Inflamed gum round upper wisdom tooth

[Judythecat]

Can anyone help, please? I keep getting swelling and pain on the cheek side of my upper wisdom tooth. The tooth is fully erupted, and it’s definitely the gum, not the tooth, that hurts. My dentist has previously said it’s a tiny bit inflamed, but the gum is at a normal level. (The rest of my gums were deemed in perfect health by the hygienist in May) I brush twice a day with an electric toothbrush, use tepe brushes and mouthwash after eating, and floss at night. Is there anything else I should be doing? I had the matching tooth on the other side extracted last year because the gum became infected, and I am keen to avoid that. I am going for a checkup and scale and polish next week - not related to this, it’s been booked in since my last one six months ago.

 

[Enarete]

Dear Judythecat,

sorry to read that your gums are bothering you, I guess there were enough dental issues bothering you in the last time. Hope you get a reply from a dentist soon. It sounds like you are doing it right with brushing, flossing, tepe and mouthwash, the area around wisdom teeth is not the easiest one to keep clean. Scale and polish might help as it removes bacteria which are mostly the cause of gum inflamation.

Hold on and keeping my fingers crossed for your gums to calm down and for the wisdom tooth to be able to stay

 

[Gordon]

Try a baby toothbrush to let you get round the tooth a bit better. Sometimes even an electric brush is a bit too big to fit into the space round the wisdom tooth.

 

[Judythecat]

Thank you, Gordon. I got a baby brush today so hopefully that will help, and Enarte, hopefully the cleaning will help too.