Some things happen in your mouth that can be extremely painful. If you have a dental abscess or a gum abscess, you may experience a lot of pain. The pain in your mouth may keep you from eating or drinking.
What causes a dental fistula? Are gum fistulas dangerous? Here is some information on dental fistulas and how to treat them.
Dental Fistulas and Gum Boils
A dental fistula is a canal or a hole that can form at the top of a tooth. Pus from a bacterial infection fills the hole. As the hole fills, it will create a bump near the gumline. The bump will grow bigger and bigger until it bursts. When that happens, you will have discharge in your mouth.
What Are Some Other Signs of a Dental Fistula?
If you have a dental fistula, you may notice pain and swelling around your gums. The pain will continue to increase until the fistula breaks. Once the fistula breaks, your pain will lessen until it fills up again with the infection. Other signs of a dental fistula include problems with eating or drinking very hot or very cold foods. You might also feel a lot of pain when you brush or floss your teeth.
Why Should I Worry About Dental Fistulas?
Dental fistulas or gum boils are something you need to worry about. They are a sign of a larger problem. It means you have an infection, most likely along your gumline. Your dentist will need to figure out what is going on. If you leave the infection untreated, it can cause deterioration of your gums and other structures of your mouth. The infection can also move to other parts of your body, such as your heart and/or lungs.
Can Dental Fistulas Heal on Their Own?
Dental fistulas cannot heal on their own. Your dentist will need to find the source of the infection. He or she does this with the help of X-rays. After your dentist finds the source, he or she will need to treat it. Usually, when the dentist discovers a fistula, he or she will need to clean the area and drain the pus. Depending on the source of the fistula, the dentist will need to treat that area as well. For example, you may have an infected tooth that caused the fistula. If that is the case, the dentist would drill a hole in the infected tooth and allow it to drain. He or she might also need to do a root canal to fix the infected tooth. In some cases, the dentist may have to remove the tooth entirely.
How Can I Prevent Dental Fistulas?
There are ways that you can prevent fistulas from happening. First, you need to make sure that you are practicing good oral hygiene. Brushing and flossing your teeth regularly and seeing your dentist twice a year, will help to prevent any infection. You may also want to use an antibacterial mouthwash to help keep the bacteria levels in your mouth lower. If you’re seeing a dentist, make sure to ask if he or she has noticed anything abnormal on your gums. Perhaps there is a tooth he or she needs to watch. The better informed you are, the less likely you are to have an infection.
If you’re worried about the pain in your mouth, or you’re worried about an infection, contact us. The sooner you get your fistula repaired, the better.
Contact Dr. Paul Feldman at Suburban Essex Dental in West Orange, NJ, in Essex County. For the past eight years, New Jersey Monthly has voted Dr. Feldman one of the top dentists in the state.
