Pulp and periapical disease

Question 1

When you get a dental abscess what happens when it spreads to the soft tissues?

Answer 1

Get facial swelling

Question 2

When you get a dental abscess what happens once it perforates through bone?

Answer 2

• Pain often remits (unless its in the palate)
  
  • Swelling, redness and heat (in soft tissue) become increasingly apparent
  • As swelling increases pain returns
  • There is an initial reduction in tenderness to percussion of tooth as pus escapes into the soft tissues

Question 3

What does the site of swelling depend on?

Answer 3

Position of tooth in arch, root length, muscle attachments, potential spaces in proximity to lesion