dental abscess treatment albuquerque

There are certain dental issues that need to be treated with the same fast care as chest pains or other serious medical conditions, and an abscessed tooth is one of those. The problem is that an abscessed tooth is often mistaken for just being a tooth ache, and that can be a really serious mistake.

Don’t Delay On Repairing An Abscessed Tooth!

The Symptoms

An abscessed tooth is normally easy to identify. Aside from major throbbing pain up in the gums or root area of a tooth, there is often major swelling in the gums. An abscessed tooth is a bacterial infection and because of that, it is especially serious.

Common Symptoms Include:

Bad breath
Fever
Swelling & severe pain
Problem chewing
Severe temperature sensitivity to hot and cold
Open sores in the mouth

These are just the beginning, however. It’s important to understand that when left untreated, this infection can easily spread into the blood which can then go through your system and especially to affecting your heart. This leads to severe medical issues and complications that can almost always be avoided if the abscessed tooth is treated immediately.

Even in situations where it may take time to get an oral surgeon to extract the tooth, dentists will want patients suffering from an abscessed tooth to get on antibiotics immediately to lessen the chance of the infection spreading and at the very least keep it contained and better controlled.

Not A Minor Problem

An abscessed tooth will at the very least need a root canal, careful medication, and special treatment. However, there are also many times when having an abscessed tooth also means that the tooth will eventually have to be removed. This is often the case with severe tooth decay, so it’s not a problem that should be put off. There are too many health ramifications – so get any abscessed tooth treated as quickly as possible.

Back to dentalemergencyalbuquerque.com

A dental abscess is a collection of pus around the tooth or in the jaw that will usually tend to grow and get bigger. It can get very uncomfortable because of the pressure, and it should be seen by a dentist as soon as possible.

Pus is made up of dead white blood cells, dead tissue and bacteria. Excess bacteria is the usual cause of an abscess to occur, as the body walls off the infection to keep it localized.

Symptoms will begin as a dull ache in the tooth area, and it can quickly become worse with more pain and throbbing. The face and jaw can swell, and be very tender. The skin that is over the abscess will become red and very tender, and the tooth may be very painful to the touch, and might even become loose. There can be a high fever that accompanies the abscess and possible spasms of the jaw muscles.

If the abscess should break internally, the infection can spread rapidly and it can be dangerous, as it can spread to the brain which can cause serious illness, or even death.

The dentist will drain the pus from the abscess by either lancing the abscess, or drilling a hole in the tooth to let the pus escape. Once the pus is drained, usually an antibiotic is prescribed to kill and infection that might be left.

It is possible that the tooth might have to be extracted if the abscess was large enough, or a root canal may have to be performed to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. Pain killer medication is also usually prescribed.

It is never a good idea to wait and “ride it out” as the infection will usually persist. Even if an antibiotic is given, the pus still has to be cleared out so it will not reoccur.

If you have a dental abscess in Albuquerque give our emergency dental office a call immediately!