Could any dentist answer a question please

[DanielaDressen]

For three years I’ve had terrible upper molar tooth pain. I struggled to identify which specific tooth it was as the who,e area feels sore. I’d had a big filling done on a specific tooth in that area so the dentist decided it must be that one even though the xray didn’t show anything and decided it needed extraction.

i have a severe dental phobia so have been waiting for a max fax appointment which I had today. The dentist today is not convinced it’s a tooth issue and says my gum in that area is sore and bleeding. Which does make sense because if I forget and accidentally chew on that side of my mouth I get pain not so much if I bite down with the tooth but more of food hits the gum on the roof of my mouth right by the tooth.

so the dentist said to floss that tooth 4x a day for the next few months and he will see me in Feb. If the flossing hasn’t helped he will do the extraction. I’m wondering why flossing will help my gum?

I’ve flossed this evening and it bled like he said it would. The whole area is throbbing like mad now. Would a water pik be better?

Not a dentist but flossing cleans the area between teeth and close to the gums. Any food debris getting caught between the tooth and gum is going to be causing problems. Flossing is just an extension of tooth brushing.
it will be sore and will bleed but bleeding means the gum is not healthy so you really do need to be flossing.

Thanks, i don’t think i have food debris there as i do all my chewing on the other side. Really no idea why i have one small area of gum which is so bad. Hope the flossing works as it’s agony doing it.