At One67 Dental, we spend most of our day performing scheduled treatments, cleanings and procedures. Cavities are filled, gums are assessed, and questions answered. And when a client calls us with a dental emergency on their hands, we do our best to meet their needs. Outside of traumatic blows to the teeth, infections are among the most common dental emergencies.
When you have a dental infection, it can start as a mild throbbing pain and progress to a very high level that’s anything but mild. Infections can not only damage your teeth, but also the teeth and bone that surrounds it. Infections in the mouth require antibiotics and treatment urgently to prevent them from spreading into other areas of the body. This can lead to sepsis, a potentially fatal outcome. Most people will know that they need a northside Edmonton dentist, or a dentist nearest to them, because of the level of pain that they’re experiencing. But that’s not always the case. If you have swelling in the mouth, red gums, a persistent foul taste and/or a fever, prioritize seeing a dentist in North Edmonton right away.
Recurrent Infection – Wisdom teeth
Wisdom teeth are the teeth all the way in the back of your mouth, and they typically show up anywhere from late teenaged years to early adulthood. You might hear of others having their wisdom teeth removed and wonder why it is so common. After all, aren’t we supposed to want to keep our natural adult teeth? Not necessarily.
While some people do manage to keep their wisdom teeth long-term, more often than not the teeth cause more trouble than it’s worth. That’s because these teeth are the largest in your mouth – larger than your molars. Fitting wisdom teeth in every corner of the mouth is an extremely tight squeeze and has potential to have problematic outcomes.
Wisdom teeth can get stuck in the gum and bone tissue and never enter the oral cavity, they can get stuck (impacted) between the gums and your oral cavity, or they can emerge fully.
Teeth that emerge fully are often removed anyway, because it is so difficult to get your toothbrush back there to keep the area clean. The area around wisdom teeth collects food debris and doesn’t flush away easily. Often, people that try to keep their wisdom teeth end up developing cavities in them that they are unaware of… until it becomes a dental infection.
When teeth only partially emerge, a similar thing happens: the tooth is partly uncovered and partly covered by gum tissue. The tissue that covers the tooth is a loose flap that moves when we chew. This flap collects food and bacteria underneath it and the result is a dental infection that won’t go away until the tissue is removed or the tooth is removed (and the patient takes a round of antibiotics).
Don’t be worried about wisdom teeth removal in Edmonton – it is a simple procedure that can be performed right here in our dental clinic in North Edmonton! In fact, you don’t need an “emergency dentist in Edmonton” when you have an infection – you just need one that’s open and available. To find a dentist in an emergency, search for “emergency dentists in North Edmonton” in your favourite search engine to identify the dentists in the area that can perform an emergency procedure on you. If finding an emergency dentist in North Edmonton isn’t specific enough, search “dentist near me” and make sure your location tracking is on.
Your experience of having a wisdom tooth pulled will be much like any other extraction, except for the fact that your aftercare will be more involved in the days following it. Your dentist will provide you with all the information you need to ensure that you recover as soon as possible. If your dentist writes a prescription for antibiotics, it’s because they’re necessary. It is important to take the full course of medication to prevent a further recurrence of infection.
Managing Pain and Discomfort
If you’re experiencing dental pain, the first stop is to try an anti-inflammatory medication or analgesic medication like acetaminophen or ibuprofen. If your pain continues to worsen, inspect your mouth and gums for any signs of changes like a pimple, sore, or redness and swelling. This will be helpful information for your dental clinic to understand before they commit to seeing you for an emergency appointment.
When you’re in pain, hours feel like days. To get you through until you can see a dentist, you can hold cold water or ice chips in the mouth and hold ice to the cheek on the affected side. Applying heat to a dental infection will further draw blood into the infected area and increase the pressure and pain. No hot soup for you until your infection has been addressed.