Can you die from a gum abscess?

[skleep]

I've seen a few rare scenarios of people dying from tooth abscesses.  What about a gum abscess that is being treated with antibiotics?  My boyfriend has a gum abscess and he has been prescribed penicillin and topical antibiotics.  He says it is getting better, but for some reason his cheek on the other side of his mouth got swollen (maybe unrelated from biting it) and he says the area of the abscess is still a little irritated even after being on antibiotics today.  The abscess was caused by food that got into a pocket between his erupting wisdom tooth and gum (the gum got cleaned out).  He was never unable to open his mouth or talk, so far no swollen lymph nodes or anything like that.  His dentist originally said the infection was "minor" but I can't help but feel that it's a LOT more than minor if his cheek got irritated.

He went to the dentist again and they told him that the wisdom teeth were not impacted, but that he should get them removed.  Nobody seems to be acting like this is an emergency, but I keep feeling like he is going to have the infection spread to his bone and kill him.  Is this totally irrational on my part?  Does he need to get wisdom teeth removed ASAP to avoid death?

[skleep]

So there isn't a chance of it spreading to his brain or heart?  He feels fine I think, no swollen lymph nodes (I think)

[Caryopteris]

It sounds like the antibiotic is doing its job, but it's still a healing process and won't be good as new overnight.