A throbbing toothache that comes with sharp, shooting pains may be related to a tooth abscess, which develops when bacteria infect the area around your tooth or gums. A tooth abscess leads to serious pain and discomfort, impacting your ear, neck, mouth, and jaw. Without treatment, such an infection gets worse and spreads to other parts of your body. That is why you should see a Chelsea dentist as soon as possible.
Tooth Abscess Symptoms
A tooth abscess results from a tooth or gum infection. Serious pain and discomfort are often experienced when you develop an abscess. If you experience a mild to serious toothache, seek professional help right away as this could be a sign of a more serious issue. Apart from a serious toothache, other symptoms of tooth abscesses include pain that radiates to your ear, jaw, or neck, tooth sensitivity, discomfort, or pain with cold and hot temperatures, persistent bad breath, swelling around a tooth or gum, difficulty opening the mouth, and swollen lymph nodes in the neck or jaw.
If you experience serious symptoms, seek urgent medical attention. Visit the ER or reach out to an emergency dentist.
Causes of an Abscessed Tooth
A dental injury or poor dental hygiene results in bacterial infection, which causes a tooth abscess. Decay and damage can make a hole in the enamel of your tooth. In serious cases, the hole reaches the innermost pulp of the tooth.
Bacteria use this hole as an entry point to your tooth where it can attack the pulp and infect it. This results in the formation of a periapical abscess. Sometimes, bacteria can also enter a tooth through an opening left by a previous dental work.
Cracked or fractured teeth can become infected. Such dental injuries are usually not preventable, except when you wear a mouthguard when playing a contact sport. Tooth decay and cavities are preventable. Poor diet, high sugar consumption, smoking, and dry mouth decay your teeth and leave them sensitive to infections. In addition, gum diseases can cause abscesses when bacteria accumulate in abrasions on the surface of the gum or in periodontal pockets.
Treatment for a Tooth Abscess
A tooth abscess does not disappear and must not be treated at home. It should be addressed by a dentist. Your dentist will safely drain the abscess and effectively get rid of the infection. Below are ways your dentist will treat an abscess:
- Incision and damage. To drain the abscess, the dentist will make a small incision in it so that the pus will drain. They will wash the affected area with saline and place a small rubber drain over the area.
- Root canal therapy. Root canal procedures get rid of the infection within the pulp of the tooth without requiring tooth removal. During these procedures, the dentist will drill into the infected tooth, eliminate the infected pulp, and thoroughly clean the tooth. Then, the dentist will fill and seal the cleaned tooth using a cap or crown to prevent further infection.
- Tooth extraction. This procedure is a last resort. Your dentist will prioritize preserving your natural tooth while getting rid of the infection. But sometimes, a tooth can no longer be saved due to too much damage. In such cases, the dentist must extract the tooth.
Along with other treatments, antibiotics will be prescribed by the dentist. While antibiotics won’t stop the infection, they can prevent it from spreading further. Also, they can help the body combat the bacteria. Your dentist will evaluate the seriousness of the infection to know if they have to prescribe antibiotics. You may get antibiotics if your immune system is weakened.