Abscessed tooth?

not sure if this is what I have. it started wednesday (jan 9th) I slowly started to realize a slight discomfort in my tooth and into the night it got worse. By the next morning I could feel that my cheek was swollen and the tooth was very sensitive. I have been taking ibuprofen and rinsing alot with salt water and mouthwash ( to the point of losing any taste for food at all). Here it is sunday jan 13th and I have to say the pain has been greatly reduced but I am still planning on getting into a dentist. This tooth has been a cavity for a few years now and every now and then I experienced some aches with it and then it would stop but this was different. This was in the gum and not just the tooth itself so I'm assuming that it has become abscessed. Is it possible for an abscessed tooth to subside temporarily then come back? Is that what happened? The gum shows no signs of redness or infection but I can feel it when I pressed on the bottom of my jaw.

Well, well. I have had an issue with a tooth for a couple of months. This sounds exactly like my problem. I had a cavity, filled, then the filling cracked. It would fill with food and I would have to pick at it after I ate. After a while, I annoyed it to the point I got some sort of infection below the gum line. I've been dicking around with this tooth now for awhile. Some days it won't bother me too much, but others, I will get a lump on my jaw, and I know it is infected. I went to the dentist, and he gave me some antibiotics, which helped tremendously. I found that aspirin worked better than ibuprofen. Get it filled ASAP!!! I am now scheduled for a root canal. Take care of your'e teeth, preventitive dentistry is cheaper and less painful. And YES, the pain and swelling may come and go. But don't be fooled by it. Get thee to a dentist.

sounds like an abscess to me..
there really is no need for the salt water rinse....the ibuprofen will help with the inflammation..
you will probably need an antibiotic for the infection