Emily has never had a toothache so when she started telling me her tooth felt sore I looked at it and it looked okay, but the gum seemed a little puffy. She has an appointment next week and I told her we would get them to look at it then. Last night she tossed and turned a lot and then this morning she said it was feeling worse. I looked again and her gum was swollen up so bad it looked like she had a marble beside her tooth under the gum. I called the dentist and they said to bring her in the morning at 9, but they bet she had something up under the gum line. They said popcorn is bad to do that. They said have her swish with warm salt water until they could look at it. I told my sister about it and she said the same thing happened to her once and the dentist got it out with a water pic. I had Emily swish like they said and I also rinsed around the tooth with our water pic. It bled just a tiny bit but she said it didn't hurt. About an hour later she said it felt smaller. I looked and it did seem smaller. Now it is almost down to normal and she says it feels better. I am still taking her to get it looked at, but I am so relieved that it isn't hurting her. I had never seen a tooth or the gum around the tooth do this before. I was hoping someone on here would know if it heals up without anything else needing to be done. I think I will have her swish the salt water again before bed tonight. Beth
I get that sort of thing a lot. But better to be safe than sorry...We have all heard of tooth infections getting really serious. It is because the mouth is a mucous membrane and very vascular...any bad bugs have basically a highway to the bloodstream. Luckily with a nice moist environment mouth stuff tends to heal quickly too. Some kids tend to canker sores or cold sores, which it doesn't sound like at all. Tea helps...the tannic acids are good antiseptics.
This happened to me before with a piece of popcorn. I felt the popcorn go in but forgot about it until a couple of days later. My gum swelled and it hurt. I took my toothbrush and scrubbed under the gum until it bleed. I must have gotten it out because the swelling went away after that.
Emily slept fine last night and the swelling is gone now. I think the worst is over. She is still going to go let the dentist look at it just to be sure. Thanks, Beth
