Hi Jerry,
Well gee whiz... thank you so much for your kind words ~'.'~
I wish I had super powers ... but I really don't. I'm a little clairvoyant.... which sometimes comes in handy... or not. Depends on the situation.
So you've read about the spread of dental infections? Brave of you to do that prior to having your teeth removed! Glad it prompted you to take action ;>
I cannot comment on the fistula issue related to the bone without an xray. I would assume that if you had a large area of infection in the bone that the oral surgeon would have informed you of that.... at least I would hope that he would have.
The "odd" symptoms that you had prior to the extractions.... as you may already know, oral infections can cause or contribute to a menagerie of physical problems. The infections don't have to be all that severe either... it just depends on the individual.
Did you also have the second molar extracted that was affected by the wisdom tooth? Where in your mouth was that tooth?
You can expect swelling to occur for several days after impacted wisdom teeth are extracted. Regarding the numb teeth with the "chips"..... I really don't know why that would be happening. Please make mention of it to the OS when you see him.
Regarding the medications.... that is up to your surgeon to determine based on what he's seen radiographically, clinically and surgically.
Some things you can do to help yourself heal...
No Smoking or drinking alcohol. No mouthwash like Listerine. All of which will slow down the healing.
Eat nutritiously...... avoid sugar, processed foods, fast foods, all sodas, foods that require a lot of chewing, sticky foods.....
Eat a soft diet rich in plenty of veggies, fruit and protein. Drink plenty of filtered water throughout the day.
You can make smoothies and add protein powder to it.
Bryanna
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jerry5
Hi Bryanna,
First of all, please let me thank you for your kind advocacy. You are how I wish everyone would be with their great super powers.
I think I have an interesting problem.
I presented with some strange symptoms (parasthesia in both upper arms, easy bruising, xiphoid hurting, swollen superficial cervical lymph nodes). These are all weird new symptoms to me since I'm a realtively healthy 40 year old but with chronic fear of dentists (5 years) and historically bad teeth.
I also had what I thought to be rampant caries in my upper molar areas (three teeth connected). Based on my symptoms, I thought I either had cancer or a tooth infection (I read "Spread of Dental Infection" by Fehrenbah and Herring- Great read!!), so I went to the dentist since I don't have insurance and everything would be explained by it.
He told me the chips at the base of my molar teeth were not my problem since that can be explained by me grinding my teeth. Also, the chips weren't deep enough to reach the dental pulp.
The bigger problem was my wisdom teeth were impacted and one of them was destroying its neighbor so I had to get them pulled.
I went to the oral surgeon to get the teeth extracted and while I was waiting alone in the patient room, I inspected my x-rays. I thought I saw a fistula wrapping around the outside of one of the impacted wisdom teeth (lower left side) deep in the crevice and and draining through the base of the tooth through the jaw. It was almost like a perfect hairline fracture-looking thing. I mentioned this to the surgeon and he said that he didn't see anything but he wouldn't even look at the x-ray! I hate that some MDs make you feel like only they know best.
In any case, it's been 5 days since my extraction and my symptoms are all reduced or gone. So, I suspect it's not cancer! 
Still, I was recovering as expected from the extraction except that I'm getting swelling at the extraction sites that went away as soon as I took two over the counter Ibuprofen. Also, I noticed that some of my teeth (the ones with the chips) were numb.
So, my two questions are:
1) Why would my teeth be numb?
2) What happens to the fistula
3) What would you suggest I do to improve my prognosis, please? Should I keep taking oral antibiotics? For how long? I've been on 500mg Amoxicillin 3X/day for ~2 weeks now.
Thank you so much and I wish there are opportunities for others to help you as you are all of us!! |