Hi Sandy,
Your tooth problem with #11 is very typical with root canaled teeth and it is referred to as a perio/endo infection. Our body has a way of trying to rid itself of irritants and it does so by causing an inflammation to occur. In your case, your tooth is the irritant and the opening of the gum pocket is your body trying to get rid of it. Infectious bacteria set up house in the pocket because it's warm, moist and dark. Irrelevant of how many times your periodontist opens this up, or how many antibiotics you take, you will continue to have an infection because the tooth is not healthy and the body will continue to try to get rid of it. This type of chronic infection will spread to other teeth and other areas under the gum so long as the irritant, the tooth, is present. This is a situation where the tooth should come out sooner than later. Every time it develops a fistula (bump on the gum) more of the bone has become involved as the bacteria has tunneled through the bone trying to let off some pressure. This is not a healthy condition for your overall well being.
I know all the tactics that are used to pinpoint the origin of the infection with the gutta percha and flapping open the gum tissue looking for a crack in the tooth.......... there may or may not be a crack but in this situation it is simply an infected tooth irritating the bone and gum tissue.
Your impacted lower wisdom tooth........ unless you have pain or there is cyst or area of infection on the radiograph, you probably could leave this alone for now. However, you may want to inquire if this tooth is in any way negatively affecting the molar in front of it. Is it pressing up against the molar causing a periodontal pocket? If it is, then you may want to ask how they would proceed with removing it.
I know none of this is pleasant......... far from it!!! I would address tooth #11 ASAP because it can slow down the healing of the other surgery that you had because there is a chronic infection there taxing your immune system.
I know you are very worried and that is understandable. I think if you keep pushing forward dealing with one issue at a time, you will get through this quicker than you imagine and you will be ok!!!
Please continue to keep us in the loop ~'.'~
Bryanna
Quote:
Originally Posted by sandy60
Thank you SO much, Bryanna. I have no fever and feel fine otherwise but I am on amoxicillin 500 for 8 days. I was on penicillin for 5 days after the extraction. What I didn't mention (this is not my week!) is that I developed a periodontal abscess on tooth 11 (root canaled and crowned) and had it traced yesterday by my dentist with a piece of gutta percha and an x-ray. It is very close to the gumline so they suspected that it was periodontal and not a tooth abscess. This happened last year also. The periodontist opened my gum, looked for a crack, found none, attributed it to a pocket, did a guided tissue regeneration and all was well....til Saturday when a big white bump appeared again. It drained on its own on Sunday after rinsing with salt water all day. I called, they phoned in a prescription and I went in yesterday to see what's going on. I am seeing an oral surgeon tomorrow for a consultation. I heard that sometimes they can't see tiny cracks and this can be what causes it. So I am faced with more surgery and they may find nothing again, or extraction if they do find a crack or just feel it's a goner, or leaving it and praying.
I also have to talk to them about a horizontally impacted wisdom tooth (lower, my luck) that has now developed resorption. I am a nervous wreck over all this at the same time. My dentist and the oral surgeon saw the x-ray and both said take another x-ray in a year or two, they didn't seem alarmed. I have an immense fear of this extraction's danger, dry socket, paresthesia and I am petrified. I am almost 60 so wish I had done this when I was young, they saw it and never advised me and I certainly didn't know about this stuff as a younger person. Again, thanks for the advice regarding the extraction site and the great information about the muscle and soreness. I just used 2 mirrors and cleaned the first molar very carefully...there was some food on it and I used a rubber tip to gently swab it off and brushed it very carefully, not touching the extraction site. You're a Godsend and I will let you know the outcome of my consult if that's ok.
|