Possible Dental Abscess

[Paranoidpatient]

Hello Everyone, like the majority I have a fear of the dentist because of a bad childhood experience when I was 11 years old. Now I am 26 years old and have been trying to get over my fear. (Went for a complete set of x rays and an exam in October 2016 and discovered I only have 3 cavities! Which was a shock to me as I thought every tooth was about to fall out...

Today 3 months later I am back in panic mode, I think I have the dreaded dental abscess. I have noticed it for a while now since before the Christmas holidays but was to busy to panic. Now here we are in the long cold winter days and all I can think about is this bump on my gums. Googling, looking in the mirror every couple hours, crying and taking pictures of it with my phone.

I am in no pain which I find strange, so why am I panicking so much? I am afraid of the pain I have heard from others that is associated with an abscess and of course I am petrified of any visit and procedure at the dentist! Just looking for some advice, cannot keep it bottled up inside any longer.

The two pictures are from today 1/25/2017 and from 1/6/2017 hoping for some advice and compassion, thanks!

 

[drm]

The pictures are quite blurry but from what I can see, it does look very similar to what I commonly see for abscesses. An abscess typically hurts because of the pressure build up from the infection. When the pressure has somewhere to release (in this case, through the little bump on your gums) then you don't have any pain.

I'd recommend getting it taken care of sooner rather than later though because at some point it will start hurting or swelling. With an abscessed tooth your options are usually to either have a root canal or take the tooth out. If you're really anxious about treatment, try to find a dentist who can provide some sort of sedation during the procedure.