Getting rid of abscess?

Hey peeps,

I've had a wisdom tooth abscess for a few years. Went to the dentist, he said pull it out, I disagreed. Anyway I took the antibiotics, but the abscess is still there. Basically there is no tooth there, just an abscessed bump (where the tooth was once). I can't really bite there because it hurts, otherwise it gives no pain - only when eating/chewing.

My main question is, will the antibiotics get rid of the abscess, or will they get rid of the bacteria (that causes the abscess)? As I understand, the abscess is full of pus. So does this need to be drained, or will antibiotics eliminate the pus?

Thanks!

Hi welcome, I don't know from what you have written if you still have the wisdom tooth or not. In the first part of your post you say the dentist said to remove it but you disagreed then later in the post you say there is no tooth there.

Presuming that you have a tooth there even if it is impacted, antibiotics will not cure an abscess they calm things down enough to allow the dentist to get you numb to be able to either do a rct or an extraction

carole said:

Hi welcome, I don't know from what you have written if you still have the wisdom tooth or not. In the first part of your post you say the dentist said to remove it but you disagreed then later in the post you say there is no tooth there.

Click to expand...

Sorry, I didn't explain myself properly. What I meant was, the tooth has never been extracted, however the tooth enamel has all eroded. i.e. I have nothing there to bite, so if you look at it, you would see nothing, except for an abscess, like a pink blob which I'm guessing contains the pus.

carole said:

Presuming that you have a tooth there even if it is impacted, antibiotics will not cure an abscess they calm things down enough to allow the dentist to get you numb to be able to either do a rct or an extraction

Click to expand...

Okay, just so I'm clear on this, antibiotics never cure a tooth abscess? Thanks.

You are correct. As Carole said, in order to actually get rid of the abscess for good, the tooth needs to be removed.

FearfulInMA said:

You are correct. As Carole said, in order to actually get rid of the abscess for good, the tooth needs to be removed.

Click to expand...

Thanks. Thing is I've been doing some research online and now I am confused!

A lot of people saying they took amoxycillin or metronidazole and it got rid of their abscess! How is this possible?!

E.g. one person on Drugs.com said, "On Metronidazole for the 4th time due to a wisdom tooth which keeps becoming infected (they cannot take it out as it is sitting on a nerve & may leave me with permanent facial numbness). Overall this drug is amazing and I always find that the infection disappears with 3-4 days of taking it."

I really don't want to get rid of the tooth, because I already have had many taken out a few years ago. So if there's even a small chance that the abscess/pus will disappear with antibiotics, I'm willing to try it for longer.

Hi the antibiotics will not get rid of your abscess. It may calm down and drain and you may feel nothing in some cases for months but it is going to flair up again. If you noticed that the things you read said that the meds got rid of their abscess every time they got it back.

There is a clue in that last sentence, they don't go away they just lie dormant until they have filled back up. Now if it is a bit of infection that might be a different matter but you really need the tooth removing or if possible rct'd. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news

Ok I think I understand. Basically even though the abscess may disappear using antibiotics, unless the tooth is dealt with, then the abscess can rear it's ugly head again.

However, this still doesn't explain the following: Where does the pus disappear to when on antibiotics?

When the pus goes it means it has found a way to drain, which means you probably swallowed it. Once an abscess has drained the pain will be less or go altogether until it fills back up. The only way to get rid of the infection that causes it is to have a dentist remove the tooth or rct it. SIMPLES