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Old 11-14-2015, 11:22 AM
Orthoptera Orthoptera is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2015
Posts: 4
8 yr Member
Orthoptera Orthoptera is offline
New Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Posts: 4
8 yr Member
Frown Waterpik'd an exposed bone graft - did I infect it?

Hi,

Pretty scared right now.

Some background:
I had an implant attempted on site #10. It failed and was extracted. On about October 2nd (8 months later), my dentist put in a bone graft. But he took the stitches out a bit too early, and the membrane of the graft became exposed.
He said he wanted me to leave it in as long as possible and prevent it from being infected for at least another couple months.
So I put chlorhexidine on twice a day and everything seemed to be fine. The gum tissue above the site (ventral to me) was very thin, and I could kinda see the graft through it.

Last night, I was using my waterpik and for the first time accidentally grazed the site. It looked a little purple around the bone graft area but there was no blood. I put some chlorhexidine on the site about a half hour later and went to bed.

This morning, the site feels a little... fat. Like it's swollen. Looks a little redder, as well. When I press on the site right at the bottom of my nose, it feels more inflamed than usual. I'm scared that the water from the waterpik might have gotten past the membrane and infected the whole site.

I can't contact my dentist until Monday, so I feel dead in the water. What if it gets worse by then? If it IS infected, can I kill it with Amoxicillin? I'm sitting on a Amoxicillin 500mg prescription, given in case the gum site split while I was travelling. Should I fill it and start taking it ASAP?

Don't know what to do... Any guidance as to what's going on/whether I should wait until Monday would be a great help.
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