Has anyone had any experience with a bone infection in the jaw that you could share with me? I'm feeling pretty panicked.

Dear Linda, My daughter had a jaw bone infection a couple of years ago after having her wisdom teeth extracted. There have been people that have developed osteomyelitis(bone infection) after having a root canal done also. If you do a search on this Dental Problems board for osteomyeltis, you should come up with quite a bit of information and posts from people who have posted on this, including the posts I have written with my daughters ordeal with it. Good luck, and I hope you find the answers you are seeking. A bone infection is a serious and painful thing and needs to be diagnosed and treated properly and as quickly as possible. Cindy:)

Cindy,

Was your daughter ever healed of her osteo? Did she lose more teeth?

Susan

Also, Cindy, how long after the extraction was the infection detected? What were the first symptoms?

Osteomyelitis is a difficult diagnosis to make, it takes an experienced dentist, usually an oral surgeon, to make a diagnosis. A biopsy is usually needed to make this diagnosis. If caught early, osteomyelitis can be treated with antibiotics, sometimes long term are needed. If the infection is advanced and there is dead bone, surgery is often indicated. I would definitely seek a surgeon to make a diagnosis

Dear Linda and Susan, I'm sorry it took me so long to reply. I don't get the chance to come here as often as I'd like. Yes, I am very happy to report that my daughter was healed totally from her osteo. It's been almost 2 yrs. now since her wisdom teeth extraction, which started the bone infection. No, she didn't lose any of her other teeth. We were blessed with finding a dr. quickly enough, who was familar with osteo and knew how to treat it and who would listen to our concerns. My daughters symptoms started about 2-3 weeks after having her impacted wisdom teeth removed. She developed a small pea-size lump in her lower left jaw area, along with some minor pain. It progressed rapidly from that point, into a large golf ball size lump and excruciating pain. I think her case was somewhat rare in the fact that it did progress so rapidly and thus making it visibly noticeable that something was terribly wrong. You can find her whole story about her ordeal with osteo, along with other peoples accounts with it at http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/Forum39/HTML/001179.html There is a woman named Randi (aka-osteomyelitis/aka-tryingtofeelgood) who is still having complications after 2 yrs with osteo. Her ordeal can also be found within this topic post. My prayers go out to Randi and all of you who are suffering from this dreadful disease. I wish you well. Cindy:)