Upon visiting my dentist a couple weeks ago, I had a new dentist, the old one retired. The new dentist looked at an x-ray from 6 months ago and instantly decided i had a tooth abcess. The old dentist had thought i may have one and might need root canal, but didn't seems sure. The pain in that tooth had actually started more than a year ago, which would probably when i first got the abcess.
What I am wondering is if that abcess could affect my overall health. I've had a bit of everything in the last year, ear infections, light-headed feelings, fatigue, headaches, what would seem to be a slight problem with vision, etc, the list goes on..
I'm booked for a root canal on feb 6th, if all of these other problems are related to that will they go away? Through some of the research I've done I discovered that tooth abcess can lead to ludwig's angina and cranial abcess. What is the likelyhood that I have developed that? My doctor almost sent me in for a CT scan because of one headache I had that lasted 4 days and affected my appetite.
Is my tooth to blame for all of this or am I in seriously messed up shape?

Hi, if you do have a absess a tooth, haveing a rootcanal done will not necessary solve your problem if it is causing your problems. It sounds as if you could have become sensitized, and haveing a root canal done they can never complety remove all the puss in the little tubes that make up a tooth. There are about 3 miles of little tubes if all placed end to end in the smallest tooth. So ask the dentist about it and do not let him give you the run around, tell him to lay all the cards on the table.

Sounds like you have some kind of chronic abcess. Typically what will happen is that the nerve will become inflamed in response to some insult like decay, trauma, etc. and eventually die. While the nerve is inflammed it can be quite painful. The tooth will usually be very sensitive to hot/cold liquids with pain lingering afterwards. Often patients with this kind of pain will present to the dental office for emergency treatment. Some people will have mild or no pain, the nerve dies and they never realize it. Over time the tooth becomes a constant source of bacteria, like a wound that won't heal. The body tries to fight this constant source of infection and may be successful for many years. Often this can be seen on an x-ray as a tooth with a black area at the root tip. This is the area of bone destruction, where the infection is being fought. Eventually the infection will "flare up" and cause an abcess. That is why dentists reccomend a root canal even if the tooth is not currently in pain. The proccess of a root canal involves cleaning out the inside of the tooth (where the nerve used to be), killing all the bacteria, and then sealing this space with gutta percha ( a rubber-like substance). This procedure, if done correctly, has an excellent chance permanently solving the problem. The tooth if left untreated can cause an abcess and the other unwanted sequelae that you mentioned. I've never seen a cranial abcess and hope I never do, but I have seen Ludwig's. Both cases involved infected lower wisdom teeth where the abcess traveled below the jaw and down the neck. This is a very serious situation and potentially life threatening. Fortunately both of these patients reported to the ER and recovered. Anyhow enough of me rambling... My advice is to proceed with the root canal if the tooth does indeed have a chronic infection. Good Luck!