Mining Electronic Dental Records to Identify Dry Socket Risk Factors.

The goal of this study was to investigate risk factors for developing dry sockets in patients after dental extractions. Data were collected directly from electronic dental records (EDR) and were utilized for selecting dry socket cases and controls to conduct a nested case-control study. Case-control matching was based on sex, age range, maxilla-mandible location, and anterior-posterior location. From 83 self-reported health survey questions, 7 questions were found to have predictive potential based on a significant chi-squared test. Stepwise conditional logistic regression showed a statistically significant association between the development of dry socket and a history of serious illness (OR=1.4; 95% CI:1.02-1.95), cancer (OR=2.6; 95% CI:1.13-5.83), and frequent mouth sores (OR=1.9; 95% CI:1.09-3.33). These results corroborated previous reports on potential involvement of impaired immune response in dry socket development. EDR may be an important source for uncovering predictive factors that play a role in prevention and management of oral health.