abscess tooth
 

Hi,

On monday i started having pain in my wisdom tooth which was extremely decayed. Wednesday my face and neck swelled, and i could barely open my mouth. On Friday i started antibiotics and had the tooth extracted. He did not drain it or anything, just pulled it and i went home. Its still extremely swollen and sore. Is this normal? How long until it goes away? My wedding is in three weeks!

Hi llyoung,

Did you have this tooth extracted by a general dentist or an oral surgeon? Was it a lower or upper tooth?

As soon as the tooth was extracted, did the dentist then scrape the bone and socket repeatedly with a hand instrument? Or did he just pull the tooth and have you bite down on gauze?

The scraping of the surgical site is called a debridement. It is an imperative step that should always been done when a tooth is extracted. The scraping removes the diseased periodontal ligament and all visibly diseased tissue and bone. If the surgical debridement was not done at all or not done thoroughly, then the infection will linger and the bone will not heal properly. That can result in a condition called a Cavitation which is also called Ischemic Osteonecrosis, Chronic Osteomyelitis or Neuralgia Inducing Cavitational Osteonecrosis. Which is basically a build up of toxins within the bone from the infection. The surgical debridement is crucial and ALL dentists have been educated on that and trained to do this for every tooth extraction. Unfortunately, many dentists either forgo this step completely or do not take the time to perform it thoroughly.

When there is a tooth abscess and it's very swollen, after the tooth is removed and the surgical site is thoroughly debrided, as long as there are no complications the swelling and pain will generally and noticeably subside fairly quickly. Usually within 2-4 days after the tooth was extracted. When the debridement is not done, or it is incomplete, then the antibiotic may or may not temporarily subside some of the swelling and pain. However, in any case the antibiotic is not going to take the place of the debridement.

If you think the surgical debridement was not done ... then it would behoove you to get in to see an oral surgeon asap for evaluation and probable debridement.

Bryanna



QUOTE=llyoung;1225371]Hi,

On monday i started having pain in my wisdom tooth which was extremely decayed. Wednesday my face and neck swelled, and i could barely open my mouth. On Friday i started antibiotics and had the tooth extracted. He did not drain it or anything, just pulled it and i went home. Its still extremely swollen and sore. Is this normal? How long until it goes away? My wedding is in three weeks![/QUOTE]