Dry socket falls under the most common as well as serious complications, which usually encountered after the extraction of third molar. The occurrence of dry socket in dental clinical practice is very common, which may be due to systemic or chronic disease related to the patient health, that alters the patient immunity with respect to infection, there will be other local chances too for the occurrence of dry socket which include the habits of smoking cigarette, chewing pan masala, bad oral hygiene. This article reviews the main causes of dry socket, various treatment modalities for the same.

Aims This study aims to compare the outcome of radiosurgically assisted incision technique with the conventional scalpel blade technique in impacted mandibular third molar incisions. Methods On 100 patients (50 patients each in GROUP R and GROUP S) with impacted mandibular third molar, incisions were given using radio surgical and scalpel technique, respectively. Impacted third molars were classified according to Winter's classification. Two types of incisions (Ward's and modified Ward's) were performed. Results were evaluated considering various parameters like surgical ease, field of surgery, odour, bleeding, discomfort/pain, post-operative analgesic intake and healing in both groups. Results In our study, mean age of patient was 25.30 years, 54% were females and 46% males; mesioangular was the most common type of impaction, and the average length of incision was 3.105 ± 0.546 cm. There was a significant statistical difference (p \ 0.01) in the five measure moments (field of surgery, surgical ease, intra-operative bleeding, odour and post-operative analgesic intake at 3-5th day) between the impacted molars operated with scalpel and the ones done with radiosurgery. There was statistically insignificant difference in pain/discomfort, healing and post-operative analgesic intake at 1st and 7-10th day. Conclusions Radiosurgery was very effective in providing clear field of surgery, surgical ease and created less intraoperative bleeding than scalpel blade surgery making day to day minor oral surgery less stress full and productive.