The crappy part about all this is that I really did! I wanted to avoid bad things so I always rinsed, ate soft foods, etc. I asked the dentist what causes dry socket and he said "bad luck". Smoking increases the chances of it happening, but for a normal person it's between 5 and 10%.
Basically what happens is that the blood clot comes out of the socket exposing the bone. It's extremely painful, as you know and even though you followed the instructions, you managed to piss off the dental gods!
