Yeah, I was super worried about dry socket too. I was so careful, maybe even over the top—kept checking the gauze and barely chewed anything. The swelling freaked me out more than the pain, honestly. Took forever to go down... made me second-guess if it was healing right.
Swelling totally threw me for a loop too. I kept thinking, “Is it supposed to look like this?” but my dentist said as long as it wasn’t getting worse or super red, it was normal. Dry socket paranoia is real though... I was living on mashed potatoes for days.
I totally get the mashed potatoes thing—soft foods were my best friend for a while. Did you notice the swelling go down pretty quick, or did it linger? I was surprised how long it took before I felt comfortable chewing on that side again.
Swelling definitely hung around longer than I expected—thought I’d be back to normal in a couple days, but nope. Took about a week before I felt like I could even think about chewing on that side. Even then, I stuck with softer stuff just to play it safe. Funny how much you miss crunchy foods when you can’t have ’em...
Yeah, the swelling caught me off guard too. I figured I’d bounce back in a couple days, but it was closer to a week before things felt halfway normal. I stuck with mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs for longer than I wanted—mainly because I didn’t want to risk messing up the healing and having to pay for a follow-up visit. Crunchy snacks were off the table for a while, which definitely made me appreciate them more once I could eat them again. It’s wild how something as simple as chewing can feel like a luxury when you’re recovering...
