Any home remedies for a wisdom tooth swollen gum?

The gum around my lower wisdom tooth is infected and there is a warm bump (abscess) around it. The wisdom tooth is being pushed up so that I cannot close my mouth properly. I have been to the dentist who wants me to have the tooth pulled. But there is nothing wrong with the tooth, only the gum, and there is no pain. I have been using an oral irrigator with hydrogen peroxide and salt solution but the swelling persists. I would appreciate any and all suggestions.

There may be nothing wrong with the tooth, but it has no room to fully erupt. By that I mean that it will never be able to erupt high enough for the tissue not to cover the top of the tooth, thus keeping the tissue surrounding this tooth in a constant active infectious state that is affecting you're whole body. The dentist can remove the flap with electrosurgery, but it usually grows back. The wisdom teeth are just too far back, in a very tight area that doesn't allow enough room for them to fully erupt. This makes it impossible to keep the area clean allowing it a perfect environment for bacteria to grow under this flap of tissue. These teeth are almost always trouble for patients and difficult for us to work on as well. That's why he's recommending the extraction. It will wind up being a constant infected abscessed area that will eventually affect the bone and the rest of your body and remain a problem until you have it removed. I hope you follow your dentist advice and have it extracted to clear up all of this infection. Good luck and I hope I've been of some help with this problem.


Additional info: You may want to use just warm (as warm as you can stand it) salt water rinses on this area and take 800 mg of Advil or Motrin for the inflammation. Peroxide is very irritating to tissue so you may want to back off (or dilute it greatly with warm water) on it for a couple of days and see if the area does better. I'm just not sure if you are using too much of the peroxide or if your "forcing debris" under the "tissue around the tooth" or under "flap of tissue" with your irrigator both which can be causing more harm than good. If you don't get any relief from doing these things then you either need an oral antibiotic or to have it extracted. Sorry I couldn't be of more help, it can be cleaned out at the dentist office to give you more time if needed. But as soon as you eat, particles of food are going to pack in there again causing this to go on and on and on. I guess you can tell I've thought about your problem quiet a bit, and seen it happen many times to patient's. It's just one of those problems that is going to keep your mouth a mess until it's removed I'm afraid. Good luck and I do hope you'll take my advice and get it extracted soon so you can start feeling better.

The wisdom tooth often causes problems with the gum, and therefore must be pulled.

That's the only thing that will relieve the problem.

Discontinue the hydrogen peroxide and have the tooth extracted. Hydrogen peroxide is very abrasive to gum tissue. Irrigate it with Peridex if you have any or Crest ProHealth or something like that The tooth may be perfectly fine, but it is causing an infection that can become serious very quickly. It really needs to come out very very soon.

you need to go to the dentist. if you have an abscess, it needs to be drained.

you are going to be in a lot worse trouble if you don't get that taken care of.

It's infected.. please go to the dentist.

Your dentist is right - you should have it pulled. Having an abcess is very bad for your health and can lead to other infections in the body.
If you don't have it pulled you could have other health problems down the road.

the easy one...
1. Get a tea bag. Moisten it just a little bit. Place it over the infected area. Let the water from the tea bag stay on your gum. Try not to swallow. This should take away some of the pain. You may have to leave the tea bag there for a while. If it starts leaking grounds, throw it away and start the process over.

the really hard one...
2. Find a Dog Wood tree. Pull up the roots that are buried under the ground. Wash the roots in cool water, not scrubbing them, only rinsing. Shave off the outsides of the roots (a carrott peeler will do fine). Put them into a sauce pan with 2 cups of water. Boil the outside of the roots for about 20 minutes. Drain and discard the root shavings. Let the water cool and then hold mouthfulls of the water inside of your mouth. Try not to swallow.

hope you get to feeling better. (these are both true. i used the tea bag one once...it worked great for an abcessed tooth)

My mom always tell me to gargle with Baking Soda mixed with warm water...