I need to have all four wisdom teeth extracted, and want to know how long it will take to recover from that kind of surgery? i've heard about dry socket, how do i avoid that so that i don't have a lot of pain?

Pain : Pain involved with wisdom teeth surgery varies in severity. It depends on many different factors such as age of a patient, whether a patient smokes, if the teeth have to be removed surgically or not....Etc. Generally, for first a few days, you will have to expect some pain and soreness following the surgery. To answer your question about dry socket, it's a condition where blood clot gets lost in the socket following an extraction and nerve ending down in the socket gets exposed. That causes quite a bit of pain for a while. It goes away all by itself but in that time, you have to put up with it if you get it. Science behind dry socket is not too clear but it has identified strong associations with occurrence of dry socket. A smoker gets quite a bit. ( old logic has said sucking motion is what causes it but current studies suggest that sucking motion alone doesn't really causes dry socket once blood clot gets solidified. However, for pre-cautionary purpose, it's recommended not to use straw if you drink anything ) sometimes clots don't even form after extraction and that, again, usually happens in smokers and other patients with compromised immune system due to systemic diseases. Talk to your dentist / surgeon and get consultation to get more information. Good luck.

7-10 days on average: You can't do anything to prevent a dry socket. These usually happen in difficult extractions when the trauma of the extraction increases. Having an oral surgeon doing the surgery is yhe best way to insure less trauma.

Varies: Every patient responds and recovers from surgery differently. My patients are advised to take it easy for the first 2-3 days after surgery and to follow the postop instructions closely. Dry sockets may be precipitated by excessive spitting, rinsing and smoking immediately following surgery, and are usually associated with the removal of teeth from the lower jaw.