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.