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A 47-year-old member asked:

Help! what can happen if you don't treat a tooth absess?

4 doctor answers11 doctors weighed in
Dr. Heidi Fowler
Psychiatry 27 years experience
The abscess can: Spread to contiguous structures and bacteria can be seeded to distant parts of the body. This can become serious quickly. If you have a dental abscess would encourage you to obtain dental evaluation promptly.
Created for people with ongoing healthcare needs but benefits everyone.
Dr. Sandra Eleczko
A Verified Doctoranswered
Dentistry 38 years experience
Infection: You are dealing with an infection and this needs to be treated. It can cause severe pain and swelling in the area. This can also expand and spread and effect the rest of your body. See a dentist ASAP
Created for people with ongoing healthcare needs but benefits everyone.
Dr. Gary Sandler
Dentistry 56 years experience
Untreated abscess: BAD STUFF! Untreated dental infections can spread both locally and systemically to other parts of the body leading to serious complication. It can even be life threatening and even be fatal. I personally know of a couple of instances of that happening. Also know of a child who developed a brain abscess from an infected baby tooth. Nothing to take lightly.
Created for people with ongoing healthcare needs but benefits everyone.
Dr. Arnold Malerman
Orthodontics 55 years experience
Infection: What would happen if you had an infection anywhere else in your body? Localized pain and swelling that increases with time. And as infection spreads to other organs via circulatory system (sepsis), malaise, fever, chills, cognitive impairment, alteration in various system functions, and (in rare cases) death. Please see Dentist...don"t wait.
Created for people with ongoing healthcare needs but benefits everyone.
Last updated Jun 11, 2017
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