Baton Rouge Dentist

What Can I Do About a Tooth Infection?

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Hello there,

I am in a bit of a predicament. My job does not provide and medical or dental insurance. However, I’ve been battling with what I think is a tooth infection. My face is swollen and puffy, and it aches all the time. My job doesn’t pay a lot, so I don’t have the money to treat this. What can I do?

Christopher, from Kansas City, Kansas

 

Hello Christopher,

It does sound like you have a tooth infection. Your infection may start to drain, which would release some of the swelling you feel, but it probably will not do that without any intervention.

Many communities have low-cost or mobile dental clinics, or allow you to pay on a sliding scale. You can start calling offices to see who is willing to work with you. Universities often have low-cost clinics. However, if your pain becomes worse, you should go to see an emergency dentist. Oral infections, if left untreated, can spread to other parts of your body. If it spreads to your brain, it can become very serious.

While you are looking for a clinic, do not try to treat the infection with antibiotics on your own. Antibiotics cannot treat infections present inside of teeth, only the swelling. You will likely need a root canal or an extraction to fully rid your mouth of the infection. If you take an antibiotic without any sort of treatment plan, the infection may come back, and when it does, it will be resistant to antibiotics. This will make curing the infection even more difficult.

This blog post is brought to you by Baton Rouge emergency dentist, Dr. Ryan P. Perry.

Is my toothache causing a swollen cheek?

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My tooth has been hurting the last couple of weeks and now my cheek is getting swollen. Is this related and how?
– Maureen from Louisiana

 

 

Dear Maureen,

Your situation sounds like you have an infected tooth with an abscess. The tooth is either cracked or has a cavity that has grown and spread to the pulp of the tooth and this is causing your problem.  If this happens, an abscess forms, causing the tooth to ache, become temperature sensitive, and creates pain when you chew. Abscesses may spread from the tooth into the jaw bone. If the infection breaks through the jaw bone, it spreads into muscles and skin. In your situation, this would be – your cheek.

We recommend you visit your dentist as soon as you can as you must treat this serious infection properly. Your dentist will prescribe antibiotics to treat the abscess and you must take the entire prescription even if your symptoms decrease after a few days. If there’s a crack in your tooth that spreads down into the root of the tooth, an extraction has to be done. If you need to extract the tooth, you may be a good candidate for a dental implant or bridge. However, if the tooth has a cavity in the pulp of the tooth, a root canal is necessary. After the root canal is performed, a dental crown is needed to protect the tooth from breaking. Because there’s no blood supply to the tooth after a root canal, the tooth is weak so the crown is added to maintain the tooth’s strength.

This blog brought to you by Baton Rouge family dentist, Dr. Ryan P. Perry.

Can a tooth infection actually be dangerous?

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I am kind of freaked out about a problem I have with my teeth. One of my molars split in half about 10 days ago. It is the very last molar, right beside where my wisdom teeth used to be. Right after the tooth broke I started having some really weird pains, and they are getting worse. I have pain in my cheek and jaw area, which is not surprising. But then I started having pain in my sinuses and nose, and then in my temple, too. This morning, my neck was really tender when I woke up. That pain starts right next to my ear in the back and radiates all the way around to the front of my neck.

Can ALL of that be from one broken tooth, or is something else going on? Maybe could this be a sinus infection. I have been taking antibiotics that I got from a friend. I know you’re not supposed to do that, but I don’t have any money at all and I have been trying to make this better without going to a doctor or dentist.

Can you help? One of my friends just told me that infections in your mouth can be dangerous. The way the pain is spreading is freaking me out.

Elise in Salt Lake City

Dear Elise,

Your friend is right. Infections in your teeth and mouth can be very dangerous. They can spread to your brain and cause infections there, or endanger your throat and airway. This is not something you should fool around with and taking antibiotics without getting the tooth treated is only making the remaining bacteria resistant to treatment.

You will have to have a root canal treatment, or if the tooth is too damaged to save, an extraction. When your finances turn around, you could consider having a dental implant to replace it, but in the mean time you must address the source of the infection. One way or the other, this must be treated. It will not go away on its own.

Call the local dental society and see if they have a program or clinic where you can get this taken care of for free or a really reduced rate. If that doesn’t yield results, start calling area dentists until you find one that can help you.

This is serious. You need to get it fixed right away.

This blog produced courtesy of the office of Baton Rouge dentist Dr. Perry.