Tooth root infections occur when your mouth bacteria enter the nerve or soft tissue of your tooth, the dental pulp. The condition can occur due to untreated tooth decay, injury, or dental procedures earlier. While you might ignore tooth infections in the early stages, you find it challenging to overlook them when you start experiencing excruciating pain and sensitivity in the tooth, making it necessary for you to rush to the family dentist in Midland to seek treatment for the problem.
Tooth root infections can occasionally turn into life-threatening conditions. Untreated root infections spread to other tissues in the body within weeks or months. The disease can potentially lead to life-threatening situations.
This article covers how tooth root infections can lead to fatality, how long it might take, and when you must get treatment from a dentist for the condition.
Can Tooth Root Infections Kill You?
Tooth root infections occur when mouth bacteria enter your tooth containing the soft tissue called the dental pulp. As the infection expands, a sac of pus called a dental abscess builds up around the affected tooth.
Dental infections were listed as the fifth or sixth leading cause of fatalities in the 1600s. Approximately 10 to 40 percent of dental conditions resulted in deaths in 1908. Thankfully advances in dentistry have made fatalities from tooth infections rare. However, you must seek prompt attention from the mainland dentist if you suspect an infection exists in your tooth.
Tooth root infections, when left untreated, spread to other areas of your body, resulting in severe and potentially life-threatening complications. Some complications include sepsis, Ludwig’s angina, necrotizing fasciitis, endocarditis, cavernous sinus thrombosis, brain abscess, et cetera.
What Happens When You Develop a Dental Abscess?
The development of a dental abscess causes swelling and intermittent pain around the affected tooth to indicate something is wrong in the mouth. You will probably have excruciating pain in your tooth from cavities before it expands to a dental abscess sending you rushing to the emergency dentistry near you for treatment to receive antibiotics to deal with the infection. However, antibiotics alone are not effective for treating a dental abscess. The decay in your tooth also needs treatment, either from a root canal or extraction.
Unfortunately, if you leave the tooth infection untreated for weeks or months, it spreads to other areas like your jaw, neck and brain. The spreading of the infection causes challenges when swallowing, breathing and eating. If you neglect receiving treatment, fatalities can occur within days.
When to Visit Dentists for Such Infections?
Tooth root infections don’t disappear by themselves but need timely treatment to ensure the condition doesn’t spread. Therefore visiting your dentist when experiencing symptoms such as throbbing pain near the affected tooth, red and swollen gums, persistent bad taste in your mouth, lousy breath, discoloration of the affected tooth, and tooth sensitivity to pressure or temperatures becomes essential.
Occasionally the symptoms indicate that the infection has become severe. In such cases, you must schedule an emergency appointment with the dentist without hesitating to seek treatment to invite a life-threatening condition upon yourself.
Options for Tooth Root Infections
Many options exist to treat tooth root infections. However, if left untreated, the problem can result in a blood infection causing severe problems needing treatments from different medical professionals. Therefore the options suggested herein are excellent for dealing with the root infection in your mouth.
When you visit your dentist with a dental abscess, they will make a small incision in your gums to drain the abscess as a temporary measure before recommending additional treatments.
The additional treatment recommended by the dentist involves the root canal procedure to extract the diseased dental pulp and cleanse the tooth’s interior. You must restore the tooth with a dental crown after the treatment.
Unfortunately, if your tooth is unsalvageable, the dentist recommends extraction to preserve your dental health. While antibiotics help kill bacteria and treat tooth infections, additional procedures like root canals are also essential besides the antibiotics.
Conclusion
Tooth root infections can become potentially life-threatening, especially if they expand into sepsis, cavernous sinus thrombosis, and Ludwig’s angina. If left untreated, the condition extends to other body parts within weeks or months. When you experience pain from tooth root infections, it indicates you must make an appointment with your dentist for an examination. Such conditions deliver excellent outcomes when treated effectively by receiving endodontic therapy.
Midland Avenue Dental receives many patients with untreated tooth root infections and recommends the therapies mentioned in this article. If you suspect you have a similar issue, kindly do not refrain from arranging an appointment with this practice to receive treatment promptly.