Weird taste/smell from gums

[DanSuff]

Hi,

I' have had a decayed molar for quite some time and i also noticed a funny taste from my gums the last few months, Have tried salt water, corsodyl etc etc.

I made an appointment to see my Dentist and i said i would like the tooth extracted, Yesterday was my appointment and when i got there she said the decay wasnt that deep and that she would fill it if i agreed, so she filled the tooth.

I said about the smell/taste and would it go if i had a filling over extraction, She looked at that gum and said there no infection, There might be a flap where food is getting trapped and she cleaned it and she injected the area with corsodyl and then proceeded with the filling.

The taste is still there though and it's stronger than ever today, Will it go away as i have had the tooth decay treated or is it something that i have to put up with.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Dr. Daniel]

Hi,


The taste is still there though and it's stronger than ever today, Will it go away as i have had the tooth decay treated or is it something that i have to put up with.

It sounds like you have an abscessed fistula. The taste will stay if the tooth stays untreated.
Let a dentist check your tooth again, and this time check its vitality.

all the best

 

[carole]

What does checking the vitality mean please?

How is the vitality checked?

 

[Pianimo]

Carole - I'm not a dentist, as you know! But based on what I know:

Checking the vitality of a tooth is checking whether the pulp (nerve) of a tooth is alive (vital) or dead (nonvital).

There's more than one way to check - chances are you've probably had it done yourself in appointments. It can be tested by the response of the tooth to heat or cold [or 'percussion' - i.e. tapping the tooth - although the word always conjures up images for me of someone using my teeth as a drumkit! I now stand corrected: this is a different test - see below!].

I think there's also some kind of electric thing that can be used to do the test?? But I'm not quite sure about that one. I'll leave it to an expert to explain further (or correct me!)!

 

[Dr. Daniel]

Vitality test means seeing how the tooth reacts to an extreme stimulus. If the nerve tissue inside the tooth is vital, the patient should feel moderate pain from the tooth. There are three main possible stimuli: cold, warm, and electric. These tests might sound scary but they are very safe, not too painful and very important for the diagnosis. It is better if the dentist performs several different stimuli to test the tooth's vitality.

The percussion test is actually not for the vitality of the nerve of the tooth but it indicates whether the surrounding tissue around the root is inflamed. Usually, if the nerve of the tooth is non-vital or extremely inflamed, than also the surrounding tissue should be inflamed and sensitive to percussion but there could be other reasons for inflammation in the surrounding tissues, for example if the tooth is too high (because of a new filling for example) and while closing the teeth together to much pressure goes to the tooth instead of being spread out the rest of the teeth, than the surrounding of the root will react with inflammation (hence sensitivity to percussion) without an inflammation of the nerve in the tooth itself.

 

[Pianimo]

Thanks for the correction Dr Daniel! And the detailed explanation...think I get it now!

My knowledge about this (or, apparently, lack thereof! ) is mainly from when a dentist explained these tests to me, and he basically did say it was all testing the same thing...but maybe he was trying to simplify things for me! Or perhaps he meant they would all help him decide whether the tooth could be saved?

Actually, he never got further than the cold test, because I literally SCREAMED in pain (hope there were no phobics in the waiting room! ) and jumped right out of the chair! Which I think proved the tooth was dying, but not dead...have I got that bit right?? I do know he was expecting me to have no reaction because he'd thought the tooth probably wasn't vital - so I gave him rather a shock! (Btw, I don't want this to scare anyone - he said it was unusual to react that strongly, and it only hurt like that for a few seconds; then it died down to mild toothache, which went away after a couple of days. I think it's normally - as Dr Daniel says - not a bad experience at all.)

Also, Dr Daniel, I absolutely LOVE your typo -

There are three main possible stimuli: cold, worm, and electric.

- I have a wonderful image in my head of a dentist holding up a worm to a bemused patient and saying, "Open wide!"

 

[Dr. Daniel]

Actually, he never got further than the cold test, because I literally SCREAMED in pain (hope there were no phobics in the waiting room! ) and jumped right out of the chair!

Well, usually a dentist would diagnose an extreme painful reaction to a cold test as a irreversible pulpitis (meaning that the nerve in the tooth is vital but inflamed and would return to a healthy state but will become non-vital).
However, there are so many factors that influence a cold reaction like age, status of the tooth, and anxiety.
In addition, like any kind of test, every vitality test has its limits.
There are ways to deal with these limits like first to perform the test on a healthy tooth and than on the subjected tooth, and also it is better to use several vitality tests (to be honest, I use almost all the time only a cold taste).

Also, Dr Daniel, I absolutely LOVE your typo - - I have a wonderful image in my head of a dentist holding up a worm to a bemused patient and saying, "Open wide!"

I should have learned by now ahhh....
Well, hopefully this typo did not create unneeded fears among the members of this forum

 

[Carys]

HHaaaaaa ha, my favourite one from Dr.Daniel was at the end of April and as you can see has a similar wormy feel to it, with a bit of sweat thrown in.

sensitivity to extreme cold/worm/sweat/acid....

I love these mis-spellings, you are totally forgiven as English isn't your first language, but they do make me laugh.

 

[DanSuff]

It sounds like you have an abscessed fistula. The taste will stay if the tooth stays untreated.
Let a dentist check your tooth again, and this time check its vitality.

all the best

Thanks for your reply.

As stated above, I had the tooth filled on Friday but the taste is still there, I did have cold sensitivity in my tooth prior to the filling and that has now cleared up.