The article was written by a dental surgeon with more than 10 years of experience.

If your gums are swollen, what to do in this case will depend primarily on the cause of the inflammation. But in any case, the infection in one of the teeth will definitely be the cause of this swelling. Swelling of the gums always appears in the projection of the causative tooth.

Very often, a carious defect, filling or crown can be seen on the causative tooth. The appearance of swelling may be preceded by pain in the tooth, but in some cases there may be no pain. In addition, the causative tooth may be slightly mobile, and biting on such a tooth may lead to increased pain.

Swelling of the gums: photo

Tumor on the gums - causes

If the gum is swollen and sore, then in 99% this is the result of an exacerbation of the focus of chronic inflammation at the top of the tooth root. Such foci of inflammation are formed at the tops of the roots of the teeth mainly in 2 cases:

• In the absence of timely treatment of caries and pulpitis –
  in this case, microorganisms sequentially enter first from the carious focus - into the pulp of the tooth, causing the development of inflammation in it, and already from the infected pulp, microorganisms through the root canals enter beyond the top of the tooth root, where they cause the development of purulent inflammation (Fig. 10-12).

In some cases, swollen gums can be the result of an exacerbation of chronic periodontitis (inflammation of the gums). However, this is typical only in the presence of periodontal pockets with a depth of more than 4 mm (Fig. 13). In this case, the outflow of purulent discharge from the pocket may be disturbed, which leads to the formation of a purulent periodontal abscess in the gum (Fig. 14-15)

Swollen gums: what to do

If your gums are swollen, then first of all (regardless of the reason) - you need to go to the dentist for a consultation and, first of all, take an x-ray of your teeth in the projection of the swelling. A tumor on the gum always appears in the projection of the diseased tooth. The x-ray is analyzed and a diagnosis is made. After that, the doctor will tell you exactly what to do with this tooth: treat it or remove it.

First aid -

In the presence of a purulent abscess, an urgent gum incision may be required to drain the pus. If the abscess (patients call it a flux) is large enough, there is asymmetry of the face due to swelling of the soft tissues in the area of ​​inflammation, it is necessary to open the gum abscess. This is achieved by making a small incision in the gum under local anesthesia.

Opening gum abscess: video

The main treatment

How to cure a tooth and remove a tumor from the gum so that it does not appear again. After the opening of the abscess, it is necessary to treat the cause of the development of inflammation ....

• If inflammation occurs as a result of untreated caries/pulpitis
  in this case, the tooth is treated therapeutically (completely as therapeutic treatment in the previous version, except that the root canals here do not require unsealing, but are immediately mechanically processed and expanded).

• If the gums and cheek are swollen after tooth extraction –
  if tooth extraction was difficult, then limited swelling of the gums and cheeks is natural. But much more often, the fact that the gums swelled after removal is a consequence of the development of inflammation of the hole of the extracted tooth - (Fig. 18).

We hope that our article on the topic: Swollen gums, what to do - turned out to be useful to you!