Infection spreading from abscess tooth into eye
 

Last year my 6yr old son had a filling in the second to last upper molar on his rt. side.

Thursday night he told us he had a slight toothache and we planned to call the dentist Friday morning.

Friday morning at 0600 he wakes up with a fully swollen abscess tooth. Not really in pain he was just really scared because of the swelling in his cheek (Blue PJ Pic)

We get him right in and they took an x-ray and didn't really see much if any infection around the tooth but she extracted it anyway because it was clearly abscessed and must be in the very early stages. She said it didn't drain from the root like expected but did see it drain slightly from the Novocaine injection site. He was sent home and put on amoxicillin.

From the time he got home (pic in the grey shirt) the swelling got noticeably worse and continued to his right eye.
Saturday morning (this morning) at 0700 we called and she was surprised the swelling didn't go away almost completely so she had him come in and made an incision and pushed and dug out as much as she could. His cheek got a lot smaller but not the eye. She put him on Clindamycin at this point and within an hour his cheek was swollen right back up. (Red shirt pic)

He hasn't been acting odd and had only a fever of 101 Friday night. Tonight it is 99.9.

The fact that it is around his eye has me extremely nerovus.

Is there anything else we can do for him? Anything else that we should be concerned about?

The dentist said if it does not improve overnight that she will bring him back in and try to get some more out and this time give him something to make him less aware than he was this morning. Twas not the most fun he has ever had.

Hi robjpiel,

I don't mean to alarm you but he needs to be seen by an oral surgeon asap. Do not take him back to his general dentist as she is not knowledgeable enough to take care of this problem properly. Call her office, get the name of an oral surgeon and have her email your sons xrays to the surgeon asap. Although it is the weekend, you should still call her and leave a message that you have an emergency and she will call you back. Then once you have the surgeons name and number, call him and leave a message that you were referred by this dentist and you have an emergency. The surgeon will call you back.

Do not let his general dentist convince you she can help him, she cannot and will only make it worse. I urge you not to wait to get him in to see the oral surgeon. Please check back with us and let us know how he is doing.

Bryanna

A Visit to the Emergency Room is In Order
 

I had something similar happen to me. I do not want to alarm you, but my advice is to take your son to your local emergency room. Hospitals have Oral Maxiofacial Surgeons on-call and they will come in and treat in cases of emergency. At the very least they can do a CT in the hospital and electronically send the CT to the oral surgeon. A radiologist will read it and call the ER doctor and they can share the report with the oral surgeon. I was an x-ray tech for 20 years. I worked for a very long time in a trauma center, and other hospitals, so I know this is the general protocol. I totally agree with Brianna -- do NOT go back to a general dentist for further care. You need someone more skilled to treat your son. Dentists think they are doctors, but they are anything but that. Most oral surgery programs are DMD/MD programs these days, so that is a benefit to the patient. Good luck to you son and I hope he's on the mend soon.