IN most cases, dental problems such as cavities or toothaches are viewed as trivial. Many persons do not consider these “a big deal”. This is true even when there is pain. A visit to the dentist can quickly bring relief. But not so fast. It’s not what you are thinking. Toothaches are potentially dangerous.
Extremely rarely, if ever, will a death certificate indicate that a toothache was the cause of death. The blame is usually placed on the effects of a secondary infection somewhere else in the body. Now, a twelve-year-old, let me call him Tommy, as it is obviously unethical to publish the real names of private patients, ignored the pain in one of his teeth. His mother had five children to support and, at the time, was unemployed. So, visiting a private dentist would have to wait. Before long, the toothache was no longer noticeable. The pain seemed to have migrated into his head. The resulting headache became so unbearable that Tommy’s mother took him to the emergency room at the Public Hospital.
A brain abscess, a bacterial infection in the brain, caused the headache. The infection had come from the infected tooth he had complained about previously. The tooth became abscessed, and the bacteria spread, causing a secondary infection in the child’s brain. Some species of Streptococcus bacteria that cause tooth decay and gum disease tend to accumulate in nerve tissue. From an infected tooth, they can migrate up through the nerves and into the brain or spinal column, where they can cause a secondary infection. This is what happened to Tommy.
Tommy underwent two surgeries and the removal of the infected tooth. For several weeks afterwards, he seemed to be on the mend, working with a physiotherapist to regain full use of his right arm and leg, which the brain infection and surgeries had impaired. But despite thoroughly disinfecting the tooth socket and taking antibiotics, some of the infection remained and continued to spread. Within a few weeks, the infection inside Tommy’s brain returned, and this time with a vengeance. Again, he was rushed to the hospital, but it was too late. Tommy died before doctors could help. The cause of his death was attributed to a brain abscess, but the real culprit was an infected tooth.
In another case with which I am more closely familiar, a 57-year-old man was admitted to a hospital complaining of a toothache accompanied by a fever and swelling in his right cheek and neck. The man had diabetes and suffered from liver cirrhosis due to excessive alcohol consumption. His immune system was obviously overworked, dealing with the consequences of poor lifestyle choices. His symptoms worsened despite antibiotic therapy. Infection from the tooth eventually spread to his lungs (pneumonia), kidneys and liver. After 35 days in the hospital, the patient died of multiple-organ failure. Antibiotics were not effective. The infection in his mouth continued to feed the systemic infections until it killed him. Although weakened by other health problems, his death, like Tommy’s, was literally caused by an infected tooth.
Relatively young and otherwise healthy individuals are affected, as well as those who are older and in poor health. A 19-year-old woman with no serious health problems had an infected tooth extracted. Soon afterwards, she developed chest pain. Even though she was treated with antibiotics before and after the dental procedure, bacteria from the infected tooth spread to her heart. Thirteen days after the tooth extraction, she died of a heart attack brought on by the infection.
While deaths due to tooth infections are uncommon, they do happen more often than we suspect. In most cases, they go unreported or unrecognised, with the secondary infection getting all the blame. In most cases, the patients suffered from poor nutrition or low immunity (especially HIV infection), or had other health conditions which exacerbated the situation. If a tooth infection can cause death, it can certainly cause other health problems. Even people who eat well and take care of their health can be, and are, affected by the health of their teeth.
