The reason why people are afraid to see the dentist is the pain they think is imminent. However, regular visits to the dentist ensure your dental health is excellent, and you don’t develop nasty conditions such as tooth abscess. If you allow your tooth to become abscessed, this is the information you must know to get better soon.
The most common symptoms
It’s a bit unnecessary to talk about the symptoms of dental abscess as they are unmistakable. The pain is described by patients as extreme and shooting, although it often becomes throbbing because of the blood pumping harder through your vessels. The pus underneath the skin is highly sensitive to touch, so the pressure to apply pressure to the spot results in excruciating pain.
The swelling accompanying the abscess is usually located near the tooth base, and it can enlarge your cheek as if bitten by a bee. Before you visit a dentist, the only thing you can do to alleviate the pain is to externally applying ice packs to the affected area.
Things can quickly go from bad to worse
In some instances, especially when the abscess is acute, the condition can be painless, not a good thing. These patients don’t feel when the pus penetrates the bone (most often in the lower jaw) and drains into the surrounding tissues. The cheeks and even the neck start to swell as the patient gets a migraine. That’s why it’s essential to seek medical help right away!
It is perfectly normal for your mouth to contain bacteria, and they help preserve your dental health. However, things can quickly go wrong when the acid produced by plaque begins to eat the teeth or the surrounding gums. The formation of teeth abscess is the consequence of the subsequent infection.
Apart from tooth decay, gum disease, better known as gingivitis, can cause an abscess. Other possible causes include a cracked tooth, brushing the teeth violently, rotting food chunks lodged between the teeth and gums, trauma, and using the wrong kind of toothpaste.
The proper treatment
The initial reaction of a person with an abscess is to drain it. However, you are not a medical professional, and draining an abscess has to be done safely, or you risk an ever worse infection! You may not like it, but a local dentist’s trip is necessary to start treating your dental abscess.
Luckily, many dental practices, such as Terrigal Dental, offer emergency treatments of abscesses. However, you need to react fast and call your dentist as soon as you start to feel the abscess forming in your mouth. Even if the pain is bearable for now, you should schedule an appointment. Ignoring a tooth abscess for long enough can result in being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance!
Your family dentist is just like the general physician, which means you have to be frank to them. Please answer all the questions they ask you, and be sure to describe the symptoms well. Also, include a short timeline of the problem and possible causes (according to your estimate, this doesn’t have to be a medical diagnosis).
After they get all the relevant info, the dentist will advise you of the best course of action to professionally and safely drain the abscess. Of course, the treatment doesn’t end here, as you need to visit the dentist a couple of times more.
Also, schedule more frequent dental check-ups in the future, as you might belong to the category of susceptible to chronic infections.
Who is at risk the most?
Since we have seen what a dental abscess can do to a person’s mouth, you might be wondering who is most likely to get it during their lifetime. Well, abscesses are more common in people who have poor dental hygiene.
The build-up of plaque eventually leads to an infection that causes the abscess, as stated above. Also, individuals with a weakened immune system should be extra cautious regarding their teeth. Once your natural immunity is down, you become susceptible to all sorts of ailments.
If you are lucky enough, you can live your entire life, never experiencing the excruciating pain a dental abscess causes. Maintain good oral hygiene and dental check-ups are mandatory in preventing tooth abscess early on.
