It can be beneficial to use a guard, or covering, to protect your teeth from grinding while sleeping. Similar to how a mouthguard protects teeth during sports, this layer prevents damage to the teeth that can occur naturally.
There are a wide variety of different types of mouthguards, ranging from pre-formed pieces to ones that are custom fitted to your teeth and jaws. Some of these can even be formed at home through a boil-and-bite process.
Dry Socket
Dry Socket (Alveolar Osteitis) is a complication of wound healing following extraction of a tooth. The term alveolar refers to the alveolus, which is the part of the jawbone that surrounds the teeth; osteitis means simply “bone inflammation”. It can occur after the clot is lost, when the socket has a dry appearance because of exposed bone. The blood clot helps in stopping the bleeding and lays framework for new tissues to develop there but in case of dry socket, the clot is dislodged and the bone is exposed. This bare bone is exposed to bacteria in the saliva and the food which the patient consumes and the bone becomes infected and painful.
The pain from dry socket usually lasts for 24-72 hours. There is no real treatment for dry socket; it is a condition that will improve and disappear with time, but certain interventions can significantly decrease pain during an episode of dry socket. These interventions usually consist of a gentle rinsing of the inflamed socket followed by the direct placement within the socket of some type of sedative dressing, which soothes the inflamed bone for a period of time and promotes tissue growth. This is usually done without anesthesia. The active ingredients in these sedative dressings usually include substances like, zinc oxide, eugenol, and oil of cloves. It is usually necessary to have this done for two or three consecutive days, although occasionally it can take longer. Because true dry socket pain is so intense, additional analgesics are sometimes prescribed.
