In some cases of wisdom teeth removal, something as simple and as natural as drinking water can cause pain.
“If you have pain drinking water after wisdom teeth extraction, there is exposure of the underlying bone and nerve,” says Dr. Ogbonna B. Bowden, DDS, CEO of My Dental Gallery in Chicago, IL.
There is a hole in the bone where your wisdom tooth was taken out.
Normally, a blood clot forms there to protect this vulnerable area from anything that can come in contact with it such as food particles and even air.
But things will go wrong if there is nothing there to cover the bone and underlying nerve.
“This is known as a dry socket,” says Dr. Bowden. “Dry socket happens after tooth removal when your blood clot fails to develop, dislodges or dissolves before the extraction site wound is healed.”
When water makes contact with the dry socket, it will hurt or be uncomfortable or overly sensitive.
The pain is worse if the water is chilled. But you must drink water, so one way to lessen the discomfort is to drink it at room temperature when possible.
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Also, do not guzzle or gulp the water. Instead sip it.
If there is an infection in the dry socket (caused by a particle of food), the pain will be even worse. But usually, the infection clears up in five or six days.
Dr. Bowden is a member of the Chicago Dental Society, the American Dental Association, the Illinois Dental Society, and the Academy of General Dentistry.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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