My son is supposed to have to teeth extracted tomorrow. I am  little concerned because he’s had an infection. He’s been on antibiotics for three days, but there is still some swelling  in his jaw. Is it dangerous to do the extraction?

Debbie from Colorado

Debbie,

I can’t speak to the particulars of your son’s  case without examining him and seeing the x-rays. However, I can give some general guidelines. First, it is important to understand that you can never treat a tooth infection with antibiotics alone. The tooth itself will have to be treated. You can do that either by a root canal treatment or by extracting the tooth.

That is why even with three days of antibiotics, your son is still dealing with the effects of a tooth infection. However, the point of the antibiotics is to get the infection under control so there is no danger of spreading the infection during the extraction.

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