I became very ill some time (a few months after a tooth became abscessed)
Question
I became very ill some time (a few months after a tooth became abscessed). My fault, because I didn’t take time to see the dentist. This started with shooting pain from my jaw to the back of my head, stiff neck, and vomiting. Followed by severe chest pain.
I went to the ER and was put on a high dose of Pen VK. I wasn’t told whether my tooth was the problem or not at the hospital, but I called the dentist> Have an appointment tomorrow. Are these symptoms that an abscessed tooth will cause?
Answer
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Abscesses usually have the symptoms and pain radiating to the entire jaw, and even the neck and arms when it gets severe.
But the pain radiating to the chest is very uncommon, which indicates the spread of infection, or any independent cause leading to the chest pain. The medication of Penicillin was probably given to reduce the abscess, but not to completely fight the cause.
Vomiting too isn’t a symptom that an abscess would show. So you would again need to visit a general physician apart from your dentist to check whether it is any normal pathology, and not just the abscess that was causing the problems.
The shooting pain in the jaw is due to the spread of abscess. The abscess presents with shooting pain, and improper care and treatment leads to its spread to other areas.
Dr. Chetan
