Abscess around old double root canal tooth and diving

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AggieDiver

Contributor
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Location
Houston, Texas
# of dives
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I just visited the dentist and was told I have an abscess around a tooth on the upper left (#14 I believe if that means anything important) that had a root canal and crown installed in 2010 and that had a second root canal through the crown in 2014 due to an auxilliary root causing inflammation. Over the last month to 6 weeks, I have had a small blister present in my gum that I have "popped" a few times and got only a small amount of blood from. I went to an Endodontist today and after taking xrays, he thinks there is an abscess in the gum around the roots of the tooth and wants to do an extraction next week. I am supposed to leave for a dive trip to Little Cayman the following Saturday. I have never had any noticeable pain due to the abscess other than slight irritation in the gum when the blister was inflated. I don't have any issues biting down on that tooth and have no pain or tenderness when chewing. I was started on Amoxicillin on Wednesday and the Endodontist is starting me on Clindamycin instead today.

From reading online, it appears that the recommendation is to wait 4-6 weeks before diving after a tooth extraction. My question is whether there are any serious risk to diving with the abscess and having the extraction done when I get home? I know one of the main risks of an untreated abscess is spreading the infection into the sinus cavity and causing sepsis. Presumably that will be at least somewhat controlled by the clindamycin. The other risk seems to be pain or "exploding tooth" from a tooth squeeze. Given that I have had a root canal in that tooth already, so the nerve is gone and I am not feeling any pain from the abscess, how likely is that risk?

I do plan to discuss this with the endodontist again on Monday after he gets an opinion from a dental radiology specialist, but I would appreciate any thoughts or advice to take into that discussion so that I am well informed of the potential issues and what my options are.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or advice!
 

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