Definitely do something about it. Dental abscesses like all other infections can lead to blood poisoning and serious consequences. The risk of treatment to your bub is very low to nothing if they know you are pregnant and can take precautions.
Good luck!
I had a tooth die on me when i was pregnant with my second child. I was in really terrible pain for a few days den suddenly the pain stopped. I went to see the dentist and realised that the tooth had died.
As i was pregnant, they cldnt do very much.. i didnt have any x rays done. What they did was to remove the decayed parts, cleaned it out and den put in temporray filling. the first filling broke into pieces a while later so i went to get a stronger filling and it lasted me way after i gave birth.
After i gave birth, i went back to the dentist to do the proper root canal and aso has a crown put over the tooth to keep it stable.
AJC, I had a tooth give me grief when I was PG. I actually broke a filling and went to get it fixed and they discovered another rtooth needed root canal - two days later I had a pretty bad abcess on the gum near that tooth. I have a fear of the dentist so decided I would get the tooth out instead of repaired as it wasn't one too easily seen (at the back). I was about 26 weeks at the time. I went on a few courses of AB's and had the tooth out when I was in the early 30's weeks. I had a local anesthetic for the extraction (and lots of it because the guy who did it knows me and my fear - they normally have to sedate me which wasn't possible due to being PG).
Anyway, whichever way you decide to go, it is safe to get it done during pregnancy and I (like the others) suggest you have it treated now instead of waiting for later.
Mothergoose - thanks so much for the advice. I've had extractions before too and I handled that ok - I think I am just so uptight this time because I'm worried about doing the best thing for the baby so thanks for helping to put my mind at ease. I felt so scared earlier this afternoon but now I feel better. Thanks again.
I couldn't get into my usual dentist last week but I finally got to see her this morn. Nothing was a drama, she didn't even want to do x-rays knowing I am pg anyway which made me happy. The lump actually went a bit pus filled which was gross. I bathed it in salt water & listerine all weekend and it's heaps better now. She drilled into the tooth and drained any excess gunk and also put a local antibiotic in the tooth only, she didn't want to give me full on antibiotics as much as I wouldn't want to take them. She put in a temporary temporary filling and if all is well in 4 weeks she'll re-do it with a temporary filling and we'll treat it properly after bub is born.
Thanks for your responses last week - made me realise I HAD to do something about it NOW, I probably would have tried to adopt the 'ignore it and it will hopefully go away' approach (which I know would have failed).
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