Pericoronitis: Wisdom Tooth Infection Symptoms And Treatments

25 Apr Pericoronitis: Wisdom Tooth Infection Symptoms And Treatments

As wisdom teeth grow they can cause many problems including pain in the jaw and headaches. Sometimes they form gum tissue flaps that trap food, bacteria, and plaque resulting in wisdom tooth infection. Scary, right? It’s actually not that hard for wisdom teeth to get infected. As they’re coming out they might be growing at an odd angle or remain partially covered in gums, causing the above-mentioned gum tissue flaps. This makes them super hard to reach and clean properly, resulting in an infection, also known as pericoronitis. When this happens – it’s time to pay your dentist a visit…

So how do you know if you have a wisdom tooth infection? Make sure you look for these signs. Some of them are hard to miss because they involve pain. Ouch!

SIGNS

1. Pain in the area around wisdom tooth, you might also experience some pain in the entire jaw, neck and throat. Oh, also – headaches might be common.
2. A sore throat.
3. Swollen lymph gland just under the jawline.
4. Swelling of the face and jaw.
5. Formation of a cyst that causes bad smell or taste in your mouth.
6. Difficulty chewing or eating.

TREATMENTS

If you have some of these symptoms, make sure to visit your dentist and go from there. There are three things that can happen:

1. Your dentist can tell you that wisdom tooth extraction is not needed at this moment and you can choose to just let the tooth emerge naturally. If the pain is unbearable, the dentist will suggest some over-the-counter pain relievers and some antibiotics to get rid of the infection. Your dentist is also going to clean the infected area for you and show you how to properly brush your wisdom teeth.
2. You dentist might decide that the gum flap should be removed.
3. The whole tooth must be extracted.

If you have wisdom tooth infection, make sure not to wait for too long in order to prevent any complications.