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Impacted Wisdom Tooth. Have Pain In Neck And Ear With Swallowing Difficulty. Related? Surgery Needed?
Question: Hi I went to my dentist yesterday and he told me my left and right bottom wisdom teeth were both impacted, which makes sense for the extremely painful lump in my neck and the pain spreading upwards towards my ear. The other day my tonsils began swelling and it became difficult to swallow/eat food. Now after a few days it hurts extremely to eat, drink, swallow even saliva and most of all, to breathe. I have been having strange headaches for about a week now and they jump to different location of origin each time. At the beginning of this week, I noticed a painful bump on the back of my head and the pain travels down to my spine. I don't know if these two are related, but I know I'm beginning to feel a little disoriented and really tired the past few days. Also my dentist said to have all four pulled out immediately because my tonsil is so swollen it is close to closing off my air passage. My appointment is on Wednesday but is that too long to wait? My symptoms are randomly getting exponentially more painful and spreading to different locations very quickly and it concerns me. Are all of these symptoms related? What should I do until my surgery?
Hello,
Thanks for the query.
Wisdom tooth which are the last tooth to errupt are often tilted in position, impacted and malaligned. As this area is often difficult to clean and invites bacterial infection, it leads to pain, redness, swelling, fever, tiredness which you are having along with difficulty in mouth opening.
Oral infections can spread to the lymph nodes of neck causing pain and swelling in neck.
Pain in the neck and ear & tonsil (radiating pain) is most likely because of impacted wisdom tooth.
You don't worry about the symptoms as it will subsibe after the tooth extraction.
Headache may be part of the dental problem. However the bump on the back of the head has no relation with wisdom tooth. You need to visit to a Physician for this and get a checkup done
The current symptoms though concerning are in control and you need not be worried. You can plan teeth extraction on Wednesday itself. Till then you can continue with the course of analgesic and antibiotics. I would interested to know what your current medications are.
In addition take lukewarm saline gargles 3-4 times to give a numbing and soothing effect, use antiseptic mouthwash gargles like chlorhexidine twice daily, maintain a good oral hygiene.
Hope this helps. Glad to answer if there are any other queries!
Regards,
Dr Qazi Ammara.
Thanks for the query.
Wisdom tooth which are the last tooth to errupt are often tilted in position, impacted and malaligned. As this area is often difficult to clean and invites bacterial infection, it leads to pain, redness, swelling, fever, tiredness which you are having along with difficulty in mouth opening.
Oral infections can spread to the lymph nodes of neck causing pain and swelling in neck.
Pain in the neck and ear & tonsil (radiating pain) is most likely because of impacted wisdom tooth.
You don't worry about the symptoms as it will subsibe after the tooth extraction.
Headache may be part of the dental problem. However the bump on the back of the head has no relation with wisdom tooth. You need to visit to a Physician for this and get a checkup done
The current symptoms though concerning are in control and you need not be worried. You can plan teeth extraction on Wednesday itself. Till then you can continue with the course of analgesic and antibiotics. I would interested to know what your current medications are.
In addition take lukewarm saline gargles 3-4 times to give a numbing and soothing effect, use antiseptic mouthwash gargles like chlorhexidine twice daily, maintain a good oral hygiene.
Hope this helps. Glad to answer if there are any other queries!
Regards,
Dr Qazi Ammara.
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Prasad
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