A clinical investigation into the incidence of dry socket

A clinical investigation was undertaken to find the incidence of dry socket as a post-operative complication of dental extraction on an out-patient basis. Two thousand three hundred and sixty three extractions were carried out under local anaesthesia by clinical staff and students over a four month period. The results are presented and their significance discussed, the incidence of dry socket being found to be dependent upon the site of the tooth extracted, the relative difficulty of the extraction and upon the integrity and size of the blood clot in the extraction socket.