Tooth Abscess Stages

Series Summary

A tooth abscess is an infection trapped in the inner part of the tooth by the outer shell of the tooth. The symptoms of a tooth abscess include hypersensitivity of the tooth due to temperature changes and tactile sensation. Antibiotics can be used to kill the bacteria that are causing the infection before the infection attacks the apex of the tooth, which would require surgery. If diagnosed early a tooth abscess can be treated easily and with as little pain as possible. Learn more about tooth and gum abscesses in this free dental health video series featuring practicing dentist Dr. Joe Neely. Dr. Neely teaches about the stages of a tooth abscess, the symptoms of a tooth abscess, what antibiotics are used to treat a tooth abscess, what a gum abscess looks like and how dentists drain a tooth abscess.

Video Transcript

"I'm Dr. Joe Neely and I practice with the Barton Oaks Dental Group. I'm going to talk about the stages of an abscess. An abscess is merely an infection that is trapped somewhere. It can be a gum abscess or abscess tissue in which the outer layer of the skin or gum is still intact and that part of the skin is still attached to some structure, usually bone, sometimes ligament or cartilage and there is enough attachment in the attacked surface of the tissue traps that infection. As the infection grows pressure is created just simply by increased volume. When the tooth is concerned. If you think of this ball point pen as a tooth. This portion being the part of the tooth that you normally see in your mouth and this portion being the root structure. The root of a tooth has a small opening right at the very tip of the root and blood vessels and nerves enter the tooth through that opening. Inside the tooth there is a chamber; a hollow chamber in which the contents of the tooth, the nerves, the blood vessels and other tissue reside. If you get bacteria exposed either through decay or a fracture or some trauma causes enough loss of blood supply that just a normal bacteria that are running through your body can find a way into the tooth. The infection begins to try to establish itself. Unlike other parts of the body where the body can increase blood supply and ward off infection inside a tooth it has very little blood supply to start off with and any increase in blood supply creates enough pressure that it constricts further blood supply. Just simply because of the small aperture at the very end. So, the abscess is initially contained in the tooth. It will create hypersensitivity, greater response to cold than normal, greater response to heat than normal, greater response to physical stimulation than normal. As the abscess, the infection in the tooth, that's trapped in the tooth begins to spread outside the tooth into first the ligament it causes pain, because it's of the volume of the infection trapped. Eventually that infection will overwhelm the bone and create a actual void in the bone. It's at this point in time that you can see one on the x-ray. Beyond that the abscess can spread into other parts of the body."