On & off feverish/malaise after wisdom teeth removal (no pre-existing heart problem)

[Guest]

On & off feverish/malaise after wisdom teeth removal (no pre-existing heart problem)

Hello everyone.

I had my lower wisdom teeth removed on 1/13. Was on Amoxicillin for 7 days afterwards.(1/13 thru 1/20)

I had dry socket paste in from 1/19 to 1/24. Within this time, I had blood seepage out of the sockets from 1/21 to 1/24, after the dressing was removed, seepage stopped (which I'm guessing the paste and gauze is actually delaying the healing and the new tissue are very sensitive).

On 1/25, I thought I could try some solid food...so smashed some ground turkey but forgot they can have gristle in them. I accidentally chewed near my right socket. It hurt! And I tasted a little bit of blood. After I gargled water, I saw a piece of it still lodged inside the socket. Irrigating with syringe/waterpik does not help, so I had to use the tip of the syringe and later on a wooden toothpick to get it out. i even had to move the gum around the 2nd molar away from it a little to get the tiny bit stuck in there. Well, all this caused a bit of bleeding and hurts here and there. But after all done, I did not feel anything. I thought this was the end of the story.

1/26, waking up super tired, muscle ache around the shoulder/back/arms. This is no good. Later that night, I measured 98.8F orally, which normally for me should be no higher than 98.3F.

This has continued till today 2/6, on and off feeling feverish, malaise. Something is not right.

I have been back to the oral surgeon who did the extraction/family doctor/general dentist, all saying there's nothing much they can do but to wait to see if it gets better. My family doctor gave me another week of amoxicillin (1/30 through 2/6, finished today). I have not seen any improvement yet.

The socket itself does feel swollen and stiff from the inside, but as the surround gum heals, I can no longer see what's going on down at the bottom. The dentists say this socket appears to be more red and swollen than the other one. They are not willing to do any invasive procedure as it can cause more trouble. I understand that but at the same time, frustrated that there's nothing can be done.

This feverish/malaise is what worries me the most!! As i was reading complications after tooth extraction, endocarditis pops up and I'm really afraid that this may be the beginning of it.

Just want to see if anyone has any suggestion as what I can do next. I'm thinking request post op xray or blood work (WBC, CRP, blood culture)...

 

[rakesh1167]

I had little fever for over two weeks when i had wisdom tooth extraction done 2.5 years back. They had to cut a little bit of jawbone, it caused extensive pain and fever. I had bicuspid valve(it has been replaced now). I was not worried about endocarditis as the chance of happening it on original valve is low.

 

[Paleowoman]

A year after having had aortic valve replacement I had a wisdom tooth extracted and got dry socket. In additon I was having severe pain subsequent to having had root canal treatment on the said tooth a few weeks before it was extracted. I was needing oramorph (morphine) for the pain. Becaue of having a prosthetic heart valve a lot of tests were done to check for infection, including CRP and ESR. My CRP was 87 about 3 weeks after the tooth was extracted, either becasue there was some infection or because of the inflammation due to dry socket, so a subsequent CRP test was done a week later to see it if had gone down - it had. But I then also had an MRI on the area to check for infection (this found the nerve was sensitised - I had neuropathic pain which was treated with gabapentin until it died down a few months later). So you could ask for more diagnostic tests for infection - like CRP and ESR - and tell them your worries about endocarditis - a very high CRP and ESR would alert your doctor to that possibility, or to do something like MRI on the tooth area since they don't want to mess around surgically with the gum area right now which could introduce infection. Wishing yo well - tooth problems are the pits.