I have had an infected wisdom tooth socket that was causing my breath to smell so bad. I went to see my dentist and he poked around and puss came out of the socket. I’ve been using Listerine and he used an air sprayer but neither of them seems to have helped. Should I be concerned?

Kevin

Dear Kevin,

You need to get rid of this bacteria. It’s actually giving you an infection and you could end up losing more teeth. Your dentist was onto something with that air. The type of bacteria that hides in those sockets is anaerobic. Enough oxygen can kill it. However, yours has advanced so much that you need another type of attack. I’m going to recommend a two-pronged attack. You’ll need to attack it directly on the site and in the bloodstream.

Step one will be for you to schedule an emergency dental appointment with your dentist. He’ll need to provide you with an irrigation needle. You’ll want to mix a solution of hydrogen peroxide and a mild salt solution (about 1/2 and 1/2). You don’t need the type of peroxide that is used in professional teeth whitening. Just get the 3% hydrogen peroxide that you can get inexpensively at the store. You will use this solution by filling the irrigation needle with it and then poking it directly into the socket to rinse it out. You want to do this whenever you finish eating because that is when it will fill up with food and bacteria.

In addition to this, you will want to obtain a prescription for 150 mg of Clindamycin. You’ll want to take it four times a day for ten days. You should be good from there and you can back off the irrigation to just once a day after that.

Bear in mind if this infection has already attacked other teeth, you may need some additional treatment, such as a dental filling or even a root canal treatment, depending on how far it has gone.

This blog is brought to you by Decatur, AL Dentists Drs. Drake and Wallace.