★★★★★
Had three teeth pulled lower right in the back to prepare for low-level radiation treatment on my neck; trying to zap some thyroid cancer cells. One of the teeth pulled was an impacted wisdom tooth. Up to 30% of people having a lower, impacted wisdom tooth extracted develop what is called Dry Socket, where the blood clot that should form after removal is dislodged or dissolved before the wound heals, exposing underlying bone and nerves. Usually shows up two days after extraction. Main symptom: pain, pain, and more pain!
This situation can last up to 40 days; the socket should ultimately be packed with any number of medicated dressings to alleviate pain until the socket can heal itself. I was initially given oxycodone in combination with either ibuprofen or tylenol-generic and told to rinse with salt water. Tylenol-generic did not work for me at all; help with oxycodone was "spotty." Only thing that gave me two hours of relief at one time was taking 800 mg of ibuprofen every four hours (NOT a good long-term solution, if you value kidneys/liver/stomach).
Until I can obtain some sort of medicated dressing for the socket, I resorted to the tea bag solution, and - oh my gosh I can't believe it but it worked it's wonderful not to have to resort to trashing of my other organs via ibuprofen to get some relief! (So far have used black tea tea bags and chai tea bags; both work same.)
Tea Bag
★★★★★
