Bad taste and irritable gums 3 weeks after filling

[E93]

Ok so i had a filling 3 weeks ago.

I got paranoid about it for unrelated reasons, and i touched my mouth a bunch inside after it (without cleaning my hands after being on the train). This wasn't smart, and i have no idea if that may have caused some infection in my mouth.

The evening after having this filling i had a bad taste in my mouth.

In the following weeks i went three times to the dentist to have my filling and gums checked. Both because of the taste and because i had, what the dentist said was an ulcer, on my gums.

While not finding anything wrong with the filling after checking multiple times, the dentist told me to rinse with warm water and salt for the ulcer.

The swelling went away, and the taste is not as costant as i had it in the first couple of days. But my teeth lately seems to get irritated very easily and can still feel some pain when flossing (if the floss touches the gum) near the filled tooth. Also other part of the gums got irritated for a while, including parts very far away from the filling. They got irritated, felt a bit swollen, and then returned to normal in a couple of days.

I don't have any excessive bleeding in my gums (they bled a couple of days ago when brushing, but just that once), but it feels like they're getting irritated way more than usual. Also sometimes the taste pops back in my mouth.

Also, i had a full dentist cleaning about a month ago.

The dentist did an xray on the side where i got the filling, and told me there's no infection or abscess "inside" the gums.

Should i schedule another visit with my dentist? I'm afraid that my gums may be in some way infected and i might need antibiotics, seems it's been three weeks and they still get irritated and weird? The problem is that my dentist told me, after three check ups on the filling, that given that she's sure that the filling is fine, next time i would have to pay the visit, and currently paying for that visit, even if it's just 25£, would be pretty harsh on my finances.

To recap:

Relevant things:
* Filling three weeks ago
* Also touched my mouth with unwashed train hands three weeks ago
* Got my teeth dentist-washed about a month ago, so there's basically no plaque to wash right now.

Symptoms:
* Bad taste in mouth
* I had the flu with a bit of fever and lots of coughing, might be completely unrelated tho
* Had a big swelling but it's mostly gone
* Gums feel way more irritable than usual, with small swellings and pain that seem to come and go
* no bleeding/very little bleeding

Is it worth spending the money for another dentist appointment? Or does this sound like nothing big and it will maybe just go away eventually?

 

[Niall Neeson]

Hi Elaine,

I completely understand your concern and any change in behaviour in the mouth is right to alert you to the possibility of an issue.

Obviously I haven’t seen inside your mouth but if the dentist has checked the filling and gum three times then I’d be pretty confident that everything is fine there.

You mentioned that a number of areas of the gums were affected. It is very common that the gums can become inflamed and feel irritated if your general immune system has taken a hit. This is where the flu symptoms may be relevant and may have indirectly contributed to the gums feeling more inflamed- just as when we feel run down we can be more prone to different things like ulcers or cold sores.

You are correct to continue with the cleaning between the teeth as this is the way that you can take control of helping with the health and condition of the gums. They may be a bit tender at the beginning (or bleed in some cases) and that’s ok. Keep the cleaning between the teeth up, once a day should be fine.

Using simple rinses with warm water and salt during the day wouldn’t do any harm and may help speed up the healing process.

As you’ve been in regularly recently I don’t think there’s a rush to go back for a further appointment. I’d give things a bit more time to settle.

Hope this helps,

Niall