Our systemic review is to make a comprehensive review about the aetiology, treatment and the prevention of
dry socket, the inclusion criteria were all the studies that discuss the
dry socket and its etiology, treatment and prevention and exclusion criteria were all the studies that discuss the other complications of
tooth extraction, the materials and methods used for this systemic review was to search in the Pub Medline database between 2008 to 2013, using specific words "
dry socket, aetiology, treatment and prevention" and published in the English language, the articles were screened by abstract for relevance to aetiology, treatment and prevention of
dry socket, 82 papers were identified in pub med but a total of 36 out of Publications were included in the final systemic review according to the specific keywords and materials mentioned above. The occurrence of
dry socket in an everyday
oral surgery or dental practice is unavoidable. The risk factors are smoking, surgical
trauma, single extractions, age, sex, medical history, systemic disorder, extraction site, amount of anaesthesia, operator experience,
antibiotics use prior to surgery, difficulty of the surgery and the previous
surgical site infection in addition to
oral Contraceptives, menstrual cycle and immediate postextraction socket irrigation with
normal saline. The traditional options of treatment are directed toward
palliative care, such as the irrigation of the surgical site, avoiding curetting the extraction socket, Packing with a
zinc oxide-
eugenol paste on
iodoform gauze can be considered to relieve
acute pain episodes, there is also new agents in the market can accelerate the healing of the socket such as PRGF and GECB. The prevention methods include avoiding smoking before and after surgery and a traumatic surgery, the use of
antibiotics, such as,
azithromycin, can be considered, the other preventive measures such as chlorhecidine rinse or gel can be effective in the reduction of
dry socket incidence.