Find Out More About Gum Boils

It’s never fun to have a painful mouth. There are a variety of causes of mouth pain including an abscessed tooth or an apthous ulcer on the gums. But there’s another unpleasant condition involving the mouth called a gum boil. What is a gum boil, and what causes it?

What is a Gum Boil?

The medical name for a gum boil is a parulis. A parulis is a boil that forms on the gum when a nerve inside a tooth dies. When a nerve deep within a tooth dies, the dying tissue causes an inflammatory response where white blood cells enter the area to wall off the infection. When they do, pus forms at the base of the tooth, which breaks through the skin to form a boil on the gum. Needless to say, a gum boil can be painful and usually prompts a person to make an immediate dental appointment.

The instigating event, the death of a nerve within a tooth, can be caused by deep decay of a tooth or any type of trauma to the tooth that interferes with the blood flow that supplies the nerve with oxygen and nutrients.

Symptoms of a Parulis or Gum Boil

A gum boil is usually quite painful and sensitive. In severe cases, a parulis causes swelling in the lymph nodes in the neck and fever. The danger is the infection won’t be contained within the boil, but will spread to involve more of the mouth or even into the bloodstream. A gum boil always needs prompt medical attention and usually requires a root canal to remove the dead nerve that caused the accumulation of pus. Antibiotics are needed to stop the infection from spreading.

Treatment of a Gum Boil

Prompt treatment by a dentist, usually involving a root canal and antibiotics, should be a top priority. A parulis won’t go away until the source of infection is removed, so there’s no justification for home treatment of a gum boil. If you have a gum boil, make a dental appointment as quickly as possible. Delays in treatment increase the risk of the infection spreading into the bloodstream, which is dangerous.

To prevent gum boils, see your dentist regularly and get routine maintenance work done to reduce the risk of deep decay causing a parulis to form. Always use a soft toothbrush. A hard toothbrush can cause abrasions at the base of teeth that extend so deeply they damage the nerve – and don’t brush too aggressively.

What is a Gum Boil: The Bottom Line?

Gum boils are painful and potentially dangerous if they spread. Don’t delay seeing your dentist if you have a painful boil on your gums.

References:

Marx: Rosen’s Emergency Medicine, 7th ed.; Chapter 68.