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No antibiotics post-abscessed tooth extraction.

B

Becky_H

Junior member
Joined
Oct 15, 2008
Messages
19
I had a rear molar abscess. I did a course of antibiotics beforehand, they worked 3-4 days but by the time my appointment to have it removed rolled around the infection was back, raging, and my cheek was swollen (this was 10 days after the initial abscess became obvious).

Dentist took x-rays, removed the tooth (and did manage to get it numb, for those worried at home) and told me that since I had just had antibiotics he didn't want to give me more and removing the tooth should resolve it. If it got a little worse to call him Monday and he could call an antibiotic in, and if it got a lot worse to go to the ER for IV antibiotics.

Fair enough.

...At what point is it going to go one way or the other? I can swallow, breathe, open my mouth, and I'm not systemically ill. It is absolutely no worse than before the extraction. My jaw/the area of swelling along it is sore, but not throbbing or otherwise painful. Nothing inside my mouth hurts (though in fairness in the absence of 'tear my head off if that's what it takes' abscess pain I'm not entirely convinced I'd notice). The lymph node under my jaw is still swollen. Basically it's exactly the same as it was before the tooth came out.

Anyone have thoughts here? Reassurance? Alarm bells? Pat me on the head and tell me to breathe?
 
Your dentist is absolutely correct! The source of the infection was the tooth and now it's gone, your own body will be able to mop up the rest of the infection on its own.
 
I think I'm okay and the dentist was dead-on. I'm still a little puffy and swollen but over the course of today less so - like I can feel my jaw bone now, and it's just puffy. My gums are sore and puffy too, but given that I just had a tooth yanked out of them that seems pretty reasonable.

Most tellingly, I feel better than I have in more than a week. Like I would have sworn I wasn't sick in general, just had a hellish toothache at some points but. I definitely feel better even than I did when the tooth ache *wasn't* actively there. Just more alert and with more energy and better.

Meanwhile I found a dentist who took my 'I really need kid gloves, please don't berate me I KNOW' thing to heart and was nice to me and will work with me on the rest of my dental health and I learned that HOLY CRAP take a bottle of ibuprofen to the appointment so I can have it immediately after. I had zero pain during extraction or a few hours later, but the gap between the two was both awful and mostly in a vehicle.
 
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