Surgical Curettage as a Treatment Modality for Alveolar Osteitis: A Wide Controversy

Abstract

Dry socket is the most common post-odontectomy complication. Although blood clot disintegration is known to be the cause of the condition, agreement is lacking regarding the relative merits of various treatment methods including surgical curettage. The aim of the current study therefore was to evaluate the effectiveness of surgical curettage in a large population. A total of 506 patients were categorized into 4 groups (I, II, III, and IV) according to pain severity (mild, moderate, severe, or agonizing, respectively). All patients underwent brief saline irrigation of the socket with 2ml normal saline followed by curettage, irrigation with 6mL normal saline and suturing. The results showed that curettage was a potent curative method for all groups. As a conclusion, curettage is a recommended treatment method.

Curettage versus Zinc Oxide Eugenol as a Treatment Modality in Patients with Dry Socket

“…In regards with ZOE, the current study approves with other studies which accepted and even recommended ZOE for DS treatment [5][6][7][8][9] . On the other hand, despite curettage was a recommended treatment method by the current study and also other studies [10][11][12][13][14][15] , some authors considered curettage contraindicated [16][17][18] in a disagreement with the current study.…”

“…On the other hand, although other authors recommended curettage as a treatment modality for DS [10][11][12][13][14][15] , some authors considered it a contraindicated measure [16][17][18] . Those who advocated curettage took the principle of eliminating the remnants of the dislodged blood clot form the socket, so that noxious substances were removed and a new bleeding was initiated by curetting the bone to allow more firmly bound blood clot to the newly formed socket walls [10][11][12][13][14][15] . On contraire, other authors did not only under-estimate the efficacy of curettage, but they considered it contraindicated due to the potential risk of introducing the bacteria deeper into the tissues which was already traumatized by the curette [16][17][18] .…”

“…Other authors recommended curettage as a treatment modality for DS. They claimed that curettage could result in removing the remnants of the dislodged blood clot which undergone fibrinolysis to a great extent and allowed to the formation of a new blood clot [10][11][12][13][14][15] . Nevertheless, other authors considered curettage contraindicated rather than even being not recommended; as curettage could cause infection spread into the deeper bone layers with the risk of converting DS into infected socket and eventually could lead to osteomyelitis and even more grave consequences [16][17][18] .…”