Understanding Pericoronitis: Symptoms, Prevention, and Cure

Which part of our body needs the utmost care and all-time hygiene, it’s our Oral Cavity or our mouth? Our mouth is the only part that is damp 24/7. As we know, a place that is moist and watery may get soiled and infectious in no time, whether it is a place, a body part, or a cloth. The same is true with our mouth, our mouth contains salivary glands that release saliva which is a kind of lubricant and has multiple benefits for the body. 

Did you know that the salivary glands of an average adult produce 1-2 litres of saliva in a day? This saliva contains an enzyme called amylase or salivary amylase, which breaks starches and helps properly ingest food. 

Pericoronitis is a discomfort caused by a third molar eruption. Before moving to our topic, let’s talk briefly about our teeth. 

Basics of Teeth:

Most humans have 32 permanent teeth (some have few more or few less, depending upon many factors). These teeth are divided into four types;  Canines, Incisors, Molars and Premolars. 

Each of the types has its own shapes and works as well. Our teeth have a hard covering called Enamel, and this is the hardest substance found in the human body. Our teeth are part of our digestive system which cuts, crushes, and breaks food into pieces and makes them minced enough to go for further digestive steps. 

Our topic Pericoronitis goes along with molar teeth. Most of our chewing teeth are molars, most adults will have 12 molars, 3 in each quadrant. The third molars, or Wisdom teeth are very back of your mouth.

What is Pericoronitis?

Basically, pericoronitis is the inflammation of the gums around the wisdom teeth. As they are hard to reach, due to a lack of proper care and hygiene, they develop infections, leading to the condition. 
Pericoronitis is when a flap of tissue appears just above the back teeth, causing discomfort and a gradually inflamed surface that can lead to bleeding and swelling. This typically occurs above the molar or last molars of the jaw and is deeply situated within the oral cavity.

Types of Pericoronitis:

It can be symptomatic as well as asymptomatic. In asymptomatic conditions, the patient will have no discomfort regarding chewing or any mouth activity and the muscular flap will remain as it is, just we can feel by our tongue, the presence of a flexible flap over the wisdom tooth. Whereas in symptomatic condition, this pericoronitis can give you ‘out of world’ kind of pain! There can be pus discharge, foul smell, terrible pain, swelling around the gums which can also be visible around the cheek regions, bleeding, unable to open mouth, lock jaw, difficulty in even having soft food etc. 

Risks with pericoronitis:

Those with pericoronitis; whether in symptomatic or asymptomatic condition, will always face food lodging beneath the muscular flap. Due to this, wisdom teeth get highly affected. If not maintained proper hygiene and oral care, it may further develop to halitosis, cavity, tooth decay and so on. 

Pericoronitis symptoms

Every human doesn’t have the same teeth structure, some have less teeth whereas some have more. Some have perfectly set and aligned teeth, whereas some have criss cross and altered ones. All these depend upon many factors, herditary, jaw size, nutrition and many more. 

We know very well, due to human evolution many things in our body have developed and many went to just fables. As we know, earlier we humans were kind of monkeys with a tail on our back; but today’s humans don’t possess that! Earlier snakes had small caterpillar-like small legs, but today they don’t, blue whales; the largest of all was a close relative of hippopotamus with almost the same body structure but today they are the largest mammals with very different and big body structure !

 Evolution has undergone many changes in our body, in order to cope up with present needs and body functioning. Same, with the passage of time our heights and face structure has undergone drastic change. Due to the shrinking of jaw size, our back teeth, third molars or wisdom teeth develop in partially erupted, bent or indifferent forms. Resulting from this, the muscular flap overlapped the third molars which gave rise to pericoronitis. 

The soft tissue which erupts over the partially erupted wisdom teeth is called Operculum. Bacteria which get entrapped under this, results in swelling and redness which is nothing but pericoronitis. 

How to prevent pericoronitis?

Prevention is always better than cure! If any discomfort or disease can be prevented, then who will wait for terrible pain and all those medicines and such things! As pericoronitis results from the bacterial growth in the mouth, the third molars which are harder-to-reach and its debris is a perfect point for bacterial breeding. In order to prevent this, we should follow certain preventive measures given below.

1. We should visit a dentist at least twice a year, to monitor your wisdom teeth growth and also to check any infected teeth. 
2. Oral hygiene is very important. Regular brushing, flossing, gargles, mouth washing etc ensures for a healthy smile. 
3. Salt+Turmeric powder + lukewarm water; is a highly effective cum homemade mouthwash to curb any kind of bacterial growth. We should do this at least once a week. 
4. Although wisdom teeth and its crowning flap is harder to reach, once or twice a month you can simply take a few drops of clove oil in a cotton bud and dab on your debris and third molars. It is very much effective and easy. 

Note: All these above listed tips are for prevention or pre-pericoronitis stage. If your condition has reached an inability to open your mouth stage then these are hard to work!  

Cure for Pericoronitis:

1. The most effective cure for pericoronitis is Tooth removal. If the condition has reached to the most advanced stages where signs like heavy pus formation, unable to open an inch of mouth, visible swelling around lower cheek etc; then without delay one must seek an appointment with a dentist and ask for further procedures. 
2. Although, a muscular flap removal is also an option which gives less pain, small procedure and easy curable. In this the dental surgeon will just give you a local anaesthesia around the affected gums and will numb the surface After that  they will cut off the affected gum and will apply the required medicines etc. After surgery, it may take 1-2 weeks of time for full cure. 
3. If one doesn’t want to go to the surgical processes or the severity is yet not so high, then they can also go for some medicines like anti-inflammatory. Aceclofenac+paracetamol+serratiopeptidase along with Oloxacin and Ornidazol is a perfect cure to  this. One must take these medicines under the prescription of a known chemist or doctor. These may be taken twice a day for 2-3 days. 

Pericoronitis is nothing but an oral discomfort, which if left untreated can result in advanced dental problems. First step is always prevention. We should include all those foods rich in calcium, phosphorus, vitamins, minerals and maintain a healthy diet. 

Hope this article removed all your doubts and gave a complete overview about Pericoronitis. In case of any doubt or query, feel free to ask us via our comment section. Take care and live well!