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Inflammation in gum

Posted , 7 users are following.

louisa85653
louisa85653

This is an unusual one...... I had a crown fixed a couple of years ago following root canal treatment.  I had low level pain for months and kept telling the dentist who said it would settle down.,... Then I needed a filling in the next door tooth and the pain got even worse.....  So finally the dentist removed part of the filling and found that a bit of enamel from the crown had embedded itself in the gum and it was very inflamed and bled a fair bit when he removed it.  After a couple of days of pain, I was pain-free there - what a relief!  Weird thing is that I am now so used to low level pain that I had just got used to it.... However, I have a feeling that this whole thing probably raised my inflammatory markers and may have impacted on PMR generally.

I don't expect anyone else to have had this particular peculiar problem but...... does anyone have any thoughts on gum inflammation and its impact on pmr generally?

I am seeing my rheumatologist in ten days so will mention this to him.

0 likes, 18 replies

18 Replies

  • Diana112
    Diana112 louisa85653

    Posted

    Hello Louisa, like you I have wondered whether gum inflammation might be a contributory factor in our condition although I am sure several factors have to come together resulting in PMR.  Probably a difficult thing to pin down tho there are a number of posts from people with planned dental visits for one reason or another. I had a couple of loose teeth taken out just on the off chance and have another one getting loose but will try and hang on to it for now.
    • louisa85653
      louisa85653 Diana112

      Posted

      It all takes time to work out but begins to make some kind of sense of it all!
  • andrea93419
    andrea93419 louisa85653

    Posted

    Hi Louisa!

    2 months prior to my PMR I went to my dentist because my gums were bleeding when I brushed!,, my oral hygiene was excellent so my dentist told me. However she felt I had an underlying auto immune problem due to my bleeding gums with no obvious reason!! I dismissed her comments then low and behold by the Christmas I couldn't bend or turn over in bed with a CRP reading of 100!!!!! the rest is history!! So yes there is a strong connection between 'gums' and inflammatory problems!

    hope this is a help to you.

    Andrea xx

    • louisa85653
      louisa85653 andrea93419

      Posted

      Thanks Andrea

      That makes sense. Hope you are doing ok now. It does help to tryto make sense of all of this.

      Louisa x

  • EileenH
    EileenH louisa85653

    Posted

    It may have increased your inflammatory markers - but they aren't a cause of PMR. they are a sign of PMR. Any illness or stress can impact on your symptoms but pred will deal with a lot of different inflammation so really, it shouldn't make that much difference.

    • louisa85653
      louisa85653 EileenH

      Posted

      That's great to know - thankyou. Again I am glad the situation is resolved. It does help though as I had been surprised that the markers were raised just after a holiday in the summer when I wasn't stressed or ill in any wayay - but the tooth/gum was niggling so that must have been it!

  • jean1948
    jean1948 louisa85653

    Posted

    I was very interested to read your post Louisa. Six weeks ago I went to my dentist because of problems with a tooth that had previously had a root filling, the nerve was dead so I did not feel pain, but I had tenderness in the tooth and a large painful lump on the gum. X rays showed infection in the gum and I was given a course of antibiotics. The swelling burst and went down so the dentist said it had appeared to have settled down. A week or so later I had all the symptoms of PMR and blood tests showed that I have high levels of inflamation in my blood stream, so like you I am wondering if this tooth inflammation could have been the start of it. It will be interesting to see what your rheumatologist says.
    • EileenH
      EileenH jean1948

      Posted

      There is a form of inflammatory arthritis which is due to an infection - and is called "reactive arthritis". I think (I honestly am not sure) that there is also a form of PMR that could be described as reactive PMR. It appears in response to such an event - and (I'm delighted to tell you) tends to disappear faster than PMR often does. "Normal" PMR can last anything from 2 to 6 years for 75% of patients. The 2 year patients may be a reactive form of course - but a reactive arthritis normally clears up within a few months or so.

      The symptoms of PMR can also be the same as symptoms of an inflammatory arthritis - and there is no real way to tell the difference.

    • louisa85653
      louisa85653 jean1948

      Posted

      I will certainly keep you posted. I didn't have antibiotics but had pain for a long time and the gum was very inflamed. I didn't have this before the onset of one though I did have sensitive gums - will see what the rheumatologist thinks!

    • louisa85653
      louisa85653 EileenH

      Posted

      Thanks Eileen that is helpful. This happened after the onset of pmr (if it is pmr I was interested that the woman taking my DCA bone scan said I had 'suspected pmr'' . However I did have sensitive gums..... Will see what the rheumatologist says next week....

    • jean1948
      jean1948 EileenH

      Posted

      Thank you Eileen, it is a relief to hear this and I hope you are right

      The pain in my muscles came on so soon after this tooth infection that I can't help but think that there must be a connection between the two. With any luck it may be something that runs it's course. Needless to say that tooth is coming Out!

      It is good to be able to read input from people like yourself who know about this condition, it can be so confusing when it comes on suddenly out of the blue, I know very little about it and it is good to hear first hand from someone who is a sufferer an knows more detail.

    • FlipDover_Aust
      FlipDover_Aust jean1948

      Posted

      if you hear other people's stories you will discover that a large percentage have had some sort of infection prior to PMR diagnosis. For example, I had a very nasty dose of bronchitis for 8 weeks prior to my own diagnosis (mind you it was a month or so afterwards). However, I have a theory that our weakened immune systems are what triggers them to go haywire. It also seems to come after/during periods of high stress - also true in my case.

    • EileenH
      EileenH FlipDover_Aust

      Posted

      As you know Flip - they are all things that affect our immune systems. They just pile up - and eventually that last straw breaks the system's back and it has a paddy! Yet another reason to look at stress and try to avoid it!

    • jean1948
      jean1948

      Posted

      Can you tell me or do you know if headaches can be a part of this PMR because I seem to have persistent headaches since it began, i also feel really washed out and tired, all this combined with the constant muscle aches I knew when it all began that something wasn't right.

    • louisa85653
      louisa85653 jean1948

      Posted

      I had lots of headaches at the beginning - about three years ago but haven't been so troubled with them now.... I am tireduch of the time though as well as the muscle aches ...

      I had am MRI scan for my headaches but that was inconclusive .... Good news and also good that headaches have stopped. I hope yours go soon but do tell the rheumatologist....

    • EileenH
      EileenH jean1948

      Posted

      Are you sure the headaches are PMR or are they pred-related? One of the pred side-effects is headaches.

      That said, PMR and GCA are very closely related and headache is one of the typical GCA symptoms. You can have GCA without it being full-blown and affecting the optic nerve GCA - but it could still cause headaches and other symptoms. However, you would expect the pred to help with that sort of headache. The "flu-ey" feeling is a very common symptom with most autoimmune disorders - and unfortuantely, most of the medications don't help with that greatly. Pred only manages the inflammation to relieve the symptoms it causes - the actual disease chugs away in the background and some of the symptoms due to that persist.

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