Hi!

I had two of my wisdom teeth pulled six days ago, and the top one is healing splendidly. The bottom one, I've noticed, has left a sort of swelling of the gums. It's not huge but it looks pretty solid and is climbing over the ridge of my second molar, effectively sitting on a part of my second molar. Is this more likely stuck food or an abscess? Just wondering as I'm trying to figure out what cleaning regimen I should try - if swishing with salt water is enough. I'm still taking my antibiotic (clindamycin).

Thanks for reading!

Hi damnguyen,

I am in the dental field and can offer you some information here.

The swelling as you have described it could be an abscess in spite of taking the antibiotics or could be food debris packed in there. It is not going to resolve irrelevant of how much rinsing you do and it is never a good idea to go digging around underneath that swollen gum because you can push the debris further into the open socket.

You need to see the oral surgeon who extracted your teeth as soon as you can to have this evaluated, diagnosed and treated.

Bryanna