slight ow, general worry

[flea]

On my upper left side where my wisdom tooth was until 3 weeks ago, if you run your finger back along the gumline on the cheek side, above the teeth, there's something really sharp at the far back. Like, sharp like metal or bone sticking out of my gum. There's sort of a generalized ache there, too, but that may be psychosomatic due to the trauma of having practically pricked my finger on my GUMS.

So, I guess I call the oral surgeon in the morning and get it looked at, right? Anybody know anything about this? Dr. Google is giving me no love; it's not in the standard lists of wisdom tooth complications.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Did you have stitches? Those things are surprisingly sturdy. Not at all like the thread you probably imagine when someone says "stitches".

[wandsci.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

oops, didn't mean to go anonymous on that!

[stephl.livejournal.com]

It's probably a fragment of bone called a spicule -- after a tooth is pulled, sometimes the bone that was around the tooth will poke through the gum.

It's fairly common -- it happened to me after I had a molar pulled earlier this year. The oral surgeon said that they *can* remove them (or smooth them out), but they prefer to leave them alone in order to not cause further trauma to that area. If the spicule is left alone, it will either be reabsorbed or it will poke through and break off, because it's unnecessary (and, I think, dead) bone.

If the pain is bad, call your oral surgeon and see if he/she will remove it. Otherwise, if the pain is tolerable, take ibuprofen/acetaminophen and give it a few days.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you!

[stephl.livejournal.com]

You're welcome -- I'm glad my pain turned out to be useful to someone else!

(Seriously, when it first started hurting, I freaked out, because having the tooth pulled unexpectedly was bad enough. And I also had a VERY cold-sensitive recent filling on the other side of my mouth at the same time, so I went to the dentist to see if she could fix the filling [she did] and then asked her about the pain and poky thing where my tooth was pulled. She's the one who told me it was a spicule -- I had never heard the word before -- which was enough for me to find stuff on Dr. Google. Mine got pretty painful, but only lasted for about a week, and then suddenly I realized I wasn't having pain any more.)

(Why such a long parenthetical? I have no idea.)