I developed a tooth infection a couple of weeks ago. I saw the dentist and he prescribed me an antibiotic. I’ve been on it for almost that length of time. While things seem to have gotten better at first, now it seems worse than ever. In fact, it feels like it has spread up to my eye. There’s a nice red streak and my eye is goopy. Am I on the wrong antibiotic?

Emily

Dear Emily,

I’m hoping because you were in pain you missed some of your dentist’s instructions. Otherwise, he (or she) has a profound misunderstanding of how dental infections work. Antibiotics are only useful as a temporary measure. They will not heal the infection the way you get with a typical bacterial infection. Eventually, the pulp of the tooth which has been infected dies. This no longer has blood flow so the antibiotic doesn’t get to that part of the infected tooth structure.

At that point, the only way to truly deal with a tooth infection is for the dentist to physically get in there are remove the infected pulp. Without that, the infection will rear its ugly head and then will spread like wildfire. This seems to be what you’re experiencing now. This is considered a dental emergency.

To fix this, you will need a root canal treatment. The sooner the better. Otherwise, your infection will spread. If you think about how close your jaw is to both your heart and brain, you can see how quickly a dental infection can turn life-threatening. It’s hard to believe but some people still die from tooth infections.

This blog is brought to you by Ahwatukee Dentist Dr. Harveer Kaur.