This continues the apparently never-ending saga of What the heck is going on with my mouth? and Help me prepare for my 1st tooth extraction.
First, I’ve already contacted my dentist but I just wanted more info because I’m a hypochondriac and scared, even though I know they’ll probably get back to me before anyone here does. I just need to vent.
A very brief version of this particular dental issue: I was having significant pain in my tooth – the 2nd molar (lower left) – and my dentist discovered a crack. She tried to fix it via a drilling & filling, but discovered that the crack went lower than expected; temporarily she put in a filling in hopes that would be enough to prevent an extraction.
That was toward the end of June. Two months later the pain has kept returning on and off, and I’ve been back to the dentist a couple of times for her to adjust the bite via shaping etc. (She noticed that I was biting unusually ‘hard’ on that side, so thought filing away at some of the cusps might ease the pain.)
Anyway, about a week ago we did one final attempt to fix things by reshaping stuff, but it was agreed the next step would be extraction if this didn’t help.
Fast forward to the end of this week, where this tooth’s been hurting me yet again. The pain lessened significantly; however Sunday morning (yesterday) I woke up with a lump beneath the gum-line on outside of tooth. I’m assuming this is an abscess. Of course Googling ‘tooth abscess’ resulted in my learning that I’m apparently destined for a brain infection and death. (Well, not exactly, but that’s the worst-case scenario, and that’s where my doom-laden mind takes me.)
I just texted my dentist’s emergency line & the dentist said he’s calling in a prescription for antibiotics I can get in the a.m. He told me not to lose sleep and I shouldn’t be scared–“a brain infection is possible, but so is lightning.”
My question: is he right? Also, what is the next step? He didn’t mention following up or anything, which seems odd (then again it was just texting). But I assume I should be making an appointment to get this tooth properly taken care of, because antibiotics won’t actually heal anything, will they? The meds’ll prevent it spreading (which is great) but the problem still exists. Should they be trying to fit me in ASAP to handle this? I’m just worried he’s not taking it seriously enough. Or am I being too paranoid?
I should mention the lump has a dull ache/pain if I move my cheek or touch it with my tongue, but it doesn’t hurt otherwise; the tooth itself feels uncomfortable but not painful at the moment.
Anyone have experience w/dental abscesses?