Abscess and cancer fear, please help

[Sparrow]

Hello everyone, I hope you are well and can help me get my head back on straight As the title might've implied, I have quite severe health anxiety - and today my tooth fear was so bad all I could do was curl up for two hours and not move until it subsided even slightly. I'll try to make this as short as possible:

I have a crowned tooth that's passed its expiry date basically - dentist that dealt with said tooth said it would last 7-8 years and he was correct. Beginning of last year I started having pain in that area - xray showed infection was given antibiotics. Was ok for a while then had to repeat the cycle. Then eventually I developed a gumboil and was told I'd just have to get the tooth taken out and have an implant (basically what the dentist said years ago, no real surprise). But me being the absolute chicken I am and just go get it sorted out I started lancing the boil myself. Obviously not the best of ideas and not a solution either, I know feel free to judge I pretty much have permanent gum scarring from this but tell you this, when you have ocd you just can't stop. Anyway this boil was only causing pressure and no real pain because obviously no root in the affected tooth, only I believe a metal root holder thing I don't actually know the name (I think that's the bit that's causing the abscess). I'm OK for more than a year and suddenly my health anxiety decides to google dental stuff - lo and behold suddenly I don't have an abscess but most likely cancer. A river of tears later I manage to drag myself to a dentist (this was beginning of this year) - embarassingly cried another river there but luckily the dentist was very nice and supportive, did an xray while I swear my shaking was breaking the chair, and said it's just an infection and it's not massively huge.

My problem at the time and now was and is that at the top of the gumboil which is basically at the root of the tooth I felt a sort of ridge surrounding the top of the gumboil and that's where my brain is going oh good luck you definitely have oral cancer now. My rational side is saying it's either eroded bone/tissue (don't know whether it's actual bone - the gum layer above it moves around freely) or tissue that was pushed out when the gumboil erupted as it was at least twice the size it is now - i think the constant draining might've had a play in this lol But I can't find any information on what this can be and it's freaking me out when I asked ages ago my dentist said she couldn't see anything that would indicate cancer but said you can only know through a biopsy, so I don't know whether she actually suspected anything!!

Anyway I've had a few dental appointments now for fillings and a root canal for a tooth next to the crowned one to make sure it wasn't that one causing the problem. But now I have an oral surgeon!! appointment at the hospital in less than two weeks and I am a mess. I already didn't attend my first two referrals out of sheer fear but I just want this to be sorted. But this tissue ridge has caused me so much fear today again and also me reading today that sockets not healing after extraction are a symptom of mouth cancer I just fear I'm going to be told the worst by the surgeon and I don't know what to do with myself My dentist said that she could do the extraction as well, but the surgeon would actually be able to do a proper clean out of the affected area as well, I assume due to expertise or access to more tools or whatever. But I'm still so scared I caused myself oral cancer it's not funny anymore, can someone with some experience knock some sense into me

Sparrow

 

[BoxerMom]

Oh, Sparrow. You poor thing. I’m not a dentist or a doctor, but I’m just now starting my journey to get my mess of dental problems straightened out. I have those same kind of things you’re talking about. I’ve done the exact thing you did and lanced boils. I have one tiny hard lump on my upper right jaw, and all kinds of weird ridge thingies where I’ve had abscesses. I’ve been to the dentist and he never mentioned them. I’ve had lots of blood work done lately and I don’t have any cancer. I hope you can find some way to ease your mind. Google is not your friend when you’re sick.

 

[MountainMama]

Could the ridge be scar tissue? Are you a smoker?

I had a huge abscess on my front tooth that was growing undetected (no pain whatsoever) for around two years. I only discovered it when it was big enough to have tunneled back into my palate, and I was having a weird pain in the roof of my mouth and the tooth started being sore to the touch.
The endodontist did a biopsy, and it was negative. She said oral cancer is not all that common, especially with nonsmokers.

 

[Sparrow]

Thank you very much for the replies, they are very much appreciated!

BoxerMom, yeah I seem to go through dental journeys as well, wish I could be normal and just go to a dentist yearly but hey my dentist fear definitely precedes my health anxiety so haha oh so fun It is sort of relieving to hear that somebody else has gone through the same stuff when it comes to teeth - especially when as you can see making mountains out of mole hills is a hobby of mine! The thing is I mentioned the ridge to my dentist but dunno whether she thinks I'm just imagining it because of my HA as it's not visible - I can only feel it as I stumbled upon it during a compulsive checking spree, which I know, sounds like loads of fun, it isn't lol The only real argument my brain has come up with is that cancer wouldn't really neatly wrap around the shape of a gumboil...I hope

MountainMama, well unless it's scar tissue from when the gumboil erupted and the surrounding tissues had to rearrange...I'm not a smoker, actually never touched a single cigarette in my life and still have no plans to try. Unfortunately from what I've heard mouth cancer is on the rise even in young non smokers so I'm very glad I know that information now, not lol In comparison this abscess is NOTHING to the previous one I had years ago, it began in a completely healthy tooth and spread along my hard palate, I almost overdosed on painkillers and my dentist ended up taking me in after closing hours cause I was in a bad state with a fever and what not. I think the scar I had from the scalpel on my palate only recently completely faded away haha, that was an experience! But now I'm scared that I caused myself something fatal by leaving an abscess untreated for a year and a half

 

[Judythecat]

Your dentist has gone through years of training and would spot any suspicions of oral cancer. I had a funny x-ray last year which showed a black mass above my upper front teeth, and was immediately referred to hospital. (It turned out to be a blip on the dentist’s x-ray film, and was completely clear on the hospital one, but I am very glad she was vigilant.)

 

[Mugz]

Hi!
For what it's worth, my abscess had been there for years and there was actually a little valley created - kind of like a riverbed or canal from infected tooth through gum tissue. Even when tooth was removed this indented little channel remained. Perhaps this is what's happening to you as well? It was not cancer just an infected area where bone was eroded away. Eventually it closed up after the extraction and is even (ish) again. It just took a while to heal.

 

[Sparrow]

I apologize for not posting in a couple of days, as you can see my head's all over the place! JudytheCat, yes I know they've had years of training but alas they're also human and sometimes things get unnoticed OR they are THAT sneaky - don't know which one I'm scared more of but there we go! Mind you now I remembered my previous dentist mentioning I have a shadow in one of my wisdom teeth aaaand it's so easy for the negative thoughts to come back in Mugz, my problem is that this isn't a valley or indent - it's actually the opposite where it feels like there's extra tissue bordering the top of my abscess, which makes me think it's normal tissue that's been pushed out of the way when the gumboil erupted if that makes sense, ooor it's the way way worse and it's an overgrowth of bad cells i.e. cancer mind you my rational brain doesn't think cancer would perfectly align itself that way and would wreak havoc in any direction but hey health anxiety is the least rational condition out there I feel. But as you can see it's very very difficult for me to *be* rational when there's so many intrusive thoughts.

I will admit after my compulsive checking my gums were absolutely ridiculously swollen for the past few days, and in a way stopped me from checking any more and now everything seems to have subsided, but I am absolutely dreading to go to the hospital, I don't know what to expect and am scared to get anything done even though I just want this over with. I'm scared that I might chicken out AGAIN and I don't know how to rationalize with myself?

 

[Sparrow]

Just wanted to post an update on this, as I saw the specialist a little while ago now, so the two little lumps in my cheek are most likely lymph nodes, so just makes me think who does one believe when the dentist says there are none in the cheek, while another doctor says something else! Either way I was a bit disappointed to hear that the referral did not include my abscess issue as I thought it did so I'll have to get rereferred but the doctor said he didn't think I had an abscess as there's no redness and no obvious gumboil? Was slightly angry at the way he tried to brush it off, because yes no pain because there's no nerves there anymore and the gumboil sort of blends with the environment now. Anyway that was a very short visit and unfortunately now I have to find the strength to go to the dentist again