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Gum swelling and running out of time

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mayo
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Mayo

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I'm not really sure what to do anymore. I had a temp crown placed on #8 a little over a month ago. I went back for the permanent and the dentist felt the gum tissue around that tooth was a too swollen to place the permanent crown because he believed it would bleed too much. He took an xray and said it looked fine and couldn't see any visible reason why it was inflamed. He sent me home with a perioscience gel to put on my gums and a rinse. The gel may have helped a little but 3 weeks of using it hasn't helped enough as the gum is still swollen around that tooth.

The dentist is retiring and I snagged his very last appointment, Jan 10th. I'm scared I'm running out of time and I dont know what to do anymore. I had a phone appointment with him last week and sent pictures and he basically told me to keep doing what I'm doing. But I dont see this being better by Jan 10th. It hasn't really shown much change in either direction in a few weeks.

I floss really well. I brush twice a day. I am at a loss. The dentist is confident that once the permanent tooth is placed the gum tissue will improve. But before I can even get to that point, I have to have the swelling go down at least enough so that it won't bleed in time for the appointment.

Any advice, suggestions, tips, ideas for me? I'm panicking. And I'm scared my gum tissue will never be normal again around that tooth.
 

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He needs to bite the bullet and get the temp off and the permanent one on. If it bleeds then he needs to control it or use a cement that won't be so affected. It's probably the temp crown that's causing the irritation so it needs to be gone ASAP.
Try upping your brushing to 3 or 4 times a day and really work around the temp crown. Your brushing and flossing look exemplary btw, under normal circumstances your regime would be fine...
 
Sudden thought last night in the shower (happens a lot, must be the heat on my brain or something!). Anyway, can you get hold of some Corsodyl Gel, NOT the rinse. A couple of days (no more than this) before the appointment carefully rub some gel around the inflamed gum. Might help a bit.
 
Sorry, I'm just seeing this now. Yes I can try (update: corsodyl gel seems like it may be more of a UK thing, sadly. I'm in the US and can't find it). I'm using perioscience gel now. Are you familiar with it?

I'm wondering if I should see a gum specialist. The dentist said that he needs the gums to stop bleeding and every time I floss, they bleed (a lot). I also don't want him to put a permanent crown on it if ill end up needing crown lengthening or something. He did do an xray last time and felt it looked fine.. but I'm so anxious that the bleeding and swelling will continue after he places the permanent crown. I just don't know what to do anymore.
 
Last edited:
Hi Mayo,
I agree with Gordan, he probably needs to just go for it and get the final crown on. It looks like a good temporary crown and the inflammation is not horendous. If the crown is a good fit then the gums will prefer the porcelain to the plastic of the temporary and settle down. He is clearly a concientious dentist and knows that he does not want blood contaminating the cement. Howevever, sometime the body won't play ball.
Keep brushing and flossing and hopefully, he will be able to manage the situaion on the 10th. I don't think a gum specialist is needed for this situation.
 
Thank you. Do you have any suggestions on how I can convince the dentist to try on the 10th if he is resistant to it?

Also, is it common for temp crowns to cause inflammation like this? The dentist doesn't seem to know what to do which made me think it was extremely rare.
 
Sorry, been away for Xmas with the family. Perioscience gel sounds like a "holistic product", so I wouldn't waste money on it.

Corsodyl Gel is Chlorhexidine Gluconate I thought you could get it in the US but apparently not, so I learned something useful today. Google suggests this:

The best equivalent of Corsodyl in USA called Acclean. Analogue has exactly the same ingredients, pharmacological group. You can buy Acclean (alternative to Corsodyl) in pharmacies of USA


Yes it's very common for temp crowns to cause inflammation like this. How to convince the dentist... not sure, I mean it's absolutely common sense for him to get on and fit it, if he won't then I'm really not sure what you could do to persuade him. Maybe a baseball bat? :-)
 
Well, 9 hours from my appointment and my gum around that tooth is bleeding again. Great. The swelling had gone down a bit and at least wasn't bleeding, although still red and puffy. Now it's bleeding when I floss. So frustrated. Looks like I'll be trying the baseball method tomorrow. :)

So um, how bad is it if my gum bleeds when he is cementing the final crown?
 
Not really that bad. it'll mean some extra work for the dentist but nothing to worry about from your side. They'll need to either control the bleeding (different ways to do this) or else use a cement that's not so affected by a bit of bleeding.
Good luck!
 
He did it! Fortunately, no baseball bat was necessary. He looked at it and felt he could make it happen. Its not very comfortable, but hopefully I get used to it.
 

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Congrats on him doing it! If its uncomfortable it made it adjustments, which they can do on, quickly Its completely normal and sounds like they expect adjustments to many crowns. so if it is too uncomfortable don't be shy to let them know.Glad you don't have to deal with that pesky temp anymore!
 
Thank you! It’s the back of it, it’s so bulky and my tongue keeps pushing on it because having something sticking out so much feels foreign. I don’t like it. I told him but he said it is extra thick in back to give it strength and I’ll get used to it. I don’t think I will but we shall see.

oh and when I say certain sounds like the L sound, the extra thickness in the back of the tooth is kinda where my tongue wants to go so that’s annoying too. I dunno, I guess my mouth is just sensitive to changes.
 
Glad you got it done. You will probably get used to it in a couple more days, if not then it's relatively simple to adjust it a bit.
 
The more I look at it, the more I'm concerned it's a little too wide. The dentist said it had to be this way to fill a larger space but the crowns before it weren't wider I dont think. I dont know, I'm kind of frustrated. Is there an easy way to fix this or should I just try to get used to it?
 
There's no easy way to reshape that part of it. So it's either get used to it or get it redone I'm afraid. It's hard to judge the appearance from a photo so I can't really comment on how it looks to me.
 
Hello, its been nearly two weeks. I'm wondering if the gum line should look like this? Is it swollen? I may be overanalyzing things since it was swollen with the temporary. It doesn't hurt or bleed but the dentist did think it would calm down once the permanent was in place and it has but if I look at it closely, it also still looks a little puffy. Maybe that's how it is supposed to look around crowns? I can't get him to check it because he's retired now.
 

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Here's another picture in different lighting.
 

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It looks OK, it's still healing at the moment so it should settle down a bit more. Are you getting more used to the shape now?
 
I am. Im still kinda bummed about it but I really just want it all to be over. I’m not going to have it redone.
 
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