Abcess differences

[Della44]

Hi, My anxiety is through the roof here, I only just recovered from losing 2 bottom front teeth & now extremely worried I am going to lose my adjacent 3 tooth bridge. Underneath the supporting tooth for the bridge, I have developed a small painful lump , which I feel has been coming on for the last few days. Is there difference between tooth abcess and gum abcess? I had an abcess in a back tooth a couple of years ago and I lost the tooth. Feeling like I can't cope with anymore of this

 

[Gordon]

Yes. One, the "tooth abscess", properly called a periapical abscess, is caused by the nerve in the tooth dying and becoming infected, usually can be fixed by a root canal treatment.

The other "gum abscess", properly a periodontal abscess, is caused by gum disease leading to loss of the supporting bone for a tooth, which leads to a "pocket" forming around the neck of the tooth. Bacteria/food debris get into the pocket, leading to an infection.

 

[Della44]

@Gordon Thank you very much for your support and information. This isn't like the last abcess I had, none of the intense throbbing pain or bad facial swelling, the discomfort is localised to the sore bump below the tooth, so I was a bit confused with the difference in symptoms. I am also confused if tooth loss or rct is essential in different abcessses, I do have gum disease which I had deep cleaning for too.

Appreciate you taking the time to comment, dental stuff can be very confusing to the lay person