Sorry I was away from the blog for a few weeks and wasn’t here to follow your story. I hope all is ok now.

And yes, you should not smoke after any types of surgery in your mouth.

Karly :All this info has been very helpful. Thank you to everyone who’s commented or answered. I am a smoker, But after reading everyone’s comments I think I will hold off for a few more days. However my question is… WHEN CAN I HAVE COFFEE?!

My oral surgeon told me I could have coffee or tea as soon as the numbness wore off and told me there was no need to worry. Thank God, without coffee and cigarettes after being traumatized yet again, I’d have been homocidal!

How do I smoke without getting dry socket?
Dry socket is a gamble, it happens to non-smokers even if they follow every care instruction possible.

With that being said, you can’t stop dry socket, you can only improve your chances of not getting it.
Dry socket is also now, very treatable, with the strong-medicated dressings now available.

Pre Extraction:

1. Bloat on both food and water, you won’t be eating for a day.
The food consumed during an unhealed extraction has a tendency to bond with the blood beginning to clot.
This will both make you bleed much longer, increase the rare chance of infection and yes– you guessed it, dry socket.

2. Clean your mouth thoroughly I.E, brush your teeth more than once, scrape your tongue, clean gums, FLOSS and finish with an anti-bacterial mouthwash.

Post Extraction:

3. Smokers have poorer abilities to generate clots to begin with so they’re disadvantaged from the start.
In basic particle science, heat causes matter to change state to a less viscous one.

That means the heat from the cigarette smoke won’t ‘dry’ the liquid blood and turn it into a solid scab (like freezing water) but just distrupt the static process of forming a blood clot by increasing particle speed.

Therefore, apply a cold pack to your face over non-frustrating intervals.
The cold will help counteract the evaporative effect of the smoke and condense the liquid blood to a solid state (scab).

Because the extraction site will only bleed for a certain amount of time.
If it clots in a way that doesn’t cover it, dry socket.

4. The chemical effects of the smoke acting in the same way as the food.
While we can’t affect what the cigarette is actually doing on the inside, we can ensure the smoke doesn’t corrupt the outside site.

We will therefore be wearing gauze in a way that ensures it is used in half an hour intervals and replaced at the end of our smoke.
The gauze will protect the site from the smokes heat effects and corrosive effects.

Even thou gauze is usually only worn for 20 minutes to an hour, we’re smokers and it might take us all day to form clots.
Combine our poor ability with the cigarette’s distruptive scab weapon and you can see why other dentists assign the 4 day rule.

Gauze works best dry, which is why I recommend the half hour interval change.
It will ensure you can smoke every half hour and optimise the guaze’s purpose.

5. Smoking technique.
Some of you already picked up on this.
Smoke it like you’re breathing air, it reduces suction and won’t distrupt the scab as much.

Consider also switching to an ‘easy-draw’ cigarette over the time.

Follow this guide and you’ll significantly stop your chances of getting a dry socket.
To stop it entirely, not even a non-smoker can do it.

This guide is more aimed at over-the-chair extractions and isn’t a great idea to do after a surgery but would still improve your chances if you were to just smoke normally.

How do I know this?
I’m a dentist who recently had 6 teeth out himself, the first 3 all amounted to dry sockets, even with my dental knowledge.
My next 3, benefited from both my new found personal-professional knowledge and of course, bending the rules.

A smoker will smoke regardless.