Quote:
Originally Posted by Mecca
Well that is interesting to know, I've had more than 1 person be like oh they make you do weeks of antibiotics before they do anything, they won't just drain it because blood and infection yadda yadda. I always thought that was bullshit cause well abscesses need to be drained.
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It’s harder to get full anesthesia sometimes when there is a presence of infection due to the acidity or something (I don’t remember the exact science behind it) so you have to do some antibiotics first.
I try to limit use of abx as much as possible due to the issues with resistance that are rising, so I usually take the tooth out or drain it.
I have had patients with hot teeth or what we call irreversible pulpitis where it hasn’t abscessed yet but it is intense pain. Only way to fix it is extraction or root canal. Sometimes doing the root canal you can’t get the tooth all the numb so you have to do what’s called an interpulpal injection. Basically you tell the pt “this is going to be uncomfortable for a few seconds” and you drill a hole into the pulp or nerve of the tooth and shove a needle down into the root as far as you can and force anesthetic down it.
It’s not the most comfortable thing but it gives immediate relief and lets us work with a comfortable patient