Are You Suffering from Gum boil

Gum boil is a very common complain that we see in our clinics every day. The case usually is a result of neglected dental abscess.

Gum boil symptoms:

The case is usually presented as small opining in the gum that drain pus or sometimes blood if you apply pressure to it. The area around the boil  is usually a little swallowed and red. The pus drainage may stop for a while and the opining may even close, but usually if the case is not treated the pus will be accumulated again in the tissue and the opining will appear again to drain the formed pus. The neighboring tooth usually is sensitive to pressure and produce pain with chewing but sometimes the pain is not obvious in chronic cases. The neighboring tooth usually have a very large cavity or severe periodontal problems. The patient usually complain of bad breath and salty bad taste as a result of the drained pus.

Some times the case  may take an acute course and here the symptoms will be generalized in the form of face swelling, fever and lymph node tenderness.
Gum boils causes and types:

Gum boil or abscess causes includes extensive caries with necrotic nerve of tooth or severe, deep periodontal pocket we will discuss both in details.

Dental pockets start with gingival inflammation due to plaque and tartar accumulation if the gingival inflammation still untreated the bacteria will start to invade the periodontal ligament that is responsible of cementing the root  surface to the gum tissue and bone. As a result of bacterial invasion into the periodontal ligament the attachment is lost between tooth and gum forming what is called dental pocket.  Later this pocket is filled with bacteria and food debris which may cause pus formation and the pus oozing  start.

The most common cause of gum boil is teeth abscess. Teeth abscess usually formed as a result of caries that reached the pulp so the caries bacteria ferment the pulp tissue and continue to invade the periodontal ligament and jaw bones over the diseased root. As a result to body reaction to bacterial invasion pus formed and the resultant pus pressure leads tissue destruction and this continue till a canal is formed to drain the pus out witch lead in the end to form gum boil that drain the pus out.

Treatment:
 

Once you discover it you should see your dentist quickly as in many cases if the boil treated quickly we may avoid tooth extraction.  The dentist will examine you carefully to discover the cause and usually an x-ray film is taken.  Once the cause is discovered the second step will be draining the pus by starting root canal treatment to let the pus get out from an opining inside the tooth crown, Sometimes making a small incision in the gum to drain the pus or even extract the tooth if your decided that the tooth is hopeless.

Then if the dentist decided that the tooth is hopeful he may perform root canal treatment or gingival surgery to treat the gum pocket.

Prognosis:

Unfortunately usually many of  the teeth that cause  gum boils should be extracted to completely relief the case. But we have to say that many teeth with gum boils may be conserved and even restore it’s normal functions after successful root canal or gingival surgery. So your dentist is the only one to decide what to do with it and your role is only to see your dentist as fast as possible as this may help to conserve the tooth and avoid extraction.

What to do at home:

As we mentioned before once you have gum boil you should see your dentist as fast as possible. Till you find a date in you dentist clinic you should try to drain the formed pus by applying light pressure on the gum around the opining and use warm saline as mouth wash to increase the blood supply to the area to help the drainage and relief the symptoms.

Wisdom teeth symptoms

Many patients suffering from impacted wisdom molars. Molar wisdoms are the last molars in each arch side if you didn’t extracted any molars wisdom should be after the LAST  two permanent molars. Many patients ask if the wisdoms or 3rd molars are erupted in their mouth and i will give you a simple way to know, If you can count three large molars in the end of jaw side then it is erupted if you only find two large molars then it is not erupted. I use the word large molars to distinguish between the small premolars that is located just after the canines and the larger molars that present near the end of the jaw .
So why wisdoms get impacted?

There is many theories explaining this phenomena but it will be overkill to go deep here so we will keep the explanation simple a possible. The wisdoms impacted simply because there is no jaw enough space for them to erupt . This space problem is explained in many ways some authors say that the western soft cooked food is not grinding the teeth from its sides, this grinding was enough to offer space for the wisdoms. Others saying that if the jaw size is small (inherited from one parent ) and the teeth sizes are large (inherited from the other parent  ) this may cause this problem. Any way it just happened

Impaction can be full when the molar is completely under jaw gums or partially  impacted if a small part of it is out in the mouth. The symptoms vary according to the impaction type.
Symptoms of impacted 3rd molars or wisdoms:

Lets say that most of people won’t have any problems with their wisdoms they just erupt in place with no problems and even you won’t notice it. Sometimes the 3rd molars are impacted and not erupted and also not causing any problems and may still silent for years.

some times impacted wisdoms start to make troubles and symptoms this problems includes


1- Pain : Pain that is related to the end of the jaw or even sometimes not localized and may extend to the whole face side. The pain type change according to the the case, presence of infection and impaction type .


2-Gums swelling, tenderness and redness :

Some times especially in partial impaction  Gums around the area become swollen , red ,tender and hot as a result of infection. Some times in partially impaction a small gum piece (flap) remain over the molar crown and the opposing molar if present bite on this flap causing severe pain on chewing and more inflammation.


3-Face swelling:
Some times the inflammation spread and cause swelling in the side of impacted wisdom even the swelling may extend to the eyes which become almost closed(don’t panic we see this every day, but you should see your dentist in the moment) .


4-Food impaction or wedging:
Before judgement you have to collect knowledge, Get a closer look to Islam.

Some times especially in partial impaction when the wisdom is erupt in a anterior angulation food may become impacted between impacted 3rd & second molar which may cause severe pain and gum pocket.


5-Fever :
In some severe cases of infection the body temperature may raise as a reaction to infection.


6-Bad breath and bad taste :
Impacted food, pus formation and some anaerobic bacterial products can cause a salty bad taste and also the breath smell may change.


7-sometimes pus or blood oozing from gums.


8-Inability to open the mouth widely:

Muscles that is responsible of mouth opining lies close to the end of the jaw so any infection in this area can cause muscle stiffness.


9-lymph node tenderness and pain with swallowing food:
The lymph nodes under the lower jaw react to infection and become enlarged and tender which may cause pain with swallowing.


After all once you feel any of the previous symptoms you should visit your dentist quickly to start the treatment early because if you delay the infection may become very annoying and dangerous. till you go to your dentist you may take over the counter pain killers to decrease pain also peroxide mouth wash may help in removal of impacted food  and killing anaerobic bacteria that cause the infection.