GUMBOILS IN CHILDREN: SYMPTOMS, HOME CARE, PRECAUTIONS AND TREATMENT

Posted on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 9:32 am

Signs and symptoms

Gumboils can be recognized by their typical appearance. Inflammation or swelling that comes to a point, like a tender pimple, appears where the lip meets the gum at the base of a decayed tooth. The area is sometimes painful. Eventually, the gumboil discharges yellow pus. Usually the associated tooth is obviously injured (fractured or discolored) or has an untreated or recently filled cavity. The tooth may be tender when tapped or may be slightly loose. A gumboil is not usually accompanied by fever.

A gumboil may be confused with a canker sore. However, a canker sore is ulcerated (dug out); it does not protrude like a gumboil.

Home care

Give aspirin or paracetamol for pain. Warm soaks or warm salt water rinses will help the inflammation and promote drainage of the boil. (Use one-half teaspoon of table salt in one-half glass of warm water.) If the associated tooth is about to fall out naturally, a gumboil can be left untreated. The loss of the tooth will allow the pus to drain and the gumboil to heal.

Precautions

• If a young child has a gumboil, consult the dentist.

• Some dentists feel that a gumboil on a baby tooth endangers the permanent tooth that has not yet emerged.

• Premature loss of first-year or second-year molars (or permanent six-year molars) can cause later problems in spacing and positioning of the permanent teeth.

Medical treatment

Your dentist will decide whether to leave the tooth in, pull it, replace it with a space retainer, or save the tooth by performing root-canal work. It’s seldom necessary to give the child antibiotics, or to open and drain the gumboil.

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