Inflammatory dental cyst

Often enough, after a routine radiographic check-up we find an inflammatory lesion called a “cyst” or a “granuloma” surrounding one or several teeth. The cyst slowly destroys the bone in the vicinity of the tooth’s roots. The patient seldom feels any pain, but if let untreated, the cyst keeps growing slowly and leads to abscesses (big collections of infected pus) or fistulae (abnormal opening ways through which the pus discharges into the mouth causing foul taste and breath). These openings are sometimes seen as little lumps over the gum at the level of the tooth’s root.



In Magdalena’s case we found such a cyst without her knowing anything about its existence. She told us though that for many years she visited many dental offices and had many treatments but nobody ever told her that she had a cyst, which doubtlessly has been evolving for a long time.
In the radiography the cyst appears as a darker spot surrounding the dental root’s points. We drew its outline in the right image as to help you spotting it better. Click on the image to expand it.



What is the treatment? As the cause is the infection of the dental pulp (“nerve”) all along the canal system of the tooth’s root, the treatment is what we call Root Canal Treatment. In the image we can see the result as a whiter filling within the canals.

After finishing the Root Canal Treatment, we take a final control radiography as to be able to radiographically follow the healing of the cyst at the future check-ups. The cyst should disappear and be replaced by healthy bone.
Here you can see the three months check-up radiography (to the right) compared whit the control (immediately after) one (to the left). An obvious improvement is seen in this short span of time, taking into account that complete healing requires at least 6 months, as the bone formation is a slow process.




Again, the outline will help you to appreciate the decrease in the cyst’s dimensions. We can conclude that the treatment is giving good results. We make sure in this way that the cyst is completely disappearing and the healing is complete.



See also What is Root Canal Treatment?