Hi teapotts,

Thanks so much for your kinds words I do try my best to be helpful here.

Infections that are related to our teeth can indeed cause or contribute to systemic illness anyplace in the body. The mouth is very vascular which means the bacteria in the mouth is filtering through the bloodstream continuously. It's too bad that most physicians do not think to look in their patients mouth or even ask about their patients dental health because the mouth can often be the first place to show signs of physical illness. One of the problems with making this correlation is that all too often physicians are not educated in dental health and/or chronically infected teeth such as root canaled teeth are mistaken to be okay.

Most of the time, in order for a fistula to form, the infection has to be present for a long time. The fistula is the body's way of finding a release from the pressure of the infection. The bacteria burrows a hole in the bone as it makes it way through the bone to the outside. If the fistula didn't form, the pressure would become so great that a large swelling would occur. Unfortunately, dentists are taught to not be too concerned about the fistula and treat the tooth as if the fistula was insignificant. Which means, they also neglect to inform the patient of how this long standing infection can affect their overall health. Dentists who understand the whole body connection to the mouth think very differently about long standing infections.

So when you take into consideration the common sense of what I have just written..... it is very possible for your long term sinus infections to be related to the long standing tooth infection. The tooth may or may not have been the culprit of your sinus infections but it very well could have been a contributing factor. Sinus infections can have various contributing factors especially if they are chronic. The more chronic they are, the more complicated they can be to eradicate because the bacteria from a sinus infection is also filtering through the digestive tract... which is 75% or more of the immune system.

Do you or have you had teeth root canaled? Are these teeth in your upper arch? Do you have allergies to some foods, dust, dust mites or pet dander? All of these things... etc.... can contribute to chronic sinus infections. Do you have or have you had digestive problems like IBS, colitis, constipation.... etc? Again these things are chronic and take a toll on the immune system making it difficult for the body to be healthy or recover from infections.

Bryanna

Tom,

You are very welcome!! I just realized I referred to you as teapotts on a previous post!! Ha Ha!! My fingers cannot type as fast as my mind thinks sometimes )

Of course you made the right decision! Never is an apicoectomy a cure for an infected tooth..... never as in never. The oral surgeon figured he'd give you one last shot at being positive about your decision to remove it because from a legal standpoint... dentists are suppose to offer you all options and then they hope that you choose the one that is in your best interest.

I am not surprised there was a lot of infection in the bone under the tooth.... there always is with root canaled teeth. You were brave to do this with local anesthetic and it worked out okay!!

Thanks for posting the pictures... they tell the story.
Keflex is a strong antibiotic which indicates the degree and depth of the infection. Did he say there was any sinus involvement?

Thanks again for being so open to the information that I have given you. Hopefully you will start to feel better soon

Bryanna

Hello Bryanna
I'm wanting to ask you a question as I come across this thread from a google search but unsure how to contact you to ask you so I'm just adding onto this thread do you think it would be possible to contact you via another way?

Hello Bryanna

I wanted to contacted you as I came across this thread via Google search. I have a few questions regarding dentistry treatment I have been receiving and would like some advice from you if that's at all possible, but I'm unsure on how to msg you?

To start a new topic go to the first page of this forum, (click on the Dentistry & Dental Issues at the top of this thread).

In the upper left is "NEW THREAD" button and click on that.
Make sure to put a title in the title field. Then you will have a new topic with your name on it.