Until recently, inflammation of the gums around the erupting wisdom tooth was considered a direct indication for its immediate removal, since the treatment was long and the process painful. Today, inflammation of the gums, or pericoronitis, can be treated with a laser.
The advantage of the method is that the pain is quickly relieved, the beam penetrates the skin to a sufficient depth to stop the inflammatory process and prevent purulent complications, so the adherence to treatment in patients is significantly increased.
Why pericoronitis develops and what causes pain
Pericoronitis occurs most often during wisdom teeth eruption, although it can accompany any dentition. The essence of the disease is that the gum tissue becomes inflamed, and this is accompanied by severe pain. The cause of inflammation can be plaque accumulated in the opening of the gums, causing a painful reaction, as well as the pressure of the growing wisdom tooth on neighboring teeth, which damages the gums and bone tissue.
When a tooth erupts, it is covered over the part chewing surface with a thin layer of mucous membrane. Under this shell, food debris from a particle of plaque is clogged, microorganisms enter, causing an inflammatory reaction. In addition, when chewing, the mucous membrane on the erupting tooth is injured by antagonist teeth, and this constant injury does not allow the inflammatory process to subside. As a result, the periodontal gap expands and cicatricial changes develop on the mucosa.
The manifestation of pericoronitis, in addition to severe pain and inflammation in the gums, is accompanied by the following symptoms:
- bad taste and odor from the mouth,
- gingival swelling,
- general feeling unwell, sometimes with fever and headache,
- soreness when swallowing, when opening the mouth.
Pain with pericoronitis can radiate to the temple or ear area, while regional lymph nodes increase, the patient complains of a distortion of taste sensations during meals, and sometimes even the inability to eat because of pain.
Pericoronitis can lead to destruction of the periosteum and the development of an abscess in it. If you do not start treatment for a long time, then pain in the gums increases not only when you open your mouth, but even at rest, complications arise in the form of osteomyelitis or even phlegmon. Most often, to prevent such complications, erupting wisdom teeth are removed.
How to treat pericoronitis and prevent complications
It is usually enough to listen to the patient's complaints and carefully examine the oral cavity to diagnose pericoronitis. However, sometimes x-rays may be needed to determine the direction of wisdom tooth growth or assess the extent of gum decay.
The choice of treatment tactics remains with the doctor and depends on the patient's condition, on the degree of development of inflammation and swelling of the gums, on the threat of complications. Removal of a wisdom tooth is recommended if the x-ray shows that its final eruption is impossible due to the wrong direction of growth. Extraction of the tooth can only be performed after the acute manifestations of pericoronitis have been removed.
Usually, the treatment consists in washing the cavity under the hood of the mucosa with antiseptics and injecting painkillers, sulfanilamide preparations there. Sometimes it may be recommended to excise a part of the mucosa so that the surface of the wisdom tooth opens up and the tooth erupts smoothly. In this case, particles of food and plaque stop accumulating under the mucosa, and therefore relapses of the inflammatory process are not observed.
Laser therapy has a good effect in the treatment of pericoronitis. Its advantage lies in the fact that the infrared beam affects the inflamed gum tissue through the skin, penetrating to a sufficiently large depth. At the same time, edema is removed, inflammation is stopped, blood flow to the site of teething is stimulated, and metabolism in adjacent tissues is enhanced. It is also very important that laser therapy has an analgesic effect, and at the same time the patient does not need to open his mouth, which can be very painful and unpleasant with pericoronitis.
Thanks to new methods of treating gingival inflammation, in particular laser treatment for pericoronitis, patients show adherence to such therapy and do not delay their visit to the dentist, which helps to prevent serious complications.
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