Why do ulcers appear on the gums, and is it always dangerous?
There are many possible reasons. To understand how dangerous the appearance of certain lesions on the gums is, you need to look at additional accompanying symptoms:
- in case it is trivial mechanical damage. The gums can be damaged by hard food, a toothbrush, or a foreign object. These lesions may resolve in 3-5 days. If a person does not brush his teeth, then infection is added to these damages, and healing may take several weeks.
- Sometimes ulcers can appear as a result of wearing orthodontic structures, braces or removable dentures.
Reasons why a tooth may crack
The following factors influence the integrity of the tooth:
- A crack can occur when hot and cold foods are suddenly combined.
- Drinking sweet carbonated drinks that contain aggressive substances that affect the integrity of tooth enamel.
- Crunching nut shells with your teeth, shelling seeds, or eating hard foods can cause a crack in your tooth.
- Frequent teeth whitening with chemicals containing high levels of abrasive particles can cause cracking.
- Genital tooth damage or periodontal disease, carious destruction - all these are prerequisites for tooth cracking.
- Irregular oral and dental care leads to an imbalance in the acid-base balance, which leads to the formation of a crack in the tooth.
- Smoking, alcohol abuse, drug addiction are reasons that negatively affect the integrity of teeth.
- Destructive trauma to teeth leads to cracking.
The most common diseases of the oral cavity in which ulcers appear
- ulcerative necrotizing gingivitis. The cause of this disease is bacteria that multiply when immunity decreases. Extensive ulcers appear on the gums, regional lymph nodes become enlarged, and the temperature may rise
- chronic recurrent aphthous stomatitis. Up to 4-5 white spots first appear in the mouth, which later turn into ulcers. There is no temperature or other problems related to well-being. If such symptoms appear 1-2 times a year in small quantities, then there should be no cause for concern. Frequent occurrence is associated with weakened immunity and possible intestinal diseases, as well as allergies.
- acute herpetic stomatitis. Herpetic stomatitis occurs in a child when he first encounters the herpes virus. Many bubbles appear on the gums, which, after bursting, turn into ulcers that merge with each other. The gums are always bright red, and the ulcers themselves are very painful, the temperature may rise
Bad breath due to bleeding gums
Bleeding from the gums is often accompanied by bad breath. There are several reasons for this:
- proliferation of bacteria against the background of inflammation;
- accumulation of soft and hard dental plaque;
- the presence of deposits under the gum that are not visible to the naked eye.
An unpleasant odor is a formidable symptom, since it does not appear immediately. This means the disease is already progressing. It is impossible to find out the cause and eliminate it on your own (without a dentist); The pathology will become chronic and it will be more difficult to cure.
First aid
If the temperature rises, you can take an antipyretic drug. In the future, before visiting a doctor, nothing should be done. Do not take antibiotics yourself or try to get into the ulcer with any object.
How to relieve symptoms of ulcers
- do not eat sour and salty foods
- food should be warm, no hot dishes or drinks
- Care should be taken to ensure that the child does not put dirty hands in his mouth
- teeth should be brushed, but make sure that the bristles do not touch the gums with ulcers
- It is recommended to rinse your mouth with herbal solutions (oak bark, chamomile) 3-4 times a day
You should be careful when using antibacterial solutions. They must be prescribed by a doctor. If such solutions are used incorrectly, they can provoke the development of thrush. The antibacterial agent will “kill” the beneficial microflora, which can result in a fungal infection.
Prevention of ulcers
- professional oral hygiene at least 2 times a year
- Regularly replacing your toothbrush
- Proper brushing of teeth at least 2 times a day
- using additional hygiene techniques such as irrigators, dental floss, and tongue scrapers
- Children should be monitored for bad habits such as putting dirty fingers and other objects into their mouths
- It is important to treat your teeth in a timely manner. Microbes that are found in carious teeth and rotten roots can serve as a source of infection for ulcers
If you have problems in the oral cavity, contact the specialists of the Center for Family Dentistry!
A longitudinal (vertical) crack appeared on the tooth
Shallow cracks along the tooth that do not extend under the gums are eliminated with a composite material and subsequent installation of veneers. Thin overlays mask the aesthetic defect and strengthen the crown, preventing its further destruction. Molars experience increased chewing load, so cracks on them require the use of ceramic/zirconium crowns.
A deep vertical crack often leads to pulpitis. In this case, it is necessary to remove the nerve and carry out a step-by-step reconstruction of the tooth (filling, veneer or crown).
With a strong impact, a vertical crack extends to the root of the tooth. It is possible to restore a tooth if the root is at least one third intact, and the patient immediately seeks help. An attempt to save a dead tooth in this way with partial damage to a single root (incisors, canines and sometimes premolars) often leads to the gradual destruction of the entire root system. In such cases, the only correct option is tooth extraction and subsequent prosthetics/implantation.
Important! Since a pulpless tooth does not receive nutrition, the enamel quickly loses its strength. Therefore, it is advisable to install a crown on a cracked tooth without a nerve (the root is not damaged).
Horizontal tooth crack
A crack surrounding a tooth often does not affect the pulp, so the nerve can be preserved. Tooth restoration includes the use of a composite and restoration with crowns or veneers (front only). Without timely treatment, a transverse crack leads to partial chipping of the tooth. The dentist builds up the broken area with a composite material.
A high risk of tooth loss is caused by a horizontal crack formed at the gum line. In this place the tooth is most vulnerable; the crown can completely (or most of it) break off even from a small load. In fact, the tooth is lost, but it is quite possible to restore it using extensions on pins and restoration using a ceramic crown.
Important! If, after an impact and complete loss of the crown, the roots of the tooth become very loose, there is no point in restoring the tooth. Gradually it will fall out along with the unstable roots.
Tooth root crack
The defect is formed from the root to the edge of the tooth and is diagnosed only on an x-ray. With internal chipping, the risk of soft tissue necrosis and jaw fracture increases. If the crack damaged only one tooth root, partial preservation of the natural crown is possible. Part of the damaged tooth is removed and then built up using pins and composite. In this case, it is advisable to create additional protection and install a metal-ceramic crown. Removal cannot be avoided if the only tooth root is cracked.
Tooth cracked in half
With this type of damage, both walls of the tooth are most often affected. Even the slightest load causes severe pain. Treatment depends on the degree of damage to the root part. If a tooth is cracked diagonally and a large fragment is loose, the unstable part is removed and the crown is restored. In cases where the tooth is cracked in half to the root (gum level), and its parts remain stable, treatment is carried out according to the standard algorithm (composite, veneer or crown). Looseness of both parts of a split tooth indicates destruction of the root along its entire length. In such a situation, careful tooth extraction is performed.
Important! A tooth that is cracked in half can break at any time.
A child's baby tooth is cracked
Most often, defects in baby teeth are caused by feeding with cow's milk (calcium is poorly absorbed) and excessive consumption of sweets. The dentist will grind down the chewing cusps. This reduces the load and removes the damaged tooth from the chewing process. If the child is left untreated, the fragments will cause gum inflammation and may damage the emerging permanent teeth.
Important! Deep cracks in permanent teeth in children require endodontic treatment (nerve removal) followed by filling. However, such a procedure does not exclude tooth destruction in the future.
A pregnant woman's tooth cracked
Damage to tooth enamel is an entry point for infection. Therefore, any dental problems for expectant mothers must be treated in the second trimester of pregnancy. A cracked tooth is no exception. If a split appears on a previously treated tooth, first replace the failing filling and repair the crack with a composite material, then install a crown. A temporary filling is not advisable in this case. Treatment of cracked teeth in pregnant women is carried out according to the usual algorithm for adult patients, with the exception of implantation.
Important! To treat a cracked tooth in a pregnant woman, anesthetics that are safe for the unborn child are used.
Cracked wisdom tooth
Wisdom teeth are more exposed to an acidic environment, and therefore cracks, chips and caries often appear on them. These crowns do not participate in the chewing process and are difficult to access for quality treatment. Therefore, when cracks appear, experts recommend removing wisdom teeth.
To avoid losing a cracked tooth, make an appointment with your dentist as soon as the damage is discovered and use only experienced dentists. The high level of the clinic is evidenced by the certificates of doctors and customer reviews. Matisse Dent specialists use modern methods of treating cracked teeth and will do everything to save your tooth.
Fistula due to root perforation
Working with canals requires the dentist to be careful, attentive, and precise, controlled movements. The slightest carelessness can lead to the formation of a non-physiological hole (perforation), which will subsequently cause inflammation and, as a consequence, the appearance of a fistula.
A common mistake that leads to perforation and inflammation is the fixation of the pin when it is installed not along the canal, but its removal into the bone tissue.
With perforation, treatment of the fistula is the most problematic of all cases of its formation. Moreover, the main difficulty is not in medical procedures, but in the behavior of dentists who do not inform patients about the complication that has arisen, so as not to question the professionalism of themselves and their colleagues. As a result, a person who goes to the hospital for dental treatment returns again due to pain and inflammation: often the process becomes so advanced that it is no longer possible to do anything other than remove the tooth.
But still, perforation is not a death sentence, and the tooth can be saved. The sooner the patient applies, the greater the chance that the treatment will be completed successfully. True, this requires expensive materials (Pro Root MTA is often used), with the help of which the perforation area is sealed. Sometimes filling is performed directly through the canals, sometimes a surgical incision is required to gain visual access to the damaged area.
The appearance of a fistula due to unsatisfactory canal filling
Canal filling is a fairly common dental procedure indicated in the treatment of diseases such as periodontitis, pulpitis and in preparing teeth for subsequent prosthetics. However, in more than half of the cases, the canals are not filled as well as required by the rules. The most common mistake is filling not to the very top of the root.
Due to a mistake made by the doctor, an infection will form in the unsealed area of the canal over time, which sooner or later will go beyond the boundaries of the tooth and lead to inflammation. In addition to filling the entire length of the canal, the substance used to fill the canal during the procedure must be packed tightly: the appearance of voids and the formation of pores is unacceptable.
The main symptom indicating problems with the tooth is pain when biting. If you look carefully, in the immediate vicinity of the diseased tooth you can easily find a small hole through which pus will come out.
The appearance of a fistula on the gum, the treatment of which is not recommended to be delayed, indicates that the tooth will not stop hurting on its own. To treat it, the tooth is unfilled, an anti-inflammatory medicine is placed in the canals, which is removed after a certain period of time, and the canals are then filled again.
If a tooth has a crown or a pin, unfilling the canals becomes a real problem for the doctor. It is not always possible to remove the pin, and the crown will have to be re-installed after the procedure is completed, which is fraught with additional financial costs for the patient. Sometimes, if the canal is not sealed at its very end, the doctor decides to resort to a procedure for resection of the upper part of the root.
Resection is far from the most difficult operation: its duration is no more than an hour. The operation consists of several main stages:
- Preparation, during which the canals are carefully sealed a couple of days before the main procedure.
- Anesthesia. The operation is performed under local anesthesia: the patient does not feel pain during the doctor’s manipulations, but discomfort may occur later when the effect of the injection wears off.
- Gaining free access to the upper region of the root. To do this, the dentist cuts the gum, exposing the bone tissue, in which a hole is then cut using a drill.
- Through the resulting hole, the doctor cuts off the tip of the root, to which, as a rule, the cyst is attached, which causes inflammation.
- After removing part of the root, an empty cavity remains in the bone. The doctor can fill the space with synthetic tissue, which speeds up the growth process of natural bone.
- The final stage is suturing the gums. For intensive outflow of ichor, drainage can be installed for several days.
How to treat an abscess on the gum with folk remedies?
In both cases, the cause of the development of the process is an infection that sits deep in the gum or bone. This means that we still won’t be able to influence it directly. Traditional methods (rinsing with herbs, applying propolis, etc.) usually bring their results: the fistula really goes away for a while. BUT! All these methods remove the effect, not the cause! Until the microbial contamination is removed, inflammation will progress. It won’t cause such discomfort, but it certainly won’t go away on its own.
Therefore, treatment should begin with a visit to the dentist to determine the cause. And only then, when you identify the cause and begin to fight it together with the doctor, you can also use traditional therapy, since rinsing with herbs really gives a good result after removing the stone, and, for example, sea buckthorn oil slightly speeds up the healing of wounds on the mucous membrane.
Symptoms
Most classified types of cracks can be detected at home by the following signs:
- the tooth begins to ache, although it is difficult to indicate the source of pain;
- severe pain may occur when chewing food;
- Drinking hot or cold drinks can cause discomfort in the area of the cracked tooth.
Treatment options
Depending on the type of crack, it can be masked. This applies to diagonal cracks, which I mask with veneers. A horizontal crack can be repaired. To do this, the damaged part of the tooth is removed and the remaining part is filled. In this case, a crown can be placed on the tooth.
In case of a vertical crack, the pulp is drilled out and the tooth is filled with further prosthetics.
