Dental Cysts

Dental Cysts

What Are Dental Cysts?

Dental cysts are a dental condition that silently advances toward the tooth roots or gums. They are a type of sac containing air, fluid or partly solid material; they grow from within and invade the jawbone. If pus has collected inside, they are also called an abscess. Cystic structures can sometimes form around impacted wisdom teeth. These cysts may cause no symptoms for a long time. Patients usually do not notice them, and if there is no inflammation they can go unnoticed for years. Dental cysts that develop at the tooth roots or anywhere in the jawbone progress insidiously and slowly. As they grow where they are located, cysts can damage large parts of the jawbone and lead to serious problems, up to and including bone loss in the jaw.

Dental Cysts and Pain

Cysts can cause complaints such as tingling and fatigue; some cause pain, while others cause no symptoms at all. If the infection kills the nerve of the tooth, no pain is felt. Because there is usually no toothache, the condition is often not diagnosed early. As a dental cyst grows, swelling begins to develop in the soft tissues around the roots, and this swelling brings pain. The pain can appear suddenly and unexpectedly and may spread to the gums, jaw and face.

Complaints such as swelling and pain at the tooth roots may reveal a cyst. As the pain intensifies, swelling large enough to be seen from the outside develops, and the tooth in the affected area becomes even more sensitive. When bad breath appears because of the cyst, the pain increases noticeably and the tooth may even feel loose. When pus from the cyst begins to drain, the pain eases but the person feels weak.

What Harm Can Dental Cysts Cause?

• They progress slowly and can damage the bone next to them.
• Because they take up space where they form, they displace the jaw tissues and cause bone loss,
• They can draw in nearby teeth or push them out of alignment.
• They can cause enlargement of the jawbone. Because no pain is felt during this process, the enlargement may go unnoticed.
• By pressing on nerves in the area, they can cause loss of sensation in the face.
• An infection of the tooth caused by the cyst can spread to the surrounding tissues, tooth roots and nearby bones, and once it reaches the bone it leads to tooth loss.
• If pus has formed, they can cause serious problems such as damage to the jaw.
• Over time, fluid from the cyst sac can enter the bloodstream and spread the infection to internal organs, which can cause very serious, even life-threatening, health problems.

*Dental cysts should be treated before it is too late!

What Causes Dental Cysts?

• Dental injuries and trauma,
• Tooth decay,
• Poor diet,
• Poorly performed dental treatments,
• Neglecting to brush the teeth and poor hygiene.

What Are the Risks of Dental Cysts?

If left untreated, cysts keep growing and can cause loss of neighboring teeth and fracture of the jawbone. They can lead to sleep problems, especially difficulty sleeping at night, and as a result waking up tired and feeling weak. Any microorganism inside the cyst can travel through the bloodstream to the heart, joints and kidneys and cause serious health problems.

Treatment

The treatment method depends on the condition and type of the cyst. Surgery for small dental cysts can be straightforward. Cysts may come out with the tooth when it is extracted, but sometimes they remain hidden in the jaw even after the tooth has been removed. These can later develop into large jaw cysts. For this reason, if there is a cyst when a tooth is extracted, the cyst at the root must also be cleaned out.

Some cysts are so large that they can cause the jaw to fracture, so a CT scan may be requested before the procedure. The scan allows bone loss caused by the cyst to be identified in advance. Three-dimensional CT shows jaw cysts very clearly and makes surgery much safer.

1. When medication does not resolve the problem, the cyst must be removed surgically.
2. The cyst is removed from its location by a surgical procedure.
3. If an abscess has formed, the inflammation in the cyst is first dried up to relieve the pain.
4. For pain caused by inflammation, the patient is advised to take antibiotics for a period of time.
5. Remnants in the area where the abscess first formed are cleaned out.
6. Root canal treatment is performed if necessary (root canal treatment cleans out the infected area remaining in the pulp of the tooth and relieves the pressure felt at the root of the tooth).
7. Because cysts usually contain fluid, the cyst area is cleaned thoroughly. The lifted tissue flap is laid into the cyst cavity and held in place with an antiseptic dressing.

After surgery, it is very important to have dental checkups at regular intervals. This allows the healing of the bone loss caused by the cyst to be monitored.