My wisdom tooth is hurting badly

[Johnson 1]

Hi

I was on holiday in Egypt last week and my wisdom tooth on the back lower right started to hurt almost non-stop. It got to a point where I could not open my mouth very wide and could not eat much because every time food goes near that area, the gum around that tooth really hurts. My face puffed up on that side and I got really worried. I was given some antibiotics by a dentist over there and that helped to make my face look a bit better but I am worried that the pain will come back again. I think that wisdom tooth is probably rotten because i can see it looks black. Should that wisdom tooth be taken out now?

[Dr Mohsen J. Esfahani]

Thank you for your question.

If a wisdom tooth is badly decayed and infected, then the best course of treatment could be to remove the tooth. However with acute infection, sometimes there is limited mouth opening to the point where its not possible to access the tooth for extraction. In such situations you may have to wait for your mouth opening to improve before you can have the wisdom tooth removed.