Is an Untreated Dental Infection Dangerous?

Oral health problems like dental infections can be painful and unpleasant, but did you realise they can also become dangerous? A dental infection like an abscess will not disappear on its own and symptoms include tooth sensitivity, an unpleasant taste, having difficulty opening your mouth, facial swelling and fever.

What Is a Dental Abscess?

An untreated dental abscess is a bacterial infection deep inside a tooth and the tooth root and is usually very painful. It can cause a sharp or acute toothache or pain, or the pain can be chronic and will linger for months. A chronic abscess is more dangerous because it can damage your tooth and the surrounding soft tissue and bone for longer. Because the pain is less severe, it’s easy to put off treatment, but by the time you visit a dentist, the infection might have spread beyond your tooth. Unfortunately, by this stage we may need to remove the tooth to get rid of the infection.

An abscess is always potentially dangerous as the infection can spread through your blood and can cause infection and clotting in blood vessels and even sepsis. If you do have tooth pain, come and see us as soon as you can so we can diagnose and treat the tooth, hopefully saving it while protecting your general health.