Pericoronitis
January 5th, 2010 | Categories: Life | 13 CommentsPericoronitis can develop when wisdom teeth only partially erupt (break through the gum). This allows an opening for bacteria to enter around the tooth and cause an infection. In cases of pericoronitis, food or plaque (a bacterial film that remains on teeth after eating) may get caught underneath a flap of gum around the tooth. If it remains there, it can irritate the gum and lead to pericoronitis. If the pericoronitis is severe, the swelling and infection may extend beyond the jaw to the cheeks and neck.1
No, I’ve never heard of it before either. But that’s what I was diagnosed with after my emergency dentist appointment this morning. It’s about as fun as it sounds cause man, it hurts like hell. Thank God my dentist used numbing stuff2 on my gums when he scraped out whatever was trapped between my wisdom tooth and the overlapping gum or else the pain would’ve been a million times worse!
I’ve never had any trouble with my wisdom teeth up until now. I’m really lucky (or perhaps I just have excellent genes) cause I have enough space along my jaw for my wisdom teeth and aside from this brush with pericoronitis, they’ve never given me any trouble. Once I kick my case of pericoronitis to the curb, I’m going to look at possibly trimming the part of my gum that overlaps my wisdom tooth3 so that I won’t ever suffer from pericoronitis again. As painful as trimming the gum sounds, it is a lot less drastic (and less expensive!) than taking my wisdom tooth out altogether!
Listerine and warm salt water rinses are going to become my best friends in the next few days and hopefully the pain should be completely gone by the end of the week. Moral of the story: don’t eat popcorn, as that’s what got me into this mess in the first place.
- Source: WebMD. [↩]
- It smelled like cherry, which I was very excited about. However, it did NOT taste like cherry at all! [↩]
- Only my bottom two wisdom teeth have slight overlap on the back outer corner of the tooth with my gum, my top two are completely in. [↩]
Tags: health
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Hi, I'm Manda. I'm a college student studying communications and languages. I like to read, shop, bake, and travel. I have a tendency to listen to my favorite songs on repeat for hours on end. Sometimes I catch myself thinking in a language other than English. 
Popcorn is the most evil food ever! It gets caught in my gums ALL the time, and it’s so painful. You’d think I’d stop eating it after hacking into my gums every time to get the skin out. But that little pain is better than getting an infection. Which, sorry to hear you got! :(
And actually, I have heard of pericoronitis! (Which is surprising as I’m terrible with knowing any sort of medicial stuff.) It’s what I had when I got my wisdom teeth out. Which was why when you mentioned your brother was getting his out a while back, I attacked you with post-wisdom teeth advice. :P
Anyhow, rambling now. But I hope yours clears up soon!
I have all of my 4 wisdom teeth… and though they do fit in my mouth my dentist said that I should get them pulled out before I turn 25. Just because of all of the possible risks that there are with wisdom teeth.
Not excited about the “surgery/pulling”. But. I’ll survive.
My dentist said that as long as I brush and floss regularly (and thoroughly) and take care of my wisdom teeth like I do my other teeth, he doesn’t see why I should pull them out as they’re not causing any problems. :/
Ok, I’m scared now o.O My wisdom teeth are exactly like that and every now and then I get food under the gum. I’ve never had any problems with it so far, but I guess I better brush my teeth thoroughly.
And I agree with Krissy – popcorn is the spawn of the devil! Every time I’ve had popcorn I get to spend the rest of the evening picking popcorn out of my gum. But it’s so good it’s still worth it ;)
Oh, and welcome back btw! The site looks shiny :D
I’ve never had any problems either, at least not till now. My dentist said it’s usually foods like popcorn or nuts that cause pericoronitis, and I don’t usually eat either but I did eat popcorn recently :P As long as you brush your teeth well, floss and use Listerine I’m sure you’ll be fine!
And thank you for the welcome back! :D
Gah, that sounds painful. Yay for numbing stuff!
I don’t have problems with wisdom teeth. (Yet?)
Wow, you poor thing! I never knew that could happen and I had the same thing for years (the half grown wisdom teeth that is not the infection XD). I think looking into getting your gum trimmed is a good plan!
Oh gosh, Manda, that sounds horrible. D: I really hope you start feeling better soon! As someone with braces, I know how much it sucks when your mouth is in pain.
Oh wow, that sounds so painful. I hope you feel better soon!
I don’t have wisdom teeth yet, but hopefully this doesn’t happen to me :(
Ouch, that sounds really painful. I haven’t had problems with my wisdom teeth and I hope I never do.
Trimming the overlapping gum sounds like a better option. I have friends who have had their wisdom teeth taken out, and it really doesn’t sound like a pleasant experience.
I’ve never had problems with my wisdom teeth ever. At least there are certain medications now that allow numbing of swellings like that, just imagine how it would hurt so much if there’s none that you can apply to lessen the pain! :o
I know it’s kinda late but happy 2010! :)
Ahhhhh, lovely teeth: the bane of my existence for many a long year. While I have never experienced pericoronitis myself, I have had all four of my wisdom teeth removed. I am one of the very lucky (note: sarcasm) people in this world who had to have their wisdom teeth out without option. I simply had absolutely no room in my mouth for a new tooth to grow in without causing severe damage to other more important teeth. I had my bottom wisdom teeth out in 2004, then the uppers in 2005. My experience was rather harmless overall, with the worst part of the entire thing being paranoid about chewing certain foods while I was healing.
If you have room enough in your mouth for your wisdom teeth to fully grow in, then leave them be. Some people have their wisdom teeth grow in quite quickly after they become exposed, so I hope that will be you! Haha. My recommendation from my past experiences is to continue the salt water rinses until your wisdom teeth grow in more and you are less likely to experience pericoronitis again. Warm salt water is the best thing to clean out all those yucky crevices in your mouth. It tastes pretty gross, but it’s worth it.
Get well soon!
[...] little tender, so I wanted to make sure everything was okay because I am deathly afraid of getting pericoronitis [...]