Abcess on gum

embee · 11-12-2006 2:41am #1

Hi,

I currently have a large abcess on my lower gum, in front of one of my molar teeth. It is on the surface of the gum, but I suspect the infection is deep into my gum, as I have horrendous pain in my ear, jaw, down the right hand side of my neck and in my temple.

Now, the dentist in my town is almost always constantly fully booked for the next week or so, but I just cannot wait that long. I have a baby to mind and can't be in this sort of pain for a week. I'm going to ring the dentist in the morning, but in the meantime, is there anything I can do to alleviate the pain and try to stop the infection/abcess from getting worse?

Today, I have been taking Nurofen Plus. I have also been gargling with antiseptic Listerine, focusing on the area around the abcess, to try and keep the area as clean as possible. Someones told me that clove oil can help to numb the area - is this true?

I have a pretty bad underbite too, which means that when I'm closing my teeth together, the infected tooth is bashing off the top row of teeth at an awkward angle, and it hurts like mad. Oh, I should add at this time that the "tooth" the abcess is in front of is actually only half a tooth - the back of it is long gone from bad decay, so essentially, its just half a tooth.

What will the dentist do? Will he extract the tooth or just try to treat the abcess? Would going to my GP to get a prescription for an anti-biotic be worth my time?

I am really, really reluctant to go the the dentist. I'm not afraid of them, I just cannot afford it. I don't have my medical card (yet) and probably won't have it until after Christmas... how much will the treatment be?

Sorry I have so many questions... I know nothing about dentists

last_orders · 11-12-2006 3:02am

hey, i had that problem when i was a kid and my mam diluted some TCP with water and i gargled it and the pain went down. that was a good time ago so i dunno how much TCP to water you can mix but it was definitly only a small bit, something like a cap full of it. im no dentist but i hope this helps til u get it cheacked out.

12-12-2006 5:02pm

It sounds like to OP has a dental abcess probbly from a dead nerve in one of the nearby teeth. Teeth have a small nerve inside and sometimes if a tooth has decay or very big filling the nerve dies off. Now the dead nerve gets infected and produces pus....the pus has nowhere to go so it breaks out of the bottom of the tooth into the jaw bone....this can cause your face to swell or a gum boil to form which is the pus draining into your mouth ( not plesant I know). There is a rare condition where the gums themselves get infected and painful however this is not common except for wisdom teeth.

The only treatment is to remove the source of infection.....the dead nerve....this can be done by performing root canal treatemtn or extracting the offending tooth( try to hang on to your teeth if you can). Antibiotics can sometimes help however they will not cure anything and only reduce the infection for a short time.

You can usually be numbed up even with infection however it is more difficult....if you turn up at the dentist without an appointment and there is not time to preform treatment antibiotics can help untill you can get proper treatment.

Get this sorted ASAP cause it will only get worse...I have seen many people hospitalised due to very severe abcesses however these are not common.

See here for some better explainations

http://www.dental-health-index.com/toothabscess.html

Abcess on gum

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