Also, can an abscessed tooth cause a knot in the roof of the mouth?
Answer Hi Vicki, The answer is that there are two kinds of endodontic abscesses; one is painful and the other is not. First, what is the definition of an abscess? It is a localized collection of pus. Pus occurs when bacteria invade your body and your body sends its soldiers, white blood cells, to fight them. A raging battle ensues, with lots of casulaties. These dead bacteria and white blood cells are what you see as pus. It is localized, because your body does not want the bacteria to spread to other areas, so it builds a wall of tissue around it. Is this painful? If this bag of pus is growing with continued warfare, yes. The reason it hurts is because of that growth. If it were in your skin, it would be able to expand and you would just see a bump on your skin, no big deal. In your jaw, however, there is no room for that expansion, so it pushes on the nerves in the bone and is very sensitive. We call that an acute abscess. However, as it pushes, your bone resorbs (dissolves) along th
