misdiagnosed tooth abscess causing heart damage in a teen?

[woman with a question]

Thank you for taking my question.
My daughter had a toothache in August, a few days before her routine dental cleaning.  She told the dentist and he looked
it over and said it was fine. The next evening she was in
extreme pain in her neck and jaw, it escalated so we took her
to the ER.  The ER doctor said possible TMJ, contact dentist. And
he put her on vicodin for the pain.  The dentist was called and
said go to a TMJ specialist.  TMJ specialists wouldn't see her for 3-4 weeks so we took her to a chiropractor instead for pain
relief.  It helped a bit.  The next few weeks she had difficulty
breathing.  We took her to the doctor and was prescribed Advair.(she is already using Albuterol for her exercise-induced athsma.
A few weeks later she passed out twice.  So we brought her in again and the doctor found an abscess in her mouth and the tooth
that hurt her in August was a bit grey.  We went right to the dentist and he said the nerve was dead, she needed a root canal.
Her jaw pain is almost gone but she is still extremely fatigued,and has shortness of breath even when doing stairs. She had bloodwork done and her c-reactive protein is elevated. She had an EKG and it showed left atrium enlarged.  We are waiting to
get in to see the cardiologist.  Could this tooth abscess have damaged her heart?  Could she also have Osteomyelitis? Who checks for this?  Thank you.

[sharky54]

A related discussion, abscess tooth was started.

[kate38]

Hello,
Sorry your daughters not feeling well,I know i hate to see my kids hurting and would do just about anything to take the hurt away.

When I took an advan med term class,I actually did a report on Osteomyelitis,lots of books and internet sites out there. However,you always want to remember to pick and choose your sites carfully. Hopfully the site below can give you a little info about the subject.If you would like other web sites let me know.  


http://www.methodisthealth.com/bone.osteom.htm


Hope your daughter feels better soon:)

K

[Cleveland Clinic]

sorry to hear of your daughters ordeal.

the heart symptoms people generally attribute to and ask about dental work stem from the association of endocarditis with dental work. any time dental manipulation occurs a small amount of bacteria are released into the blood stream. in patients with artifical valves or with intrinsic heart disease the risk of endocarditis is increased.

endocarditis refers to infection of the structures of the heart, usually the valves. endocarditis can be fatal if not detected and treated. taht said, there should be concrete evidence of infection by echo or blood culture before attributing her symptoms to this disease

you should certainly take your daughters breathlessness seriously. a cardiologist will evaluate her for any murmmers and might consider an echocardiogram to look at the heart itself. an ecg will not help in making the diagnosis. it would stem from either visualization or evidence of new heart dysfuction, culture bacteria out of the blood, r other evidence of infection.

any type of infection including osteomyelitis or endocarditis usually is associated with fevers and elevated levels of inflammatory markers(crp).  you should discuss your concerns with your physician instead of your dentist

hope this is a start