Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi

Ive had my braces on for 9months and its been 6 weeks since the last adjustment and ive suddenly got alot of pain in one of my teeth.

Ive thoroughly checked over the tooth and cant see any cavity, theres no fillings in it so im pretty sure id make out a hole. The gum around the tooth is slightly red and my face hurts near the tooth. Its a constant pain but gets worse if i bite down on it or eat something hot or cold

I guess deep down i suspect it may be a abcess under the tooth as ive had them before and it feels quite similar. But it also feels abit like the discomfort you get when you have a adjustment....

My question is tho that next to the tooth thats hurting i have a gap from an extraction a few years ago, so could the pain just be from the tooth moving to fill the gap so to speak, as i only had this tooth fitted onto the archwire 6 weeks ago?

Its a long bank holiday weekend here and i cant reach my normal dentist or orthodontist until tuesday (great timing Lou, well done! ) so i just dont know what to do, has anyone had a similar problem, or does anyone have an opinion on whether its likely to be the braces or the tooth? (i no u cant say without seeing but just as a guess from my description)

Thanks guys

Louise

It seems unlikely that a tooth would suddenly start hurting 6 weeks after an adjustment if it was purely down to braces. If your gum is red and your face hurts it sounds more like an infection. These kinda things always seem to happen Bank Holidays don't they

In the meantime until the weekend is over and you can get to the dentist, you might find that rinsing your mouth out with warm salt water is soothing and also take some painkillers like paracetamol or ibuprofen if you feel you need pain relief.

I hope you can survive OK till Tuesday and that the pain doesn't get worse. If it's really bad you can ring NHS Direct or visit their website to find an out of hours NHS dentist in your area who would be able to give you emergency treatment.

hope you soon feel better!
Lisa

I agree with Lisa. It sounds more like an infected tooth. Isn't just par for the course that when there's a long weekend our teeth or bodies need a dentist or doc? I hope it doesn't bother you too badly and some OTC painkillers help until Tuesday.

I had what sounds like similar pain at one point. I had my ortho look. He took an xray and found nothing. I made an early appointment with my dentist and he found nothing. A month later when I had a cleaning with still no answer. The pain went away so I tought it was okay. Then 2 months later and it was back and swollen. It turned out it was an abcess that had caused bone loss. I ended up having surgery and a month lost of braces treatment time. Be sure to get it checked out.

I constantly think that I have a cavity because of the pain I get randomly here or there. It seems that it is never anything more than moving teeth. However, I can feel as much pain 4 weeks after an adjustment as I do the first week. In any event, I always think you should play it safe. You can't be too careful if you think it's an abcess. Let us know what happened. Hope you are well.

I would probley get it checked out to make sure its not a cyst or infected. Just better be safe then sorry.

~Tim~

Hi Guys

Thanks for all your advise...

Managed to make it though the weekend and saw my own dentist yesterday (well actually i saw a locum dentist at my practice as apparently my dentist has left, not happy with that but hey thats another issue.)

Had an xray which showed up a very small area under the tooth which they think may be infection, the gum itself is also very sore tho, so i have been given antibiotics to see if that helps. If it doesnt looks like i need a root canal.

Normally wouldnt be to concerned by root canal as ive had them before, and while its not nice i dont think its to bad. But as the tooth is already very sensitive and with the braces to contend with as well i could really do without it to be honest.

To make matters worse the xray showed up that the roots of the tooth are twisted and fused together which app makes a root canal very hard work and gives it a much larger failure rate, having had a failed root canal a year or two ago and having to undergo an apiecotomy (where they cut into the gum and remove the root tip) which was so bad i actually fainted straight afterwards im keen to not go down that root!

Ill keep you all updated, thanks again.

Louise