i occassionally have to give it a squeeze and some rank pus comes out of it. every year or so it swells up to the size of a golf ball (almost) it hasnt done this for well over a year so ive put off getting a dentist looking at it. ive probably had the abcess off and on for around 5 yrs and a dentist did look at it when i first got it and received antibiotics which got rid of it then. if the swelling gets bad i take ibuprofen and it goes away. im not too bothered about getting it fixed its just im worried if there are any long term health risks involved as i read somewhere about how abcesses can place a strain on the heart but i think im just paranoid. basically the question is - do i have any long term worries?
2007-01-28 05:21:43 · 4 answers · asked by mr_soapytitwank 3 in Health ➔ Dental
The link people often get wrong with heart problems and tooth decay is actually this:
Some people have faulty heart valves, either as a result of congenital heart disease, or from growing older, or from a variety of different causes. If you have dodgy heart valves, you can occasionally develop growths on them, called vegetations. If you have a source of bacteria in the body, for example from a decaying tooth, this can cause infection of these vegatations on the heart valves and cause nasty problems.
BUT, if you don't have any heart valve problems, tooth decay is not going to do any damage to your heart. However, the fact that you have a lingering source of infection in your mouth could cause other problems, such as sepsis in the worst case scenario. If the infection builds up, it can enter the blood stream and make you very unwell, and can in fact kill you. This is unlikely, but technically possible.
However, it's never a good thing to let things like this lie - despite the fact that it's not going to do damage to your heart, you really need to just face it and get a dentist appointment to sort out the infection in your tooth.
2007-01-28 09:20:28 · answer #1 · answered by Jen 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You should not continue to treat this yourself. The pus is toxic for your body and your abcess will eventually start to affect your other teeth. Plus your breath will be bad.
You probably need a root canal. Go see a dentist immediately.
2007-01-28 05:45:28 · answer #2 · answered by anosey1 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes there are long term risk of gum damage and damage to your heart etc from the frequent infection. You need to go in and get this taken care of permanently.
2007-01-28 05:29:36 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
you really should worry about that, if you do research on it, you will find that an abcess can go to the brain or to the heart...you really need to go to the dentist again
2007-01-28 20:57:14 · answer #4 · answered by Johnny F 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋