to work and couldn't concentrate too well, so I went home, took a painkiller and a nap and chewed on a tea bag. I woke up just in time for a dinner party we had planned previously and enjoyed some of Genevieve's ever tasty cooking.

There's an event called Dry Socket that is not fun. One lady describes it as more painful than giving birth. I can't verify that, for obvious reasons, but I can tell you it is a painful event. And I am currently enjoying it. There are a bunch of things you're supposed to do after an extraction to avoid it, and apparently I did not do them.

So now it's home remedy time. And fortunately, it appears to be working.

Our solution is a cotton ball soaked in a mixture of ground aspirin, kava, cloves, and orajel applied directly to the dry socket. Thank you internet! And thank you Dover, for taking care of me! (This whole intense mouth pain thing can take the steam right out of you.)

UPDATE! I'm just updating this for the sake of all the poor suffering folks who in desperation type in "DRY SOCKET HOME REMEDY" on Google, just hoping to find something helpful. I went through that process myself in a major way. There's a lot of crap on the net, and a little bit of bad information. So, I'm updating my story. The home remedy worked, and I tried lots of variations of the above ingrediants. It turns out that the ground up aspirin chemically burns your mouth, so you'll want to keep that to a minimum. So, for relief that's as good as what you'll get from the dentist (who will just pack a ball of essentially the same stuff in your socket), just take part of a cotton ball or a gauze strip, soak it in orajel and ground cloves (or alternatively the juice from boiling water and whole cloves) and place it in the socket. That will keep you sane. It worked for me, anyway. Adding a ground up aspirin is helpful too, but remember too much too often will burn your mouth and you'll think you have thrush or something like that.

Anyway, I hope that helps! Good luck!