Hi Dr. Hall,

About 10 days ago I had all 4 wisdom teeth extracted (all bony impactions). 3 days ago I had my recheck where the surgeon explained how to flush the sockets and said all was going well. He told me the upper sockets would not need to be flushed, but a day later I started tasting a salty taste from each of the extraction sites, predominantly from where the upper left molar had been extracted. I decided to flush the area and when I did a yellow discharge came out. When flushing directly into the socket, I sometimes feel a pressure on the left side of my nose (I assume this is the sinus). Is this a sinus perforation? Does this sound like a serious situation/infection? Is there anything I should be doing to speed up the healing process? After the 6 day mark my pain has been slowly subsiding and has been increasingly mild and has not flared up much with the discharge.
– Kayla D.

Kayla,
Nothing you’ve told me sounds abnormal. The key here is that, while it seems that the healing is happening slowly, it is getting better steadily. Some bacteria are bound to settle in the sockets, but it appears that your body is handling that.

As you read in the post about a perforated sinus, the roots of upper molars can be very close to the sinus. This is why you are feeling pressure in the area of your nose as you flush this socket. If there were a perforation, the solution would be actually coming out your nose as you flushed into the socket. Since it’s not, that membrane is intact and doesn’t need any extra attention.

What to do? Just be careful and flush, if you must, very gently, so that you don’t rupture the sinus membrane. You also want to leave the blood clot in the socket because that will end up forming a framework for the formation of new bone as the extraction site heals, so you don’t want to flush that out either.
– Dr. Hall

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