Types and Symptoms of Periostitis (Gumboil)

Every single part of a human body at one point becomes disease prone, and our mouths are not an exception. If anything, the mouth is even more likely to catch something because of the amount of bacteria in contact with the food etc. One of the most annoying conditions is dental periostitis also known as gumboil. Let’s find out more about it and learn how to treat it right.

What is Periostitis

Periostitis is a common name for several conditions related to tissue inflammation. When we’re talking about periostitis in a wider sense, it’s caused by the tissue being stressed repetitively (for example, by running, jumping, powerlifting etc.). Our mouths also have tissues that can be stressed: by chewing, eating and even speaking. That’s what causes dental periostitis, often called gumboil.

Periostitis Symptoms and Causes

If you’re lucky, you might avoid pain even while still suffering from gumboil. But in most cases pain will be the first symptom that you take into consideration. If you’re feeling discomfort in your mouth and then, after probing that same area with your tongue, feel there’s a bump on your gum, then you can be 99% sure that it’s a gumboil. But just to be sure, look out for following symptoms: bleeding, bad breath, nausea, swollen gums. Another big call is feeling that your gum is too sensitive to cold or hot.

The gumboil causes might be different. One of the most common causes is bad oral hygiene: if you maintain it as well as possible, you’re very likely to avoid this issue. Other causes are unhealthy gums, tooth decay, unfitting dentures etc. Gumboils can often also be caused by wisdom tooth pushing out of the gum. Periostitis is painful and uncomfortable, so it’s always better to treat it right away.

Periostitis Dental Treatment

If you were unsuccessful in your attempts to avoid getting gumboil, it is time to receive a good treatment. First let’s talk about how the doctors recommend to cure gumboils, and then we’ll find out what you can do at home.

An important step on the way to dealing with any infection is taking antibiotics, and gumboil will not be an exception. But antibiotics on their own will not do the job: your dentist will likely perform such procedures as deep cleaning (in case it’s gum related), root canal (if it has to do with tooth decay) or dentures adjustment (if your dentures don’t fit as good as they should).

What we stated above would 100% deal with your gumboil, but what if there’s no possibility to visit a doctor just yet? Well, we still recommend you to find time for such visit but there are ways to at least ease the pain even at home. Let’s list most popular recipes among the natural healing practitioners: clove or tea tree oil applied to the affected area; garlic juice rinsing, hydrogen peroxide and water rinsing, salt water gargling. But please always keep in mind that all of it cannot and will not serve as an adequate replacement for clinical periostitis treatment.

What If I Don’t Treat a Gumboil

Well, we definitely wouldn’t want to scare you but the lack of action regarding gumboils might be life threatening. Of course, it is a very unlikely scenario but you need to understand that a gumboil is always the result of a bacterial infection. And whenever such abscess isn’t treated, the infection might be able to spread – via blood or bones matter – to different body parts. It isn’t a likely outcome by any means but we feel it’s important to warn you – and hope that you will listen and treat periostitis right away.

We hope that this article was helpful both if you’re dealing with dental periostitis right now and if you happen to get a gumboil later on. Always remember that keeping your mouth clean and looking after it is the best way of preventing gumboils, and that a visit to a dentist should be high up your priorities list if you’ve identified a gumboil in your mouth.