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Understanding the signs of infection after dental work is crucial if you’re awaiting dental surgery in the near future. Tooth abscesses and infections are relatively rare dental injuries after a procedure has been carried out, but they can still have life-threatening complications if not treated properly. That’s why it’s so important to contact your dentist if you suspect you may have a tooth infection.
Luckily, the Dental Law Partnership is here to help you recognise the signs of tooth infection after dental work, using the expertise of our dedicated dental team. We are experts in both the legal and dental fields, able to give you a greater understanding of dental infections due to our combined knowledge.
Please read on to find out more – in the meantime, if you’d like to speak to a member of our team about opening a dental negligence claim, please contact us for free on 0800 152 2034.
A dental tooth infection is sometimes known as a dental abscess, although the infection is usually present for a couple of days before the abscess becomes visible. There are three main areas in which dental infections can appear:
Lip infections can also occur as a result of dental negligence and poor dental work, as the lips are particularly sensitive – you may also experience lip ulcers if you encounter this type of infection.
If your infection doesn’t go away by itself or seems to get worse, we would highly recommend visiting a dental professional for further advice, as you may need to be prescribed a course of antibiotics. If medication is required, it’s important to follow your dentist’s instructions in full and complete your course of antibiotics, even if you start to feel better beforehand.
It can sometimes be difficult to distinguish between the main signs of infection after dental work and other forms of dental injury. Tooth infections often cause a constant, throbbing tooth pain that worsens over time – other symptoms like swelling, fever or pus discharge will typically accompany this feeling of discomfort.
The most common signs of dental infection are:
If you do encounter a dental infection after having some dental work done, the most important thing is to treat the infection as quickly as possible. Tooth infections can appear as a result of several oral health conditions, including untreated tooth decay, cracked teeth or early gum disease (gingivitis). If left untreated, your infection can spread to other parts of the body, which means that prompt treatment is essential to avoid potentially fatal complications.
If you have visited the dentist recently and think that you may be suffering from the symptoms of a tooth infection, you should return to your dental surgery for an urgent dentist appointment as quickly as possible.
In some rare cases, a mouth infection can spread to the blood or the rest of the body, which can have some life-threatening implications. Common symptoms of your tooth infection spreading to the bloodstream are:
Some of these signs can also be linked to other health conditions, but if you’ve already been diagnosed with an infection (or you’ve noticed abscesses appearing in your mouth), they’re a good indicator that your infection may be spreading and becoming more serious.
The symptoms of tooth infection spreading to the body are fairly similar too – if you notice any of these issues after developing an oral infection, you should contact NHS 111. You may also be able to contact your dentist for emergency dental care – if your dental surgery has closed, you should be able to find an urgent dentist appointment at an out-of-hours dental service.
If you believe that your dentist was at fault for your infection and your injury came as a result of their negligence, you might be eligible to start a dental injury claim.
Contact us today for more information on starting your dental negligence claim!
As previously noted, several different types of dental infections can affect you after dental work. You may be able to open a dental negligence claim if your dentist did not follow the proper steps during treatment – find out more about the dental negligence claims process here.
If your gums or an area of your gum feels painful, tender or swollen, or you notice a strange taste in your mouth, it could be a sign that you have a gum infection. If you have recently had dental treatment, it’s not unusual to notice minor pain or sensitivity in your gums during the days immediately afterwards. However, if the pain doesn’t go away on its own after a couple of days (or gets worse), you may have developed a gum infection.
A gum infection after dental work doesn’t necessarily mean that your dentist did anything wrong. If a dental procedure isn’t carried out correctly, or if the standard of care is not at an acceptable level, it can result in an infection. If your infection is not effectively treated quickly, it can get worse and potentially become a serious problem for both your oral health and general health. This is why it’s so important to seek dental care as quickly as possible if you think you have a gum infection.
If you believe that your gum infection occurred as a result of your dentist’s negligence, and you have suffered as a result, you might be eligible to claim dental negligence.
Please complete our online claim form to find out more.
Dental injection site infections are rare, so it’s unlikely that you would experience this form of dental injury after surgery. However, some people do experience an infection at the site of an anaesthetic injection, and nerve damage after dental injection is also possible.
Whilst this type of infection isn’t always necessarily due to your dentist making a mistake or delivering a poor level of care, it can sometimes be caused by needle breakage or trauma caused by administering the injection, which could be classed as dental negligence.
To find out more about this type of dental negligence and what your options are, please request a callback from us today.
If you’ve had a dental cleaning treatment, it’s quite normal for there to be some sensitivity for a couple of days afterwards. However, if the pain doesn’t fade on its own or gets worse, it might be possible that you have an infection.
The process of dental cleaning can sometimes make your gums bleed slightly. Although these issues are rare, tooth cleaning procedures can sometimes cause an infection to develop in the days after the procedure. This type of infection isn’t always due to your dentist making an error, but if the level of care they have provided isn’t up to the usual standard, they might be responsible for your infection and any resulting pain and suffering.
To find out more about dental negligence and whether you might be able to make a claim, please contact our team on 0800 152 2034.
If you’ve had a surgical dental procedure carried out recently, you can usually expect some residual pain and sensitivity for a few days afterwards (depending on the specific treatment you have had). Procedures of this type include tooth extraction surgeries and cosmetic dental implant treatments – infections can also occur as a result of root canal work.
If you start to notice that the pain is getting worse, or you experience other common symptoms of tooth infection, you may start to develop an abscess. If you notice any of these signs after a dental implant or dental extraction surgery, you need to seek dental treatment as soon as possible to stop the spread of infection.
If you find that you have a dental infection after dental surgery, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your dentist did anything wrong when they carried out your treatment. However, if a dentist used their equipment incorrectly or made errors during the procedure, these factors may have caused your infection. If the standard of care that a dental professional has provided to you was inadequate and you were injured or suffered as a result, you may be able to claim compensation.
Get in touch with us today to discuss your options further.
Regardless of whether your pain is due to a tooth nerve infection or an abscess on your gum, it’s crucial to seek a timely diagnosis from a dental professional. This is because tooth infections can quickly escalate into more serious health issues, spreading the infection to the jawbone or other parts of your body. Early diagnosis will reduce the severity of your pain and can prevent more serious complications.
Regular doses of over-the-counter (OTC) painkillers such as aspirin, ibuprofen and paracetamol may temporarily relieve infection symptoms and pain, but always take advice from a pharmacist or your GP.
Not all dental infections require antibiotics to clear the infection completely – in some cases, a root canal procedure or tooth extraction surgery may be required to remove the source of the infection. Even if you think a mild infection has disappeared on its own, it’s still worth speaking to your dentist to make sure you don’t require further treatment.
If your dental infection is serious and it isn’t treated quickly, there are some complications that you may experience that can have more serious ramifications on your health. These issues include:
If you develop any of these complications, you should speak to your dentist as soon as possible to get the problem resolved in a timely manner.
Understanding the signs of infection after dental work is important if you’re considering having treatment in the near future. Whilst it’s unlikely that you will experience an infection as a direct result of dental negligence, it’s not impossible, so it’s important to hold your dentist to account in these situations.
If you believe your condition has been caused as a result of dental negligence, you may be eligible to open a dental negligence claim and sue your dentist. Whilst we can’t state exactly how much compensation you’ll receive for dental infections caused by negligence, our Client Stories page may provide more of an idea of what to expect.
Our expert team of advisors is waiting for you to open your case – please complete our online claim form to get started.
