Flux is an inflammation of the periosteum caused by a diseased tooth.
Trying to endure a toothache, to cope with it in folk ways, we take the wrong step towards the development of the flux.
The most common root cause of flux is banal caries. Destroying the tooth, the carious process penetrates into the dentin and pulp. Pulpitis develops, with characteristic pain and malaise. If a visit to the dentist is postponed for any reason, the pain is drowned out by folk remedies, and the tooth remains untreated, then a focus of infection may form in the tissues of the tooth and gums, which, under adverse conditions, can cause the development of a flux.
Sometimes the disease proceeds slowly and hardly noticeable to a person. Caries, existing in the mouth for a long time, does not cause an acute attack of pain and the infection goes unnoticed. The focus of infection is delimited from healthy tissues by a barrier of connective tissue and immune defense cells.
Under various conditions, the infection from this focus can spread through the gum canals of the tooth under the periosteum of the jaw bones. Which leads to the development of acute inflammation.
Possible reasons for the development of flux are also mechanical injuries of the teeth and jaw, as well as the accumulation of infection in the gum pockets (between the tooth and the gum mucosa).
Flux Symptoms
The main manifestation of flux is intense pain. At the height of the disease, the pain has a pulsating character, may radiate to the ear, and be accompanied by a tense headache. The pain sharply increases with mechanical action on the lesion, the diseased tooth.
The tissues around the tooth swell, redness and swelling occur. Sometimes facial asymmetry develops due to edema on the side of the lesion.
All these symptoms are a sign of a purulent focus in the body, and the only way to get rid of it is to open the purulent cavity and remove the pus.
If you do not consult a doctor in a timely manner, then pus can find a way out on its own. If this is a path through the mucous membrane of the oral cavity, then after the formation of a fistula, the purulent contents will flow out of the lesion, and the wound will close. A similar phenomenon is accompanied by a subsidence of pain and normalization of temperature. However, even after a spontaneous opening of the focus, it is necessary to consult a doctor. Otherwise, the flux may repeat itself. According to this scenario, the flux does not always develop.
In some cases, pus, not finding a way out, spreads into the bone tissue, which is fraught with the development of life-threatening diseases.: the penetration of microbes into the general circulation with the development of sepsis, the formation phlegmon soft tissues of the face, neck, mediastinum, with heart damage, etc.
Read more: How is flux treated?
How to treat flux
When the first signs of flux appear, you should contact your dentist as soon as possible. If you “catch” the disease in the early stages, you can limit yourself to taking antibiotics and treating a diseased tooth.
If the process is started, then they resort to surgical opening of the purulent focus, after adequate anesthesia.
It is strictly forbidden to treat the flux on your own, endure a toothache, avoid going to the doctor, skip repeated visits to the dentist for an untreated tooth!
Warm compresses, rubbing and bandages on the affected part of the face are strictly contraindicated.. By raising the local temperature using these methods, you can accelerate the development of the inflammatory process, increase the permeability of tissues for toxins and infection, which will inevitably lead to complications.
Flux prevention is the timely treatment of diseased teeth, a systematic visit to the dentist even against the background of complete health and compliance with the rules of oral hygiene.
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