The story thus far:
Monday September 22 - Brace day
AND "By the way, you have a tumor in your mandible" day
Friday September 26 - "I think the tumor is benign, and it is right behind the mental nerve foramen, if I perform the biopsy, I will damage the nerve." Therefore, you are free to go. (Hooray!!!)
Tuesday 9/30 - Extraction consultation with my general dentist. Two hours.
Friday 10/3 - Extraction of four premolars under local anesthetic. 45 minutes.
Later on that same day, I nearly drowned. I tried to fall asleep, and I think I must have succeeded. Blood ran down my throat. I tried to cough, but there was no exit, my dentist had been exceedingly thorough packing my mouth. It was too tight to push out with my tongue (I suppose, I didn't really know where the little bugger was). I couldn't even pull it out since my dentist took care to hook the gauze on my arch wire.
Saturday 10/4 - Went to work and no major problems
Sunday 10/5 - I woke up at 2 am feeling like someone hit me in the jaw with a hammer. The sharp end, not the mallet end. I ran to the bathroom so that I could see what the hell was wrong. I noticed that my sockets did not look "right." There was no red blood clot. Just this white stuff in the top sockets and nothing but a small white thing on the bottom.
I swished with salt water and used a Q tip to pack the hole with orajel. That provided some relief initially, but I intermittently felt that all Sunday and last night.
Monday 10/6 - I woke up early this morning and went to the dentist so that I could get some relief. The sockets were irrigated and my suspicions were confirmed.
I went to school.
Now I am at work. My dentist wanted me to come in for an adjustment 10 days after I had my extractions, but now I suppose that I will have to wait longer. I was hoping that I can be like some of you and have some noticeable changes in the first six weeks or so, but no dice.
Either way, I m still very excited about having braces, but I hope that the next feel weeks are a lot less exciting then these past few weeks.
I can deal with not being able to eat and having my lips get caught on my braces, but all of this worry and bluster takes a toll. And it takes a lot of time. I’m in my second year of medical school and that is a rare commodity. I can handle going to the orthodontist every six weeks. But this is a bit much.
Anybody else have drysocket with braces on? How did you take care of everything?
Toodles. 
)
