• Dental Phobia Support

    Welcome! This is an online support group for anyone who is has a severe fear of the dentist or dental treatment. Please note that this is NOT a general dental problems or health anxiety forum! You can find a list of them here.

    Register now to access all the features of the forum.

Abscess & extraction - looking for some info

D

DM69

Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2009
Messages
49
I *finally* had the roots of a broken molar removed yesterday. In spite of extreme panic about it for weeks, it was actually fine and not remotely traumatic (thanks to a fab dentist).

Anyhow, I have some questions. Any info would be most appreciated.

There was an abscess on the tooth, probably quite a long standing one that continually moved from acute to chronic to actute to chronic etc for a long time.

Recently it started hurting like mad with some swelling over the site and around the edge, also pushing up the wisdom tooth next to it which made eating impossible. I was given amoxicillin & metronidazole for 5 days which ended the day before the extraction. Pretty much all the pain and all the swelling was gone by then.

Now, I have heard that antibiotics never get rid of an abscess, you need either extraction or RCT for that. So, what happens to the abscess when the tooth is removed? Is it still in there? Could it flare up again?

I remember a dentist once removing a tooth for me and saying that the abscess had come out at the same time - but this dentist didn't say anything like that yesterday.

BTW - only a tiny amount of discomfort today, hardly any bleeding, so all seems fine so far :)

Thank you to anyone who answers.
 
Hi DM,

Bet it feels better with that infected tooth gone, I'm not a dentist but have had my share of abscessed teeth extracted, here's my laywoman's understanding:

- The source of the infection has been removed so it shall not return.
- When they extract the tooth, they do a cleaning/flushing out of the socket to remove all the "gunk"
- If the dentist was worried about the infection persisting you'd be taking yet more antibiotcs, I thnk you're in the clear.

Sounds like you are making a great recovery! Hope this helped.

rp
 
antibiotics only mask the infection.. it very quickly returns (i know from experience!!) after extraction the absess shouldn't come back :)
 
I *finally* had the roots of a broken molar removed yesterday. In spite of extreme panic about it for weeks, it was actually fine and not remotely traumatic (thanks to a fab dentist).

Anyhow, I have some questions. Any info would be most appreciated.

There was an abscess on the tooth, probably quite a long standing one that continually moved from acute to chronic to actute to chronic etc for a long time.

Recently it started hurting like mad with some swelling over the site and around the edge, also pushing up the wisdom tooth next to it which made eating impossible. I was given amoxicillin & metronidazole for 5 days which ended the day before the extraction. Pretty much all the pain and all the swelling was gone by then.

Now, I have heard that antibiotics never get rid of an abscess, you need either extraction or RCT for that. So, what happens to the abscess when the tooth is removed? Is it still in there? Could it flare up again?

I remember a dentist once removing a tooth for me and saying that the abscess had come out at the same time - but this dentist didn't say anything like that yesterday.

BTW - only a tiny amount of discomfort today, hardly any bleeding, so all seems fine so far :)

Thank you to anyone who answers.


Hi, its not advice but this is exactly what happened to me on Tuesday and I'm waiting to have my roots out at the hospital. Am petrified as I felt everything the dentist did when he tried to extract the molar with the infection, the doc has perscribed me Diazipam for the day of my appointment to get the roots out but was wondering what the procedure is like? You said it was fine? :(
 
Back
Top