What happens if dental fistula is not treated?

Dental fistula is a relatively common symptom. It often occurs in the maxillary third molars and is prone to infection, which can cause fistula symptoms in the mucosa. At this time, it must be treated and handled in time. If it is not treated carefully, it is easy to lead to repeated attacks, causing throat pain in patients, pus discharge, bad breath, and it is also relatively harmful to gastrointestinal function.

What happens if dental fistula is not treated?

Fistulas not only frequently occur and cause sore throats, but also continuously discharge pus from the fistulas with a specific odor, which affects gastrointestinal function after swallowing and endangers human health. Therefore, dental fistula should be treated promptly.

Odontogenic maxillofacial cutaneous fistulas are common in rural areas. If alveolar abscess and pericoronitis of mandibular wisdom teeth are not treated in time and fail to heal for a long time, long-term drainage of pus can cause great pain to patients. When the body's resistance is low, the fistula is blocked and inflammation occurs acutely, increasing the risk of spread and often causing maxillofacial deformities and difficulty opening the mouth. When the symptoms of the pathogenic tooth are not obvious, it is often misdiagnosed as chronic suppurative osteomyelitis, mandibular tuberculosis, or even cancer, resulting in delayed treatment.

Treatment of dental fistula

The principle of treating dental fistula is to first treat the source tooth, and then eliminate the root cause through thorough endodontic treatment and fistula cleaning.

For teeth with caries, trauma, deformity, etc. before the premolars (bicuspids), conservative treatment should be adopted as much as possible. After root canal treatment, the fistula is allowed to heal by itself. Molars are not easy to treat conservatively, and if extraction is necessary, they should be removed. Impacted teeth with recurrent pericoronitis, or severely damaged front teeth that are difficult to treat, should also be extracted early to avoid recurrent attacks or the formation of lesions. The fistula left behind may disappear on its own without any treatment.

For acute alveolar abscess, drainage can also be done by piercing the alveolar bone wall at the corresponding skin area. The location of the fistula opening is often determined by the location of the infected root apex and the height of the attachment of the muscles around the jaw. This type of fistula should be treated by promptly removing the diseased tooth, scraping the fistula, and removing it if necessary. Remaining facial hollows can be repaired using transfer flaps.

Root canal treatment of teeth requires high standards and is complicated to operate. Negligence in every detail during the treatment process will lead to the failure of root canal treatment.