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Lingering Complications After Wisdom Tooth Extraction

Here goes my story:

Against my better judgement, I agreed to my dentist's request to pull out my last wisdom tooth, on the upper right side. It is a baby tooth, and was supposed to cause no problems at all. I had been nervous about doing it since it didn't cause problems, but he said I'm prone to cavities, it's hard to floss back there, and it should be a speedy recovery. The extraction was done under local anesthesia and very quickly. It came out whole and only had one root. The hole was tiny. Also, there was little to no swelling. There was some bleeding through the first day, but it stopped after that night, and was fine for the next four days. I was super diligent about salt rinses, soft foods, not drinking through a straw, and am not a smoker. It seemed to be healing well.

On the fourth day I felt like the extraction area was swelling, and had some throbbing pain radiating from that area. I contacted the dentist for a follow-up. At our follow-up, he said it looked fine, that there was no infection visible, that the blood clot was there and that the site was healing well. He suggested teeth grinding at night as a possible cause for radiating pain. He prescribed me the antibiotic clindamycin though just in case - 3x a day for the next 10 days.

Right after taking clindamycin, the swelling went down. All was well from Day 6 until Day 11, when that throbbing came back. And along with that, horrible, horrible blinding headaches across the sinuses and through the entire forehead, into the back of the head. I do not have a history of headaches, and they are very rare occurrences for me.

I contacted the dentist for another follow-up. He took a picture of the site, showed it to me, and said that the tissue looked great, very healthy, there was no bone exposure, and that the tiny site was almost completely healed up. He suggested hot compresses for the headaches and less stress.

Not knowing what else to do and moving back home shortly, I decided to stick with the salt rinses, finish out the clindamycin, and give it time. The headaches persisted and my speech was changing - the slight swelling on the front of my face around that extraction site caused me to grit out my speech and speak with a slight lisp.

So I took 2 Advil, about every 4 hours for 2 days, and then 2 Advil a day for the next 3 days. It seemed to ease the headaches and pain. Since I've come back home though (and stopped taking Advil), the swelling and headaches have returned. Over the last several days the swelling has persisted and makes the extraction site feel ballooned out, the tongue feels swollen and weird (but the sense of taste is still there). My bite also feels off again, especially on the extraction side (a similar feeling to the first follow-up at the dentist, when the swelling flared up from Day 4 to Day 5).

It's been three weeks, and I am pretty frustrated with myself for doing this and with the dentist, too. I am going to look up an oral surgeon on Monday, but does anyone have any experience or feedback about this?

Thanks!
3 Responses
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4628837 tn?1364557915
how are you now? I am having terrible gum pain and eye pain and all the dr keeps telling me is, nothing out of the ordinary in the e rays. I am at my wits end with pain!
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Avatar universal
Thank you for the quick response and weighing in!

I am a little surprised at this outcome. The x-rays showed it was such a tiny tiny wisdom tooth with one root. The others have come out with no problem at all. Unfortunately, things seem to be getting worse. My lips and back of throat are getting tinglier. Will update after seeing the oral surgeon!

Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hi......My personal opinion here is that the other root to your tooth in still in there and causing an infection.  Definitely seek the advice of an oral surgeon on this ASAP!  I hate when dentist want to pull something because we "may" get a cavity....I prefer to wait and just see what happens. We trust our dentist to have our best interest at heart, but sometimes they fail us in this respect.  You've made a wise choice in deciding to see an oral surgeon, just make sure they know how urgent this is.  I hope you get some relief....what a nightmare!  Take care.
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