I have a weird problem and am not sure how to handle it. I had a back molar that broke. This tooth lies just in front of my wisdom tooth. Since it broke, my chin has been in massive amounts of pain. Now my sinus and nose area hurt. I had been taking an antibiotic, but it ran out. Now it feels worse than ever. I am not sure why a broken tooth would hurt so much, but I do believe that tooth is the source of all my problems. Someone told me today that this could be dangerous. I am in pain, but I think dangerous may be an overreaction. However, I am not so stupid as to be unwilling to double check. So, is it dangerous?
Thomas
Dear Thomas,
I am glad you were wise enough to double check and did not let pride stand in your way. Your acquaintance was correct. This is a dangerous situation. Your back molar is infected and that infection is spreading. While you tried antibiotics, and those work on other types of infections, it did not help with your dental infection. There is a reason for that.
While antibiotics can temporarily hold a tooth infection at bay, the only way to truly rid yourself of the infection is for your dentist to get in there and physically remove the infected tissue. You may be wondering why this is such an urgent situation. That is because the infection will continue to spread until properly treated. Yours has already begun to do so. If you think about how close your jaw is to your heart, brain, and lungs, you can see what these are considered dental emergencies.
This is what you need to have done now. There are two ways to handle this. The first is with a root canal treatment. This is where a dentist will go in and remove all the pulp in an infected tooth, then place a dental crown over the tooth to protect it as it gets more brittle. If the tooth is too far gone to save, then the only thing to do is to have the tooth extracted.
It is important when a tooth is removed that it is also replaced. Without that, the other teeth will begin to shift or tip into the empty spot, which will lead to your bite being thrown off. In some cases, this can cause TMJ Disorder to develop, leaving you in pain. If you need to replace a tooth, the best option is a dental implant. This is the most like having a healthy natural tooth again.
This blog is brought to you by Decatur, AL Dentist Drs. Drake and Wallace.