Non-healing alveolus with exposed alveolar bone (“Dry socket”)
The presence in non-healing alveolus of exposed, often tan-coloured, alveolar bone that remains firmly attached to the remaining alveolar bone and which remains vital beneath the usually discoloured exposed layer, is termed dry socket (Fig 10 ). Dry socket is the most common (and a very painful) post-exodontia problem in humans where it is usually caused by absence of an adequate intra-alveolar blood clot to protect the exposed alveolar bone. Dry socket has only recently been recognised in horses (Horbal et al. 2018; Kennedyet al. 2020), but possibly all non-healing alveoli without obvious infection or sequestrae could be considered to be affected by this disorder. Such alveoli, that are often painful, need repeated monitoring and packing to cover the exposed alveolar bone. It may take many weeks for the superficial bone layer to be shed or resorbed and the underlying healthy bone to then become covered in granulation tissue to allow alveolar healing.