Hey,
I'm a first time poster with a lot of frustration. If anyone could offer some suggestions that would be great.

I had 4 wisdom teeth removed on 4/20. The surgery was difficult due to severely impacted wisdom teeth, especially on the bottom. However, I didn't develop dry socket and healing was normal besides the typical pain.

3 weeks after the surgery I noticed that the pain was localized to my right jaw and I had a large marble sized lump on/near my jaw. My jaw was also very stiff and hard to open. I ended up seeing the colleague of my original surgeon who was very kind and said I did the right thing by coming in. He did an xray and said he noticed some very subtle changes that "could be" osteomyelitis. He prescribed me Augmentin to "nip it in the bud" but I developed severe vomiting from the Augmentin so I was placed on Penicillin V 500 mg (same as after the surgery). I then followed up with my regular surgeon on week 4. He did not acknowledge the xray and didn't mention osteomyelitis. He looked and irrigated the site (came up clean) and prescribed a muscle relaxer for the trismus. Well, the next day I had another bout of severe pain (after eating) and couldn't take it so I went in to my general doc. I was scheduled for a CT the next day. On Friday I was called and told that the CT showed infection but it was inconclusive as to where the infection was, bone or abcess. They were to call me today to schedule an ultrasound and then possibly a bone scan after that.

This morning I ran my CT to my original oral surgeon who saw me right away. He did the typical irrigation and said he couldn't bring up any pus. He says the bone irregularities in the CT were due to the extractions and that he didn't believe the lump was an abscess. He believes all my symptoms are due to muscle inflammation and to keep taking the muscle relaxers and to follow up next week.

So here I am 5 weeks post op and the pain is a little better than it initially was but the lump is still there. It isn't as tender to touch as it once was. The trismus is better due to the muscle relaxers. The pain is tolerable except for in the mornings and after I eat. It is felt deep in my jaw and I don't think it is in the muscle but maybe I'm wrong. My teeth on the bottom right side hurt as if they have cavities. I sometimes have shooing "electrical" type pain in that jaw but it's not that often. The only other abnormal symptoms I have is that I'm lethargic (I slept most of this past weekend) and my temp is higher than normal (99-100 degrees) but no fever. Also my CRP was slightly elevated (7.9...range is <5) but I know this could be due to muscle inflammation.

Who the heck should I believe and what should I do? Wait it out? Stay on soft diet? Do the ultrasound? Don't do the bone scan (suggested by oral surgeon...says it's a little extensive)? I don't know anymore....TIA

Hi Ccanna,

Before you have any further testing done and due to the conflict in diagnosis between the 2 dentists.... perhaps it would be helpful to see another oral surgeon who is not affiliated with either of the two that you have already seen. It would also be helpful to bring your pre and post op xrays and CT scan to that appointment.

Hey, OP what happened? was it osteomyelitis or just an abcess? I am having VERY similar issues!!