How to relive gum boil till you see your dentist?

Gum boil is a very common dental condition that we see every day in our clinics . The case usually is a result of neglected dental abscess.

Gum boil symptoms:

The case is usually presented as an elevated area even with small opining in the gum that drain pus or blood if you pressured it. The gum around the boil  is usually  swallowed, hot and red. The pus oozing may stop for a while and the opining may disappear, but  if the case is neglected the exudate will accumulate again in the tissue and find the way out and  the opining will open again to drain the formed pus. The neighboring tooth usually is tender and cause pain with chewing but sometimes the pain is not obvious in chronic cases that is not treated for a long period. The neighboring tooth either have a very large decay or severe periodontal problems. The patient usually complain of bad breath and salty bad taste as a result of the drained pus.

Some times the case  may take an acute course and here the symptoms will be generalized in the form of face swelling, fever and lymph node tenderness.

Gum boil or abscess causes includes extensive caries with necrotic nerve of tooth or severe, deep periodontal pocket in the both cases the pus will be collected in the bone and gum and will start to find a way out.

Treatment:

Once you discover it you should see your dentist quickly as in many cases if the boil treated quickly we may avoid tooth extraction.  The dentist will examine you carefully to discover the cause and usually an x-ray film is taken.  Once the cause is discovered the second step will be draining the pus by starting root canal treatment to let the pus get out from an opining inside the tooth crown, Sometimes making a small incision in the gum to drain the pus or even extract the tooth if your decided that the tooth is hopeless.

Then if the dentist decided that the tooth is hopeful he may perform root canal treatment or gingival surgery to treat the gum pocket.

will the tooth saved?

Unfortunately usually many of  the teeth that cause  gum boils should be extracted to completely relief the case. But we have to say that many teeth with gum boils may be conserved and even restore it’s normal functions after successful root canal or gingival surgery. So your dentist is the only one to decide what to do with it and your role is only to see your dentist as fast as possible as this may help to conserve the tooth and avoid extraction.

What to do at home:

As we mentioned before once you have gum boil you should see your dentist as fast as possible. Till you find a date in you dentist clinic you should try to drain the formed pus by applying light pressure on the gum around the opining and use warm saline as mouth wash to increase the blood supply to the area to help the drainage and relief the symptoms.