An analysis published in the Journal of the American Dental Association suggests that women may be predisposed to alveolar osteitis as a result of higher estrogen.
Dry socket is a condition that emerges when an extraction site heals improperly due to the absence or only partial formation of a blood clot. The reasons for why this blood clot might not form are still largely unknown, but a 2015 meta-analysis determined that women using oral birth control were at a 6.6% greater chance than women not using birth control. Many oral contraceptives contain estrogen, and so the researchers decided to investigate the phenomenon more closely, examining a total of 40 studies on topics involving estrogen and alveolar osteitis.
The researchers aggregated the data from across studies, which also showed the pattern of women using oral contraceptives experiencing higher risk of dry socket than women who were not. When the risk of developing alveolar osteitis was compared from a male to female basis, the pattern continued — women had a 2.5% higher likelihood of developing dry socket than men. The researchers noted that smoking is still the greatest risk factor for the condition.
This line of research is complicated by the fact that most studies record only whether or not a woman is using birth control, but not necessarily what type or specific formulation, which can vary widely in its concentrations of estrogen and other hormones. The hormone estrogen is known to play a role in bone remodeling, but in most cases actually increases bone density, so the mechanism by which estrogen might predispose one to alveolar osteitis is still unknown. Future studies might investigate the phenomenon by using in vitro models of dry socket and progressing to animal studies to develop preventative treatments.
Source:
Pablos, T. (2016, June 15). Are women at increased risk for dry socket? Retrieved June 20, 2016, from http://www.drbicuspid.com/index.aspx?sec=sup
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