Dental abscess

The main types of dental abscess are: The pain is continuous and may be described as extreme, growing, sharp, shooting, or throbbing.

In some cases, a tooth abscess may perforate bone and start draining into the surrounding tissues creating local facial swelling.

[2] If left untreated, a severe tooth abscess may become large enough to perforate bone and extend into the soft tissue eventually becoming osteomyelitis and cellulitis respectively.

Severe complications requiring immediate hospitalization include Ludwig's angina, which is a combination of growing infection and cellulitis which closes the airway space causing suffocation in extreme cases.

Also infection can spread down the tissue spaces to the mediastinum, causing significant consequences on the vital organs such as the heart.

Depending on the severity of the infection, the sufferer may feel only mildly ill, or may in extreme cases require hospital care.

There is no clear evidence to rule out if patients with acute dental abscesses can benefit from systemic antibiotic prescriptions.

Abscess originating from a tooth, that has spread to the buccal space . Above : deformation of the cheek on the second day. Below : deformation on the third day.
Tooth#4, the maxillary right second premolar (upper right 2nd bicuspid), after extraction. The two single-headed arrows point to the CEJ , which is the line separating the crown (in this case, heavily decayed) and the roots. The double-headed arrow (bottom right) shows the extent of the abscess that surrounds the apex of the palatal root.
A dental infection resulting in an abscess and inflammation of the maxillary sinus
CT scan showing a large tooth abscess (right in the image) with significant inflammation of fatty tissue under the skin