could my abcessed tooth be the source of all my trouble?

[lizajane]

help!! i have been so fatigued, scatterbrained, in a fog, etc for a year... could the infection in my tooth have caused all this?? i have had some mild pain in the tooth all this time, but didn't think much of it (what a MORON!!) and i just found out- via horrific pain- that it has abscessed. which means a bacterial infection. which maybe could cause my "sick" symptoms???

anyone??? i have googled like crazy and can't get a very good answer.

[gatorsmom]

Before I was married and was still running around with my single girlfriends, my friend Wendy was complaining for months that she just wasn't feeling right. She was tired alot and slightly nauseous. At the same time, she was having a problem with one of her teeth but had crappy dental insurance so avoided dealing with it. Finally she went to the dentist who told her she'd have to have some work done and that that was probably the cause of her "malaise." Sure enough, she had the work done right away and a few weeks later said she noticed she felt MUCH better. True story.

It makes sense since your body has to take the disease-fighting troops away from other parts of your body to fight this major infection.

btw, you are NOT a moron- ten bucks says your doctor wouldn't have put 2 and 2 together either.

[shilo]

hrmm,

well, no hard evidenced based data to back this up, but since occult infection/abcess is on the differential diagnosis (means to be ruled out before diagnosing) list for chronic fatigue syndrome, i would think that yes, it is totally possible that your symptoms and the abcess might in some way be related.

have you tried using 'occult infection' or 'occult abcess' plus symptoms in your searches? you could try combining those terms with tooth or dental or fatigue and see what you get? or try chronic infection symptoms with dental or tooth (if you do fatigue here, probably all you'd get would be chronic fatigue links).

i think it's probably a long shot to find a definitive answer, but like pp described... now that it's properly diagnosed and being treated, if you start to see an improvement in your other symptoms then it would appear the abcess/infection and your bodies immune response to that has been at least partly responsible. chronic infection definitely takes a toll on the body, so it wouldn't surprise me one bit to see you feeling better soon!

also, like pp said, not a moron at all! with everything you have going on with you, not to mention two active boys to keep track of, it's all to easy to put the little niggling things on the back burner. you've caught it now which is all that matters. hugs, hope you're on the mend soon.

lori
Sam 5/19/05 How lucky I am that you chose me.

[maestramommy]

Yes, I think so. I had a coworker who had cold/flulike symptoms for over a year, and the docs couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. Finally he found out he had an abcessed tooth. I thought it was rather bizarre at the time, but it makes sense. Ongoing infection, in the head area.