Originally Posted by parminides

Thank you for your quick reply.

As for #8, I'll probably get a denture! One reason is the pre-existing bone loss makes it a very questionable candidate for an implant. I don't want to spend all that money if there's very little chance of success.

I wish that I could have attached the xray from the endodontist and the panorex from the second dentist. I would love to see what you think. But I'm brand new to this forum, and I apparently must have 10 posts before I can attach files or put links in my message. (Only 8 more to go after this one!)

You might not want to spend much time on my case since it seems resolved. I can understand that. You seem to be on the forum to help people. When I said I was fine, it's not quite so simple. I meant that all the infection seems to be out of the bone. But I'm still draining slightly from the buccal gums, almost a year and a half after the extraction.

For many months I would have bet a lot of money that I had osteomyelitis. Not anymore. I had my teeth cleaned in August, and an xray showed that the root channels had completetly filled in. That image convinced me that this remant drainage must be confined to the gums. So that's the long version of "I seem to be fine now."

I think I have a small, chronic, periodontal abscess. The place that cleaned my teeth in August didn't get the full history, because I've found that no one wants to jump into someone else's medical error, followed by unending complications.

The dentist I saw in August said that this kind of thing could take years to resolve or might never go away. He didn't call it a periodontal abscess or anything. He said he could do a gingival curettage or an open flap debridement that might help.

I was reluctant to go through with either procedure since he might have recommended something completely different if he'd known about the root tip. All he knew was that the tooth had been pulled almost a year and a half ago, and I still have drainage.

You don't know the full history either, but you know about the root tip that lurked in my jaw for four months. Something else that might be pertinent is that I've been on antibiotics five different times since the tooth was pulled. Three times before the root tip was removed and two times afterward (the last course was in January).

Do you think a gingival curettage and/or an open flap debridement would be the best thing to try to finally knock out the lingering drainage? If not, what would you recommend?