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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Suggest Treatment For Swollen And Painful Gums

Im 25 years old and have 3 impacted wisdom teeth, along with one emerged but crooked. Today I woke up with swelling in my gums in the back bottom left side of my mouth. We are leaving to go oout of town and have no time to fit the dentist in. I went to the doctor today for some possible relief. She prescribed me antibiotics and told me to take ibuprofen. 2 hours after I took the first antibiotic, the swelling went down and now it is completely normal besides slightly tender. Could something have gotten caught between my molar and gums and have it swell up so badly? Should I still worry about it?
Thu, 9 Apr 2015
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Dentist,  's  Response
Hi..
Can understand your concern.

The condition which you explained about your wisdom tooth appears to be "PERICORONITIS".
It is at times very painful along with swelling of gums around and over the impacted wisdom tooth.

With antibiotics , painkillers and warm saline gargles the swelling and pain subsides but may (not necessarily) reappear after a few days as medicines can give only short term relief.

The swelling happens due to either deposition of food particles in between the gum flap and the wisdom tooth or due to continuous trauma to the gum flap by of the opposite arch tooth.

The best thing you should do is to keep the area clean till you are out of town and can do warm saline gargles twice daily and take medicines as prescribed by your dentist.

After you come back get your wisdom tooth evaluated by getting an IOPAR (x-ray) done to find out whether the tooth is impacted(impacted tooth does not erupt completely) or will erupt in proper occlusion.

If it is impacted the best thing to do is to get it removed and if it can erupt to occlusion you can just get the overlying gum flap removed to get complete relief from the problem.

Hope your problem get solved.

Thanks and regards..
Dr.Homey Nandwani Arora.
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Suggest Treatment For Swollen And Painful Gums

Hi.. Can understand your concern. The condition which you explained about your wisdom tooth appears to be PERICORONITIS . It is at times very painful along with swelling of gums around and over the impacted wisdom tooth. With antibiotics , painkillers and warm saline gargles the swelling and pain subsides but may (not necessarily) reappear after a few days as medicines can give only short term relief. The swelling happens due to either deposition of food particles in between the gum flap and the wisdom tooth or due to continuous trauma to the gum flap by of the opposite arch tooth. The best thing you should do is to keep the area clean till you are out of town and can do warm saline gargles twice daily and take medicines as prescribed by your dentist. After you come back get your wisdom tooth evaluated by getting an IOPAR (x-ray) done to find out whether the tooth is impacted(impacted tooth does not erupt completely) or will erupt in proper occlusion. If it is impacted the best thing to do is to get it removed and if it can erupt to occlusion you can just get the overlying gum flap removed to get complete relief from the problem. Hope your problem get solved. Thanks and regards.. Dr.Homey Nandwani Arora.