Hi Frederique,
Okay, so that right side ended up being abscessed. Yes, the post op pain from the type of surgical debridement that you had cone can be a bit.... ouchy :/ It's not always but sometimes it is.
The fact that the post op panorex x-ray showed unfavorable post op healing from the extraction of the wisdom tooth indicates that there was more going on in that area of bone than originally known and/or the surgeon was not thorough enough with the debridement at the time of the extraction and/or the blood clot did not form properly and allowed bacteria to get in the socket. It would have been helpful if your general dentist had taken an xray of that area when you went in to see him about the pain in the second molar as this infection would have more than likely shown up then.
When a surgical debridement is done in a partially healed extraction site the adjacent teeth can become "upset" with all the "commotion" going on with the scraping. After all, the blood cells have already begun the healing process and now that is all being disturbed. The second molar shares bone, nerves and muscle fibers with that wisdom tooth site, so the molar can feel a bit sensitive or even painful until the inflammation of the surgery subsides. If the healing of this surgery goes uneventfully..... then this area should be monitored with a periapical (single) x-ray in about a month and then followed with another one about 3-4 months later. Just to be sure that the healing is going along as it should be.
I hope you start to feel better soon. Enough of this tooth stuff already!!
Bryanna
Quote:
Originally Posted by Frederique1
Hi Bryanna,
About 2 weeks ago, I came down with pain & swelling in the wisdom tooth extraction site on the lower right side.
I also had a very bad taste in my mouth. I went to see my dentist & he told me I had an abscess & that I had to make an appointment with the surgeon to have a "debridement" (when they open up the wound/extraction site & clean it). He also put me on antibiotics (amoxicillin 1000 mg, 20 caps).
I went to see the surgeon on Wednesday to have the debridement under local anesthesia. It didn't really hurt, but I could feel him scraping & pulling. Afterwards it hurt like hell! Really, I didn't have this much pain after my wisdom tooth extraction!
He also took an x-ray (total, where the machine moves around your head) & the assistant told me that you could clearly see that the extraction area hadn't healed the way it should've after 3 months.
Now, my question is: is it normal for the adjacent molar to still feel sensitive after all this time? It's not sensitive to cold or heat, but only when I touch it or bite down on it.
The surgeon told me this was normal & that it could last for a couple of weeks.
But how do you explain the fact that it's been this way for the past few months? Could this have to do with the infection being present all this time? I had a bad taste in my mouth even before I developed the swelling in my cheek (abscess), but my dentist didn't see anything wrong with the extraction site when I told him about this in early December.
If there was something wrong with the adjacent molar, would they have seen it on the x-ray?
And also: do they touch the adjacent molar (roots or bone) when they do the debridement? Because it really felt like they did.
Thanks a lot for your help!
Kind regards
Frederique
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