Dr. Kelley Ryals, DDS

I would go to Urgent care and get some antibiotics and start on some Ibuprofen as soon as possible. If you are travel by plane, the pressurized air can cause the infection to get worse or start moving. This can be very dangerous to your body.

It depends how severe of a case you are. It can be as little as 6 months or go 3 years or longer. If you only have just a slight gap like you stated, it shouldn't take more than 6 months.

You probably have a condition called “black hair tongue” syndrome. Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it sounds. The cells of our tongue grows like hair, if your not brushing it or eating abrasive food to slough off the cells, the cells will continue to grow long. The long hair-like cells of the tongue can be stained with things like smoke, coffee, wine etc. There’s no reason to be concerned, it can just cause bad breath because it holds a lot of bacteria. My recommendation is to google “black hairy tongue” to compare that your tongue looks the same and second, make sure you’re brushing your tongue morning and night.

Bad breath is cause by bacteria. The first thing I would do is make sure you’re brushing correctly for 2 minutes, flossing and make sure to brush your tongue. I also recommend using mouthwash after. If you continue to have bad breath, I would recommend seeing a dentist. You may have gingivitis or even a more serious condition, periodontal disease.

It depends on why they are hurting. If they are hurting because they are trying to erupt then there is not much to do except take some ibuprofen. It’s important to take ibuprofen 600mg every 6 hours to keep the inflammation down. If the tooth is hurting because the gums are inflamed due to eruption then you can rinse with salt water 4-5 times daily along with ibuprofen.

Unfortunately not. Dental bridge is made with porcelain and would require the entire bridge to be removed and replaced.

The short answer is it depends on the tooth and the reason it needs a root canal. All of your teeth are there for a reason, when you start extracting teeth, the other teeth start to take on more pressure and then this can cause a lot more problems. Further, your bone around your teeth is unique more than any other bone in your body. The bone around your teeth is only there to support your tooth. Also, teeth that are next to each other share the same bone. If you extract a tooth, the bone will go away and once it’s gone, you can’t get it back. Further teeth like to be touching where you floss your teeth and opposing each other where you chew your food. If you extract a tooth then the bone goes away, the teeth start looking for something to touch and chew up against, this causes the whole bite to collapse and the only way to realign the teeth is braces. So if you are able to do a root canal, I would to maintain your bite, bone and alignment of your teeth. If you decide to extract the tooth, then you need to restore the space with a an implant, bridge or partial which are all more expense options than a root canal. Even if the root canal fails later down the road, then you’ve keep the integrity of your bite, bone and alignment for a longer period of time. But remember, whenever you do a root canal, you always want to place a crown on the tooth. After a root canal, the tooth won’t be strong enough and can break and then you will have to extract the tooth. If you decide to extract the tooth and do nothing, the bone will go away, the bite collapses and there is only a small period of time that you have to place an implant. So the only option you may have down the road is a removable denture or partial denture. I hope this helped make your own educated decision.

The easy answer is; It depends on the person. Plaque (a film of bacteria) starts forming immediately after you brush but it takes 12- 24 hours to fully form. Therefore, some people build plaque faster than others. There are many bacteria that cause plaque. Some bacteria is very aggressive and can cause damage quickly were other bacteria is not as destructive. Plaque needs to be removed on a daily basis so it doesn’t become destructive and cause periodontal disease or harden as calculus. So it is important to brush daily, some people can get away with brushing once a day but my recommendation is to brush twice daily and floss to remove as much bacteria as possible to make your mouth healthy. There are also healthier foods to help remove plaque like apples, carrots, celery etc, so eating a lot of these in your diet can also aid in a healthier mouth.