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Member
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 310
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Member
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 310
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an abscessed tooth for sure
I wholeheartedly agree with MrsD. What you have experienced is an tooth cavity going so deep that the dental pulp (that soft part far inside) became infected --- the pain was the expanding mass of pus pressing against and destroying the nerve at the root of the tooth. The infection will totally kill this nerve and you will probably loose the tooth now in the coming weeks or month ..... unless you have a root canal done and have a crown put on. Expensive. My mother's last crown alone cost her $1800.
The only other way to cure the infection is tho have the tooth pulled (cheap at dental schools, across the border, or with some dentists - call around for prices). The dentist will pack the cavity with medicine and give you oral antibiotics for ten days to kill the bacteria. Like MrsD said, now the bacteria are no longer in your tooth, but in your bone, and also circulating thru-out your body via your blood stream. This type of situation (bacteria in the bloodstream) is one of the biggest known contributors to hardening of the arteries. Puffy easily bleeding gums, an infection called pyorrhea, does the same thing - putting bacteria into the blood stream. .
What happened is that the pus amount grew rapidly, a very active infection, and pushed out past the part of the tooth buried deep in the bone -- this is possible because the infection destroys a part of the bone, loosening the tooth. The expanding mixture of pus took the path of least resistance --- and that was outward thru the soft tissues of the gum line which caused more pain. The infection ate thru the flesh and eventually it broke down the gum, creating a hole and the pus flowed out.
This does not mean the infection is gone. It will continue until you have it treated. Untreated, it can go on for years, with repeated boils developing that eventually break thru -- or sometimes the infection can begin to ooze down between the tooth and the bone, into the gum, flowing out thru that space. The infection can spread to other teeth or, as MrsD said, go up into your sinuses --- and I even know one person who had the infection erode into his brain case. His breath actually became foul, with the smell of rot, but he couldn't smell it himself. He ended up in the hospital and nearly died on a brain infection.
Please do not delay seeking dental attention, even if you can't afford more than an extraction and treatment to treat the infection.
Please take care of this infection.
Teri
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