Can a Tooth Abscess Make You Sick? Signs to Watch For

How a tooth infection makes the rest of you feel unwell

An abscess forms when bacteria get inside the pulp (the nerve and blood supply inside the tooth) and the body tries to wall them off. Your immune system responds the way it does to any infection, and that response is what you feel as being sick. It is not a separate illness.

The general signs people describe are:

• A low-grade fever, or feeling hot and cold
• Tiredness out of proportion to the day you have had
• Swollen, tender glands under the jaw or in the neck
• Poor appetite, or a general achy feeling
• A bad taste in the mouth, or breath that has changed

Some people get a little nausea as well, mostly from swallowing the infected drainage or from not eating. It is a side effect of the infection, not usually a stomach problem of its own.

Why you may feel sick even when the tooth barely hurts

The ache is not a reliable guide. A tooth whose nerve has died can stop hurting while the infection at the tip of the root carries on. We covered this in when the pain stops but the infection has not and in swelling without pain. So the order some patients describe, feeling rotten first and noticing the tooth later, is quite normal. It is also why a vague illness that will not clear deserves a look in the mouth.

When feeling sick means hospital, not a dental clinic

A mild fever and a tired afternoon is the infection staying where it started. The picture changes if it starts to spread. Go to an emergency room, and do not stop at a dental clinic first, if you have any of these:

• A high fever, shaking chills, or a racing heart
• Swelling that is spreading across the face, down the neck, or toward the eye
• Trouble swallowing, trouble breathing, or being unable to open your mouth
• Confusion, severe drowsiness, or repeated vomiting

These are uncommon, but they are the reason an abscess is not left to see how it goes. Our posts on whether an abscess can cause sepsis and when a dental infection is a hospital emergency go through the stages. The ADA's page on abscessed teeth says the same thing in fewer words.

What we do about it

We examine the tooth, take an X-ray and test it to find the source. The fix is removing the infection, not suppressing how it feels: a root canal to clean out the infected pulp and keep the tooth, or an extraction if the tooth cannot be saved. Antibiotics are sometimes added when the infection has spread beyond the tooth or you are unwell, but on their own they cannot reach the inside of a dead tooth, so the problem comes back. See antibiotics for a tooth infection and what a tooth abscess is and how it is treated.

Once the source is dealt with, the fever and the flat feeling usually ease over the next few days. If they do not, the tooth was probably not the whole story, and you should see a doctor. The American Association of Endodontists has a plain guide to dental symptoms if you want a second source.

If you feel ill on a Thursday night in Beit Shemesh

Our clinic at Harav Kook 28/1 is open Sunday to Thursday 8:00 to 20:00 and Friday 9:00 to 17:00, and Shabbat is for genuine emergencies only. Feeling feverish with a sore tooth on a Thursday evening is a worse problem than the same thing on Sunday morning, because the weekend is long and an infection does not keep it.

If you are otherwise well, call. We offer same-day appointments through our tooth abscess treatment in Beit Shemesh and our emergency dentist, and Dr. Joel treats in Hebrew and English, so you can describe how you feel exactly and not approximately. People in Ramat Beit Shemesh are about 2 km from the chair. If you have any of the warning signs above, go to the hospital first.

The short version: yes, an abscess can make you feel properly ill, and the way to find out is to examine the tooth, not to wait for the fever to pass. Call or WhatsApp our Beit Shemesh clinic on 055-985-8845.