• Dental Phobia Support

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How long have you left an abscess untreated?

How long have you left an abcess untreated?

  • Until next appointment

    Votes: 22 23.7%
  • Up to 6 months

    Votes: 8 8.6%
  • 6 months to a year

    Votes: 6 6.5%
  • Over a year

    Votes: 57 61.3%

  • Total voters
    93
I had a bad absess about a year and a half ago then i excedrined and advilled it away. the pain anyways and took a bunch of antioxidants which helped.. well it came back with vengence in May and there was not saving it so last year they would have been able to do a root canal and save it this year they said they couldn't... well... i don't know if I reallly believe that because my old dentist was implant hungry.. so he may not be telling the truth.. but.. long story short.. i am less a tooth until my implant heals correct and I can get my crown on which will be months. :(.
 
I tend to get any abcesses sorted quickly usual within two days, the mystrey of why I had one in 2005 over Christmas the dentist I saw was an emergecy one so he did not access to my notes, even my dentist in janaury 2006 after Christmas could not see anything wrong, it was a sinus problem but needed root canal treatment in mid 2006 so I distrust dentist than he has left the pratice even though I been going all my life to dentist, I think I only had to rearranged one appointment as I was booked on the day I flew back on and had no sleep the night before, my dentist rearranged my appointment a few weeks before and forgot I was away, even after my abcess in 2006 made me go to the dentist more, I had sleepless nights when I had abcess in 2015 and 2016 and was scared I was going to lose my teeth.
 
more than 10 years ago. I knew I had problems in my teeth but I got a scholarship to the US. at the time I thought US would be great place to treat my teeth. never imagined the prices and lack of insurance. few months in and I got a bad abscess in my upper jaw. went to the dentist and got antibiotics. then received an estimation for all the repairs needed totaled about $8000. I couldn't afford it then. so spent my US stay chewing gums and using Listerine. unlikely to help with infection inside. after going back I treated all my teeth. 10 years later, recently abscess returned I think in the same place. now getting it treated with a lot of antibiotics and cleaning at the dentist. the dentist said it's not bad and my teeth can be saved.

I'm worried about taking several courses of antibiotics though.

when the abscess appeared again I went to different dentist who seemed to push for extraction. he told me there is 99% chance treatment won't work. I said you mean there is a chance? and told him I want to treat it. several things at the clinic made me doubt he is a good one. so I switched to current one who said it can be saved.
 
I had an absess last year that made me not even fear the dentist because it was so painful and my face had swelled so much by eye closed. I went to the dentist the same day I woke up hurting, I was pregnant though so limited on what I could take. Probably wouldn't have gone so quickly had I not been pregnant.
 
I got an active periodontal abscess right now. I went to the dentist on Monday, he prescribed antibiotic and a mouth rinse. He said I need a deep cleaning to treat it next week. Right now I am doing everything to the letter to get the swelling to go down. Has anyone gotten a periodontal abscess and later a deep cleaning (scaling and root planing) and successfully treated it? Scare I might lose the tooth and it's in the lower front.
 
Really depends on the abscess. I had one that wasn't overly bad, took antibiotics, it went away, and it never returned. The last one I got, I was in so much pain I ended up in the ER from ODing on OTC pain killers trying to make it stop while I waited on my dentist appointment. Realizing I had nearly KILLED MYSELF in my pain induced hysteria was eye-opening. Still afraid of the dentist but I get an abscess I'm not only going I'm not likely to wait for an appointment. Just no. Worst pain I've ever experienced.
 
1. Until next appointment
2. Up to 6 months
3. 6 months to a year
4. A few years

I'm not actually sure as far as I'm aware I've always dealt with it within a day or two as soon as I become aware of the pain. I have a pretty good pain threshold but this is one I can not stand and always puts me in tears. Child birth was a doddle compared to an abcess, Ive wanted to help others and get help myself for a long time just over a year ago after nearly 7 years of not seeing dentist being 24 at the time and having had two kids I finally got the courage to go to the dentist now I'm a worrier big time I think I could probably say I have anxiety almost. I knew it was never going to be good I had put up with 4-5 years of constant abscess constant pain. My teeth were black and dark yellow, I'm sad to say once I hit 16 and got pregnant my teeth started falling out the first eating a teacake. Now I must admit I did not look after my teeth the way I should sugary foods, 2-3lt of cola a day lots of tea and smoking without cleaning or looking after my Gums properly something I now deeply regret. I cry all the time as I'm afraid my face will collapse and I will no longer be able to talk or eat. I'm embarrassed to eat out and can no longer eat so many things I love. I only have my four bottom front teeth left the rest are dentures that despite having loads of work done on never fit and are actually impossible to chew with. I know this might sound silly to some but it means the world to me if I'm wearing my dentures I can't kiss my partner or children. I'm scared all the time my partner will leave me as he has disabilitys but he's not physical showing it. I hate going to school with my kids as people seem to avoid talking to me since i lost my teeth. I look in the mirror everyday and hate myself and the way I look I don't smile anymore and I refuse to have a photo even with my baby's as I don't want to make them look bad I worry I will embarrass them in front of their friends and boyfriends when they get older I only have the one pleasure of smoking left in life as I don't drunk alcohol and I worry that I will mouth cancer. I have pernament lumps at the back of my tounge they came when I got oral thrush just before my operation from having to much amoxicillin over a long period of time those lumps I was told would go after 6 months. 12 months later there still there. Like I said its been a year now since they pulled almost all my teeth I came out of theatre wanting to die and i said so too I cried buckets and could not see and end and lived after 5 days of my op on instant mash n gravy and eventually Carrot n swede. Obviously I can eat alot more now but no where near what id like and It's limited my diet. And what healthy things I can eat. I pray everyday for a miracle that my jaw won't collapse that I will never need any type of surgery on my jaw bone. And to make matters worse my four remaining teeth have become slightly loose and I'm afraid that I will soon loose them too. The only reason I didn't give up was my baby's as I know they need me and I need them. But I can sympathise with all these story's I've felt lowest of the low and do most days I dont have any confidence I don't even have a friend how sad is that at 25 I don't go anywhere or see anyone the only person who calls me is my mum. And I feel alot is linked to how I look. On top I have no family due to other reasons so I no better than most people how alone scared we can get espc when it comes to our teeth people even myself before take teeth for granted I've heard so many people say if love dentures/implants I'm telling you, you Don't if you can keep you own teeth do as they are no subsequent for the real thing alot of people don't realise this but you have pressure behind your bite everyone's varies slightly I think it's 350-400 behind a normal persons bite with all there teeth if you have dentures like me it's goes down to 50, that's the difference between being able to eat steak and eat oatmeal and yeah I'd rather have the steak if I could which I can't nor can I eat lamb or belly pork or beef joints or pork chops. The only proper meat I get is chicken a pork or gammon joint and Turkey. If I want beef it either has to be mince, Sausage or burger soft basically I can't eat Crackers or peanuts nor can I eat Apples. I can ko longer just bite into a chocolate bar I have to suck it which it then gets stuck to the top of my denture. If I eat Bacon I have to take my dentures out as it seems to have a sliding issue with Bacon I tend to end up choking. I'm sorry for such a long rant hopefully some of this may have been informative I do not wish to scare people but I hate it when Dr's etc say things will be fine it will be like normal again when it never really is as it's not. My face has changed I've changed I can't enjoy sex or anything anymore as I can't snog my partner at all with my dentures in but I'm scared to take them out and do it in case his tongue hits my Gums I don't want to put him off me.
 
I think I’ve had a few infections also. Like previously mentioned on this thread I had great pain in a front tooth that finally broke off. That tooth is now barely even there... dentist suggests pulling I keep putting it off

Now I may have a back tooth infection starting, so here we go again. My fear of shits keeps me from having the work I should have done.
 
Three years. I’m not; for one minute, advising anyone wait that long. My only option left was extraction and it took me that long to work up to it.
 
I had one for a few years, not sure how long. I had no idea that I had it. I never had pain in the tooth, but the tooth had apparently died from a childhood trauma. It never turned gray because there was a tiny bit of nerve left. From what the endodontist says, by the time I actually had pain (front central incisor on top), the abscess must have been there for a few years, judging from the size of the bone loss. So weird that it never hurt when the tooth died, or when the abscess started. 30 years after the injury!!! I had to have a root canal and an apicoectomy, and the endodontist scraped out infection from the bone. Yuck! I still may lose the tooth as there is still pain.
 
Currently going through a dental abscess as we speak and finding this thread made me feel a bit better, knowing that a lot of you have had pain that went away eventually. I registered just to comment my two tales.

I had one on my upper left side back in late 2017, hurt terribly for only a couple days so I thought it was just a one off toothache. Two months later, the little pimple looking bubble formed in my mouth right by the tooth and that’s when I knew something was wrong. It didn’t hurt at all though, only for those two days. I went and got it taken care of immediately because I was so freaked out I didn’t even care about my fear at that point.

My current abscess is in my lower right and boy does it hurt. I thought it was sinus issues for the past month until one day I felt a sharp pain in my tooth, I went to the dentist immediately and confirmed it was infected. He put me on antibiotics for 2 weeks, they didn’t really do anything. Killed the infection slightly and helped with the pain for a bit definitely as the pain isn’t as excruciating as it was but the infection is still there and continues to affect my tooth, my jaw, my ears, and even my eyes. I’ve been taking pain relievers whenever I feel pain and my root canal isn’t for another two weeks. My face is slightly swollen (not even very noticeable but I can feel it) and I just hope nothing gets worse within the next two weeks.
 
I uses to wait until my full face has swelled and I can no longer take the pain then I go to the walk in centre on a weekend ? this way they can diagnose without looking in my mouth.

Not had one since I started going to the dentist. I’ll likely just phone up if I get one.
 
Hey all! :dance2:
I just wanted to update about this topic- now it's been about 7 years since my tooth abscess. I still have it but it's not "leaking" as much as it had been. It is still there and all, but except for some killer headaches (which suck because they make me vomit and make my whole spine hurt) every few months, I'm doing pretty good. I have cut down on sugar and am taking (occasionally) cod liver oil/butter oil from fermented cod liver oil from green pastures brand and am eating a lot more meat and organ meats and drinking raw milk. I went and followed 'curing tooth decay' book sort of dietary advice (bone broth is great-make sure it's organic) helps a lot. If I cheat and start eating sugar and bad bread again, I get the terrible headaches. I had lost my tooth years ago.
I get occasional heart palpitations but that could be due to premenopause stuff. I also have bruises that have shown up on the palm of my hand lately, but I don't know if that has anything to do with the chronic infection or not. When I feel really bad I eat a raw garlic/onion sandwich. Besides keeping the infection at bay and being a good anti inflammatory and anti bacterial, it also keeps away annoying humans and mosquitoes.

If I could figure out a way to get a free EKG I'd let you all know if there's anything weird about my heart or valves or whatever they say is supposed to cause problems, but so far nothing weird has happened. So much for the hysterical "you'll DIE from a tooth abscess" propaganda! Ha! I do have to mention that I do not have any other "chronic" health problems or issues because I eat good food when I can afford it.
 
I have had many over the years, and I've never gotten treated. It's been 23 years, I've probably had 10 or more, treated with naproxen, ibuprofen, salt water. I've had to pop them, it's rather embarassing. I'm FINALLY getting an appointment for the first time in 23 years in April. NO MORE OF THESE!!
 
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