I had my 4 wisdom teeth extracted.

Getting approval from MDC (Guardian - Managed Dental Care of
California) for the extractions took months and required 6 formal
complaints and an appeal, and many phone calls, and that's not counting
the work that the doctor's office had to do. The surgeon has a great
bedside manner and I think he did a good job.  It cost just under a
thousand dollars so far, and I have to go back for further work, and
pay for it:  The extractions caused the bone on the inner ridge of my
lower jaw just by the extraction site to become exposed - after
surgery, it had a hair-thin covering of gum, but that soon eroded and
now the bare bone is sticking out, and I fear the same thing is
happening on the other side.  Apparently, taking care of this
complication is an extra cost! -around $200.  I had picked up a flyer
beforehand for a product that is inserted into the hole left by the
tooth that (according to the flyer) is slowly replaced (by the body) by
bone, leading to a stronger jaw and less bone erosion.  I meant to ask
for it, but the approval process was so tortuous, I failed to do so at
the right time.  I wish I had, as I bet it would have sped the healing
(I still have holes I have to labouriously keep clean, over a month
later!) and perhaps even prevented this problem by not making the
now-exposed bone so prominent. But hindsight is always easier than
foresight...  The professional opinions I got were all pro-extraction,
but the lay opinions were not.  I figured that the DMO wouldn't cover
the extraction if it wasn't advisable (the insurance issues were about
who would do which procedures and what costs would be covered(7140 vs
7220 vs 7210...GP vs Surgeon), not about whether the teeth required
extraction. In the end, 2 7210's and 2 7240's both by the surgeon/oral
surgery specialist, were done)

The surgeon said I could just leave it, and it would slough away
naturally, and called it an exostosis, though based on the wikipedia
page on it, that doesn't make sense; I don't recall that it's new bone
growth.  I did some further research and it seems more like alveoplasty
- 7310 "Conservative contouring of the [in ths case lower] jaw bone
especially after extraction of teeth" . It hurts, it's sharp, and I
imagine that it's at some sort of elevated infection risk, but I have
no idea if that's a major issue or not. I'm not on antibiotics or
anything.  I saw the surgeon again 2 weeks after the extraction, and
the bone was bothering me and we discussed it.  It got a bit better and
then exposed completely.

Just found it as I was reviewing this message: After reading
http://www.fortworthoralsurgery.com/pages/alveoplasty.htm I REALLY wish
I'd had the socket filled!!  Is it too late?  It's been just over a
month. Anyone have experience with the stuff? (Thanks, W,S&R!)

Anyway, I'm most interested in opinions on whether there's a high risk
of infection when bone is exposed, and what the surgery would be like
(and what's likely if I do nothing), and general advice and patient
experiences.

-RBG (Email to me without 'this is not spam' in the subject is directed
straight to the trash unread by automatic filters.) Posting here
because the replacement forum isn't run competentty.