A tooth abscess is a well-known dental ailment. This disease is considered to be serious. It can be challenging to treat and manage. An abscess is nothing but a pocket where pus forms. It happens at the root of the tooth. This disease does not have any certain age group. From elders to children, anyone can suffer from this problem. Someone suffering from this disease will experience severe pain. The problem with this disease is – the pain sometimes spread across the facial area. It is not uncommon to experience aches around the neck and ear area. Dental Abscess is a common disease. If you experience it, you should get treatment without fail. When left untreated, it can cause serious health issues. It is not uncommon to suffer from a life-threatening situation.
Types of Abscesses
Dental Abscess can come in various forms. To detect this problem, you need to know about the disease properly. The type of disease depends on the location of the dental infection. The most common type of Dental Abscesses is – periapical abscess, periodontal abscess, and gingival abscess.
Periapical Abscess – This abscess occurs at the slope of the tooth’s root. You may suffer from sharp pain if you are suffering from this.
Periodontal Abscess – This abscess occurs on the gum next to the teeth. It does not remain in one place. When left untreated this disease spreads quickly. It can affect the tissues surrounding the tooth and gum.
Gingival Abscess – This abscess occurs around the gum only.
Symptoms of Abscess
How will you know that you are suffering from Dental Abscess? It is important to identify the disease at the initial stage. If you are not careful and make a delay, you will face a lot of problems. The treatment cost will increase. Also, the severity of the disease will grow with time. Therefore, you should know the symptoms to identify the disease before it turns severe.
Throbbing around the gum and root area is the key symptom of Dental Abscess. The problem with this pain is – it commences suddenly. You will not expect the pain to evoke. But it will with a sharp throbbing sensation. With time the pain gets even worse. The more delay you make, the worse your pain will get. Therefore, the wise thing to do is to see a doctor without wasting time.
There are some other symptoms that you need to keep an eye on. Dental pain which begins with a throbbing around your gum quickly spreads. It affects the neck and ear area. Throbbing at the jawline is another sign that you are suffering from Dental Abscess.
When you have Dental Abscess, your dental ache may get worse the moment you lie down. It is a common sign of Dental Abscess. Therefore, you need to pay attention to the sensations and make notes of your discomfort.
Chewing or biting food can be great trouble when you have Dental Abscess. It may cause excruciating pain to take a bite of food or chew the food. Some suffer from facial swelling and redness. You must keep an eye out for that too. In addition to this, tooth sensitivity and gum redness are other key signs of Dental Abscess.
Teeth may get discolored if you suffer from Dental Abscess. A loose tooth is another common symptom that you may suffer from. You may suffer from bad breath or a bad taste in your mouth due to Dental Abscess. If the matter gets serious, you may suffer from a fever.
When someone suffers from Dental Abscess, the need to see a doctor arises. You will feel relief as the pus gets drained out from your gum. It may cause a bad taste in your mouth. However, you will experience immediate relief when the treatment begins.
Causes of Dental Abscess
What causes Dental Abscess? This is a common question that rarely gets an answer. If you are wondering about this, here is the answer – the reason for Dental Abscess is a bacterial infection. Bacteria buildup around gum causes Dental abscesses. However, how it happened will depend on the type of Dental Abscess.
Periapical Abscess – When bacteria get into the pulp of your teeth, you get a Periapical Abscess. Bacteria gets into the tooth pulp through the cavity. The tooth pulp is the soft part of the tooth that is made from nerves and tissues. When the pulp gets affected, it causes excruciating pain.
Periodontal Abscess – This abscess can be a result of a serious accident. However, usually, gum disease is the root cause of this dental problem.
Gingival Abscess – This disease can be caused by some foreign entities like toothbrushes, popcorn hulls, or some hard food. These get into the tooth tissue and create serious problems and pain.
How is the Disease Gets Treated?
The treatment of Dental Abscess revolves around clearing off the dental infection. Usually washing off the bacteria provides relief from pain. The treatment begins with performing an X-Ray to understand the depth of tooth damage. The dentist cannot proceed without knowing how far the damage has gone. The X-Ray report also helps in understanding whether the infection has spread across or not. You will get several options while seeking treatment for dental abscesses.
Draining dental abscesses is one of the treatments which you can go for. Here dentist cuts open the abscess to drain out the pus. This procedure ends with cleaning the treated area. Dentists use saline solutions to perform the cleaning process.
Root Canal is a common treatment. This treatment involves drilling the infected tooth to remove the infected tissues or drain the pus to provide pain relief. Once the pus is drained, the dentist seals the drilled area. Sometimes dentists use caps to crown the affected tooth.
Tooth extraction is another treatment that dentists perform as the last resort. In case, your tooth is too damaged, the dentist may have to take the tooth out to offer you pain relief.
Lastly, in case the infection has spread across the neck and ear area, dentists will prescribe you antibiotics to remove the infection. Remember to see a dentist to treat the abscess. Otherwise, the infection will get worse.