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Question:
I recently had a teeth cleaning and have had bleeding gums and some pockets collecting food for the past 8 months. 2 hours after my cleaning, I did not feel well and had a sore throat. Through the night my neck swelled up and I was in severe pain.
I went to the Emergency Room the next morning with severe pain and couldn't talk or open my mouth. I was admitted to ICU for fear of my airway being blocked, I was given decadron for the swelling, IV antibiotics, pain meds and the swelling gradually went down. I was in the hospital for 3 days. They say my salivary gland was infected and the infection was probably triggered from the cleaning.
As the infection subsided, you could see the infection under the skin (celluitis?sp?) spreading down to the top of my chest and to the right
side of my neck. The infection was basic strep and I am currently taking
penicillin and carafate. They also said I was septic and did a cardiogram and chest x-ray as well as a CT scan of my neck.
Is this something common and how could I or my dentist avoid this happening again short of taking antibiotics each time I have my teeth cleaned? Shouldn't the infection have been seen on the X-Rays? ...Tim in FL
Answer:
Tim, wow, your problem is way out of the ordinary. Unless the dentist used
unsterile instruments, I highly doubt that your problem resulted from a
normal cleaning. If you had gum surgery, that may be a different story.
The infection you had is very serious and it would be unlikely to have been
caused by your cleaning. You have not told me anything about your general
health. Have you been diagnosed with any immune illnesses or deficiencies?
Do you have AIDS? Are you diabetic? These factors are important in knowing
how to treat someone properly.
If you are a healthy person, then you may want to consider that something else happened here that you are not aware of. Please research this more so it does not happen to someone else. You may want to call OSHA and have them evaluate the sterilization techniques used in that dental office. You should not need prophylactic antibiotics for dental procedures unless your systemic health is poor or you have some sort of immune deficiency. Only people with weak heart valves, immune problems, or prosthetic implants need antibiotics. Please talk to your doctor.
Editorial Staff
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