Abscess? What is it that I have?

Question

Hi, I posted a question yesterday about my dental pain. I have been having severe pain in my teeth (one of the front few) since Wednesday. Touching or any contact hurts like h**l and it keeps hurting even when there is no activity on that teeth. I managed to meet a dentist on Friday morning and he took an xray and let me know that the infection was at the tip of the root. The teeth is not decayed and I have never had any dental problems till date. He gave me antibiotics (amoxycillin) and pain killers. I have taken 5 dosages of the antibiotics now and the pain hasnt reduced. There also seems to be some kind of a swelling in the gum below the teeth and the teeth appears to have moved off from the gum. What should I do if the pain and infection does not reduce by Monday? Should I go to another dentist? I dont have a dental insurance so can you tell me how much this procedure will cost? Can i have my teeth extracted? When do the antibiotics normally take effect? Please please please advice! I am in severe pain...

Answer 1

Abscess is, in general terms, pus-production. Your x-rays confirmed that you have some kind of infection and the antibiotics should be enough to slowly diminish it. The movement of the tooth is due to the accumulation of the pus and the infection underneath the gums. Antibiotics work, but they do not work in just one day. Going to the dentist on friday and having no decrease in swelling today saturday does not mean that you went to a bad dentist. Antibiotics need to be absorbed by the body and a specific amount of it needs to be present to have the effect needed. This is why they are usually prescribed in specific dosages with specific timing as to when to take them.

My suggestion would be to give it a few days. If by day 4 or 5, there is no reduction in swelling and/or pain, then I would contact your dentist and explain the situation. You may need a higher dosage of antibiotics or a different type of antibiotic.

Also, antibiotics do not reduce the pain directly. They reduce the infection which then causes a decrease in pain. The pain killers will work better to reduce your pain. And you should take your antibiotics and pain killers in combination.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

You should definitely get back to a dentist to get this fixed. As for what you can expect it to cost... it all varies by what area you live in & what exactly they find out is wrong and needs to be done.

The dentist visit itself could run you around $50-100 just for having them look to see what's going on. Then if they would extract a tooth that usually can be about $150+

I suggest look into this discount plan. There is no waiting period so you could actually be set & ready to get into the dentist within 24 hours of enrolling. It's only $14.95 for a single person or $19.95 for a family per month.

Go to the site http://www.mybenefitsplus.com/cberney

First do a search to make sure there is a participating provider near you. Their phone number is listed there as well, so if you'd like call them up and ask them how much it may cost for you to get this taken care of. Ask first about the cost should you just pay cash, no insurance, no anything. Then ask what it would be if you were to use the Ameriplan discount. This will tell you whether or not you can afford it first of all, and if it's worth it to enroll with the plan.

If you need help or have questions feel free to send me a message through my profile and I'll see if I can help.

Good Luck!