Originally Posted by gwstang
Originally Posted by Andalusia
Originally Posted by MattIce
Getting tooth pulled Tuesday. Had to take the meds for infection first.


Having to take antibiotics to "calm" the infection before extraction is an old and outdated concept that amazingly is still prevalent with many General dentists.

Current thinking (at least since the 80's) is remove the source of infection ie: root canal to remove dead/dying nerve tissue and incision/drainage of abcess if present or extract the tooth. Do one of these to eliminate the infection quickly. Not removing the source of the infection quickly can allow the infection to spread into deeper tissue even while taking antibiotics which can become much more serious.



One problem, if they can't drain the infection right away is the numbing injection won't act correctly to numb it, so it can be pulled without a lot of pain involved. The infection blocks the injection from reaching the nerve.

That's very true, local anesthetic can be neutralized in the presence of infection. That said, there are techniques to get the area numb even with infection present and out of the 60+ thousand teeth I have removed there aren't many that I couldn't get numb. Of course there is general anesthesia for those that need it.

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it"