Gum swelling 3 weeks after extraction

[Moglet]

Hi, I had an upper molar removed 20 days ago. Everything went smoothly, the swelling went down after 5 days and after 12 days the pain finally stopped. I'm still eating on the other side of my mouth. Tonight I had a curry and since then the gum adjacent to the extraction site has been swollen. Should I be concerned? It's not sore.

 

[Gordon]

No, it's quite likely just part of the healing process, your body will have poured in extra bone cells to start remodelling the boney socket.

 

[Moglet]

Thank you but it more than doubled in size over just a few minutes.

 

[Gordon]

1mm to 2mm is not an issue 10mm to 20mm is You need to provide some further information to get any sort of help I'm afraid...

So what sort of size are we talking about?
What is the location of the swelling, is it hard or soft?
Does it fluctuate in size?
Any symptoms apart from the swelling?

 

[Moglet]

Hi, thanks for your reply. I guess it was about 5-10mm but it has gone down now; yesterday it was leaking fluid into my mouth so maybe like a blister? It's a little tender but nothing bad. It's the gum right next to the extraction site (which sits between two teeth). And above that onto the jaw area, but not the actual hole itself. Really hard to describe sorry!

 

[Moglet]

Fairly soft and smooth, no other symptoms.

 

[Gordon]

Could easily have been a small blister, the new skin that's forming to seal up the hole in your gum won't have fully matured yet, so will be very vulnerable to trauma from hot food or even just chewing a bit too hard against it. There are going to be lots of cells pouring into the area to repair the extraction site, so it could just be that. Either way, it's not something to lose sleep over.

 

[Moglet]

Thank you, the information is helpful. I wasn't losing sleep over it, but it was a bit worrying that it suddenly swelled up when I thought it was gradually getting better and at 3 weeks after the extraction. It's ok now.