What can happen if an abscessed tooth goes untreated and what is the normal treatment for this?

Answer 1

An absessed tooth is a very serious thing. It is caused by a very large amount of tooth decay that is not restored by a dentist and is allowed to grow larger and larger over time. The tooth eventually gets rotten all the way into the living part of your tooth where the nerve is. That nerve then decides to die and basically go out screaming. Causing pain and the contents of that tooth to go out the root of the tooth into the gums and cause an infection. Any infection that is untreated can cause very harmful effects including (on rare occasions) even death. Usually if an absess is untreated it will eventually stop hurting but it WILL come back with a vengance several times until it is treated. The treatment is either extraction (not usually the best option) or a root canal (which is not half as scary as it sounds). Modern day root canals involve being numbed to the point of not feeling ANYTHING and spending about an hour and a half in a dental office while having a procedure done that is even easier than having a tooth filled. There should be NO PAIN INVOLVED! To find a good dentist in your area call the local "periodontist" (a gum specialist) who usually sees the dental work done by every dentist in the whole town and knows who does the best work. If finances are an issue there is usually a Free Dental Clinic in almost every town.