Problem with a tooth- blood in cavity

[darlene85]

Last year in February, before this awful pandemic I've had an insane pain in tooth and the dentist filled it but the filling fall out and I didn't go after that due to my extreme fear of covid (high risk for me) and for last few months I've had some pain but it stopped but it smells horribly now and I've had a bleeding today, now when I press that cavity there is a little blood.
I am so fearful of covid, I just can't go to the dentist right now because I am not vaccinated yet and the numbers here are really awful in Croatia.
I don't know what to do. I am scared of sepsis. I am scared of covid.

My dentist doesn't measure the temperature and I don't trust her at all but I can't go to any other because I don't have money right now. I wanted to wait for a few weeks, maybe they call me for a vaccine or the numbers start dropping but I am so afraid because of the blood that I am going to get sepsis.

[Carys]

Its likely that the blood you are seeing is from a very inflammed and/or infected soft tissue/gum. I am therefore presuming that the filling is somewhere along the gumline ? You mention a 'smell' and this would go along with a gum infected area, with a high probability that food is stuck in the cavity/under the gum. If the tooth itself is bleeding then the cavity and dental caries would have had to reach the dental pulp right at the inner base of the tooth, that would be extremely painful indeed and you would need that seeing to right away. People have infected gums and horrendous tooth problems, untreated and don't develop sepsis, I'm sure your tooth is nothing like some of the horrendous neglected cases that hospitals and dentists see sometimes, people with a whole mouthful of rotten teeth and gums - and yet they don't have sepsis.

You are currently afraid of covid and sepsis, so you have a few options -

You could ring your dentist and ask what their process is for the pandemic, judge if they have procedures in place and ask if the dentist herself is vaccinated etc ? ASk them to put your mind at rest and explain if there is any risk from visiting them.

You could leave it, use salt mouth-washes and clean around the cavity and see if it improves it for a period of time ?

Visit your GP and see if they will take a look and prescribe antibiotics, IF they think its infected - but even if they did that would tide you over only a short while as the situation will definitely arise again ?

[darlene85]

I think there isn't any filling anymore, just a big hole but I can't see anything so I don't know if it is gum bleeding or cavity. It was painful a month ago but it stopped. Now it just feels rotten. :/ I googled and see that bleeding cavity can lead to sepsis and I panicked.
My mom was at the dentist a few months ago and I know that they don't measure the temperature so anyone can go and have a fever, it's just stupid.

I don't know if I can get a vaccine if my tooth is infected?
I'll call a dentist probably and ask what to do but I really wouldn't like to go right now.

[Carys]

I googled and see that bleeding cavity can lead to sepsis and I panicked.

If the cavity itself is large enough to have reached the pulp in the middle of the tooth, and the area where there are some blood vessels it would be excrutiatingly painful - is yours that painful that you are in agony ? Were you in agony a month ago ? If you aren't/weren't, then its most likely the soft tissue.

I know that they don't measure the temperature so anyone can go and have a fever, it's just stupid.

Measuring temperature isn't as important as taking strict precautions - like cleaning between clients, having gaps between clients, not having people waiting together, PPE to protect the client etc. Many people have symptomless covid, as we now know, so taking temps isn't that realiable.

[darlene85]

It would be so painful even if the tooth nerve is removed? I am not sure but I think that she put a filling back then that supposed to do that. I was in agony a year ago but since she put that filling, no, it was pain but bearable and now I can sense something but it's not painful for real.

[Carys]

Ok, look, I'm sorry, but I'm not understanding what procedure you had done on your tooth originally - did you have the root canal filled, or was it an exterior cavity filling ? That makes a difference here. If you had a long root canal filling and its bleeding, then yes you need to see them asap.