Dentist doesn't know what's wrong with my teeth and gums

[jack1001]

I went to a dentist office 2 weeks ago to do a regular check up because i felt a little pain and i noticed the upper left of my gums were swollen and around that area there was a hard lump on the gums where i had a tooth extraction a year ago. After the check up the female dentist told me that there was nothing wrong with my teeth and the lump was just the bone that was left after the extraction and the gums were swollen because of food touching the empty space of gums where i had the extraction and it will get better. But she told me to come back the next day to make a crown for another tooth which was damaged.

I came in the next day, and this time i had a male doctor. I asked him to check my teeth and gums again and there was something wrong, i had to do 3 fillings on the right side which is not where my gums were swollen (and it's just weird that i still have cavity even though i brush and floss my teeth very carefully and use mouthwash, i don't drink alcohol, soda and i don't smoke). When i asked him about the swollen gums and the lump around that area, he told me the same thing the female dentist did, that it was a bone that was left after the extraction. He said come back 2 weeks later to finish the crown and he'd get the bone out.

The appointment is today so i went there. After finishing the crown. He took a look at the swollen gums area on the left side, and he took x-ray, but he said that he doesn't know why they're swollen and cause pain. I asked him what about the hard slump and he just said it was something different. He gave me Amoxicillin for a week and told me to come back if i still feel pain and the swollen gums don't go away.

Should i find another dentist? Isn't the dentist supposed to know what's wrong with my mouth and how to fix it? How come a dentist says there's nothing wrong during the regular check-up but when i ask another dentist to do the check-up in the same office, he says otherwise. I have health anxiety and now i'm just nervous that i may have oral cancer.

 

[carole]

Hi to the forum.

I doubt it is oral cancer, if they suspected this they would have discussed this with you and be referring you to see a specialist. It isn't something that could be left. A dentist once put on here that if you asked 10 dentists the same question, you would get 10 different answers.

You could get a third opinion if it would help put your mind at rest. If the gum areas that are giving you trouble don't start to feel better then go back and get them to look again. You could ring the practice and ask why the dentist gave you antibiotics, he has to have put a reason in your records. They would prescribe these for infection. Even when we brush and do all the right things we still get cavities and need treatment sometimes.

Take the antibiotics and see how things are once you have stopped taking them for a few days.

 

[drm]

To be entirely truthful, both dentists and physicians can't always figure out exactly what is going on, even the best of us. We deal with a lot of shades of gray, as opposed to black and white answers. A lot of our training goes into learning how to decide what is the most likely diagnosis and ideal treatment for your specific situation.

That said, the hard area on your gums where you had a tooth previously extracted is almost definitely a sharp piece of bone under the gums. This is not in any way unusual. The only time to be concerned would be if it were increasing in size or causing you a lot of pain.

The gum swelling could be any number of random things. If they didn't find anything wrong after doing a full check-up, I wouldn't be terribly concerned.