Mouth Ulcers

Toothsmith

If the teeth are 'otherwise perfect' then it is very unusual to get an abcess on them.

An abscess needs a dead nerve first, and a dead nerve only happens if the tooth has some sort of injury.

The most common 'injury' to a tooth is decay. This introduces bacteria into the tooth which can infect the nerve and cause it's death.

Having the tooth filled to fix the decay also injures the tooth that little bit more (But that's better than leaving it, unless the hole is tiny).

Each time a filling breaks or needs replacing, that too causes just a little more injury. (Which is why it's rarely a good idea to get all your fillings drilled out to replace them with white ones).

Other reasons teeth die are traumatic injury: A bash in the face can do it - and the abcess can occurr sometimes several years after the bash.

And a crack in a tooth can cause nerve death, although this is probably the rarest reason it is the one that happens to 'otherwise healthy' teeth.

If it could be caused by a cracked tooth, and you've had others happen like that as well, then your dentist should investigate the possibility that you're grinding your teeth at night.

It takes a heck of a lot of force to crack a healthy tooth, but huge forces can be generated by night-time grinders! And each tooth you loose will put just a bit more pressure on the ones that are left.

Hope you have a good Xmas.