If medication doesn’t help when your gums are swollen, what are the causes and treatment options?

"A few days ago, the gum on my right side started swelling and throbbing, so I took medicine from the pharmacy. At first it seemed to go down a little, but now it hurts again.."

Swollen and painful gums are something anyone may experience at least once.

When you are tired, not feeling well, or have had a particularly stressful day, your gums can also swell easily.

However, the problem is when the symptoms come back after only a few days even after taking medicine, or when the pain gets worse.

In such cases, it may not be due to fatigue, but because inflammation is progressing inside the gums.

At that point, treating only the surface or relying only on symptomatic treatment does not lead to good improvement,

and the inflammation may spread to the surrounding tissues.

Today, I’ll explain in detail why medication alone cannot solve swollen gums,

and what kinds of tests and treatments are actually needed.

I am dentist Oh Suhwan, and I have been steadily working in one place near Sinsa Station in Gangnam for 18 years,

building trust with thousands of patients :)

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When swollen gums cannot be resolved with medication, there may be these causes

First, if your gums are swollen, it cannot simply be assumed to be ordinary gingivitis.

Even if it looks like inflammation on the surface, in many cases the problem actually starts near the root of the tooth.

For example, inflammation at the root tip occurs when deep decay causes the nerve to die,

and bacteria then invade the surrounding area.

In this case, swelling occurs in a deeper area inside the gum rather than along the gum line, and there is pain when pressed,

and in some cases, pus may also form.

Another common cause of gum swelling is pericoronitis, inflammation around a wisdom tooth.

When a wisdom tooth has not fully erupted and remains covered by the gum, food can get trapped or bacteria can build up repeatedly,

which can lead to recurring swelling and pain.

In such cases, simply managing the gums alone is not enough;

an overall judgment is needed, including whether extraction of the wisdom tooth is necessary.

And periodontal disease, especially advanced periodontitis that damages even the bone,

is often accompanied by pain, bleeding, and pus when gums are swollen.

However, because the symptoms are not severe in the early stages, it is easy to leave it untreated.

Periodontal disease cannot be resolved with scaling alone,

and inflammation only stops when treatment is planned after an accurate diagnosis, including tartar removal, root planing, and, if necessary, gum surgery.

When gums are swollen, diagnosis matched to the cause comes first

Patients often ask, "What medicine works best when my gums are swollen?"

But it is difficult to answer this question right away.

As explained earlier, there are too many possible causes of swelling.

If it is simple inflammation, antibiotics may help reduce it,

but if it is an infection at the root tip, root canal treatment is needed first.

If the wisdom tooth is the cause, extraction is necessary for the symptoms to improve,

and if it is periodontal disease, gum cleaning or gum surgery may be needed.

At Smile D Dental Clinic, when gums are swollen,

we do not stop at a visual check; if needed, we also perform X-rays and 3D CT scans

to carefully diagnose the tooth roots, the direction of the wisdom tooth, and the condition of the gum bone.

By looking at the screen together with the patient, we explain specifically which area has inflammation,

and why that area keeps swelling repeatedly, which helps improve understanding before and after treatment.

In particular, when inflammation develops in a deep area inside the gums, removing only the swelling from the outside will not cure it,

so it is important to treat the underlying cause as well.

For example, in the case of a root tip lesion,

if the inflammation continues even after root canal treatment, apical surgery may also be considered. It does not mean that swelling gums always require surgery or major treatment.

But if medication does not help when your gums are swollen,

rather than continuing to suppress the symptoms, looking for the underlying cause becomes the first step toward recovery.

In particular, repeated inflammation can lead to various problems such as damage to the tooth root, resorption of the jawbone, and movement of surrounding teeth,

so an accurate judgment at an early stage is necessary.

Rather than simply enduring it with medicine and letting time pass,

we will help prevent it from developing into a bigger problem through professional diagnosis and treatment.

If you have been worried because the gum swelling keeps recurring,

we hope you will visit and have your current condition checked.

This has been Smile D Dental Clinic. Thank you.