Do you have a throbbing pain in your face that is wiping away your smile?
You may be suffering from a facial infection. These infections can be troublesome, disrupting your normal routine and impacting your overall well-being and confidence. They can cause symptoms like persistent pain and even pus discharge.
Often, these facial infections originate from dental issues related to teeth and gums. If untreated, they can spread to your cheek, neck, and other areas of your face, leading to complications like sepsis. Hence, it is vital to get them promptly treated by an experienced maxillofacial surgeon. Moreover, there are ways to prevent such infections and maintain healthy skin that we have listed below.
Tips To Prevent Facial Infections And Maintain Healthy Skin
As already discussed, facial infections are pus-filled areas caused by bacterial activity triggered due to unfavourable conditions in your oral environment. These conditions are triggered by factors like poor oral hygiene or excessive sugar consumption.
The quote “Prevention is always better than cure” holds good in the case of even facial infections.
Note down the below tips and practices to prevent facial infections:
- Ensure prompt and early diagnosis
As soon as you notice symptoms like swelling, redness, or pus discharge, you need to immediately schedule an appointment with a maxillofacial surgeon to get a thorough evaluation and determine the infection’s root cause. Delays in seeking treatment can cause the infection to worsen and spread to other areas.
- Dental treatments are insufficient to prevent infection spread
Only removing the affected tooth is not sufficient to clear the infection since the pus is not fully drained out. The pus must be completely removed through incision and damage to stop the infection from spreading.
- Avoid injudicious use of antibiotics for facial swelling.
Antibiotics should be used with caution for suppressing infection symptoms like facial swelling. Unnecessary use of higher antibiotics without pus removal may cause severe symptoms in elderly people or people with existing conditions like diabetes or compromised immunity. Proper incision and drainage, together with minimal antibiotics, is the best way to treat infections.
- Avoid home remedies
If you have the signs of facial infections mentioned above, it is advisable not to try home remedies, like applying pain relief balms, heat treatment, or clove oil. Instead, visit an experienced maxillofacial surgeon for a proper diagnosis and treatment plan.
- Maintain good control of blood sugar levels
If you are a diabetic, it is vital to keep track of your sugar levels by taking the required blood tests. Ensure that you take your medications on time to keep the levels within the desired limit, as your infection may take longer to heal with a higher blood sugar level.
Let us briefly get acquainted with everything related to facial infections, like their symptoms and common causes.
Understanding Facial Infections, Their Symptoms, And Causes
Most of these facial infections arise due to dental issues like caries, followed by conditions like periodontitis, causing great discomfort and pain to the affected person. But you need not despair since, with timely treatment from a trusted maxillofacial surgeon, these infections can be effectively treated and managed.
Common Symptoms
- Swelling in the face, cheeks, and neck
- Redness of skin over the swelling
- Discharge of pus from the mouth
- Difficulty or inability to open the mouth
- Severe headache
- Breathing difficulty in severe cases
- Rise in temperature
Methods used to diagnose facial infections include:
- Clinical examination
- Blood tests
- CT Scan
Risk factors for facial infections:
- Compromised immunity
- Poorly managed dental infections
- Diabetes
- Multiple caries in children’s teeth
- Taking long-term steroids
Facial infections, if diagnosed on time, can be treated with antibiotics after understanding the cause of infection. However, since it requires a high dose of antibiotics, it is not advisable for kids and the elderly.
Incision and drainage is the approach followed to treat such infections, involving draining the neck and cheeks of pus under aseptic conditions. In infections caused by a tooth, the maxillofacial surgeon ensures proper pus removal to save the tooth.
Conclusion
When it comes to facial infections, home remedies are not very helpful and may aggravate the infection. We advise you to visit your doctor promptly, who will recommend a reliable maxillofacial surgeon to diagnose the cause of your infection and assess the extent to which it has spread,
At Gnathos Facial, our expert surgeons use their in-depth experience to find the root cause of the infection and recommend the best treatment option after examining the patient’s underlying medical conditions. We never suggest the use of strong antibiotics to suppress infections, as this can lead to complications among elderly people and patients with diabetes and compromised immunity.
We also ensure to make incisions inside the mouth to drain pus, preventing the formation of scars. For severe infections, we recommend general anesthesia to prevent discomfort and pain.
At our clinic-cum-hospital, our cutting-edge equipment and advanced techniques, combined with the expertise of our surgeons, ensure the speedy recovery of our patients and a return to their regular active routines.