Are you experiencing the worst nightmare of your life with painful and swollen gums that is disrupting your normal life?

Then this could be an indication of pericoronitis which is often caused by a wisdom tooth not having erupted properly. It is necessary to take proper care and treatment of this condition before it worsens and leads to more harmful infections.

What do we mean by Pericoronitis?

Let us first attempt to understand what exactly Pericoronitis is and how it can be prevented before getting in to the other details.

Pericoronitis is a condition that leads to inflammation of the tissues surrounding your gums and quite often occurs in the wisdom tooth that has not fully erupted. It gets worse when the tooth has partially erupted, as there is a higher chance of food particles getting trapped inside the gum flap, posing a greater risk of bacterial infection.

However, Pericoronitis can also be a result of the wisdom tooth not erupting at all and remaining inside the gums. Often when the dentist does a clinical examination of your gums, he may be able to find red and swollen gums with pus formation near your wisdom tooth. Only a good dentist can determine if you are suffering from Pericoronitis or not.

Recognizing symptoms of Pericoronitis

These are some of the signs and symptoms that you need to look out for to find out if you are suffering from Pericoronitis:

-Painful red and swollen gums that causes discomfort.

-Pus formation and discharge from the gums.

-Bad smell or odour coming from the mouth

-Difficulty in chewing food due to painful gums.

Besides, there could be other serious symptoms that could be in the form of frequent muscle spasms near areas close to the jaw, swollen lymph nodes, including swelling along the affected parts.

What causes Pericoronitis?

Pericoronitis often results due to the food particles that are trapped below the flap of the gums or either due to a resulting plaque or bacteria inside the mouth.

It so happens that the gum tissue which covers the entire gum area often remains detached to the upper portion of the molar tooth, that is supposed to erupt. The portion which needs to erupt is only partially visible while the rest of them is covered with a flap of the gum tissue. Thus, the remaining part that is exposed leaves a gap where food particles and bacteria thrive!

This gets worse when the upper molar tooth develops fully before the lower one, causing greater harm to the lower flap while chewing food and results to far greater possibilities of developing gum infections.

Prevention of Pericoronitis for healthy gums

Maintaining good oral hygiene is very much necessary for preventing all kinds of gum infections.

-Brushing and flossing teeth regularly helps a lot in fighting against harmful bacteria.

-Using a good mouthwash for rinsing after eating food is also a good practise.

-Having a healthy and a balanced diet with lots of calcium included in the diet goes a long way in ensuring good dental health.

However, if you are already suffering from Pericoronitis, the dentist may advise you to get your wisdom tooth extracted to prevent any kind of infections.

Care and treatment of Pericoronitis

If Pericoronitis is not treated on time, it may actually result in serious gum infections causing more dental problems in the future. The mode of treatment is decided only after your dentist conducts a thorough clinical examination of the infected area.

Usually, x-rays of the affected gums are taken by the dentist to further probe into any kind of complications that may arise due to infection. After determining the extent of infection, he may remove either the plaque or bacteria around the infected tooth and may prescribe you to take some antibiotics.

At times if the gums are severely infected, he may recommend tooth extraction in certain cases.

Maintaining good oral health and hygiene can go a long way in preventing a lot of dental health care problems.

Thus, it is advisable to take care of the problem in the initial stage to prevent it from getting worse. Good oral health care can reduce your chances of preventing pericoronitis to a great extent.