Will they still extract my son's milk tooth?

my son has a cavity on his upper left e, and is due to have this extracted this friday. I was just brushing his teeth and discovered what i think is an abcess, will they still extract his milk tooth and will any of this have any effect on his adult tooth under the gum.
i was devastated that my son had a cavity as i was a qualified dental nurse up untill 5 years ago when i changed career. so as i am out of the loop any advice would be wonderfull
oh and he only has pain when he bites down hard on it.
many thanks

My daughter had this problem on Monday, and I took her to the dentist, he wouldnot take the tooth out, because there was an abcess there, and it was very sore. He took an X-ray and noticed the adult tooth growing underneath, he also could feel the baby tooth wobble a bit. So, he gave her anti-biotics, and calpol for the pain. He said he would let the tooth come out on it's own, as it was loose anyway. Good Luck.
PS I can't see the dentist taking it out if there is an abcess, cos he'll be in enough pain as it is.

I think that if there is any risk of underlying infection, they would treat it with antibiotics first.
Otherwise there may be a chance of the infection spreading to the jaw through the site of the extraction.

they might give him antibiotics to get rid of the abscess which could be caused by the cavity tooth, then they should extract it, the dentist will know if the adult tooth is there which it doesn't seem to be as it would have started to slacken the milk tooth and this doesn't usually happen until around the age of 7,its best to have the tooth taken out so it doesn't cause gum infection.

Please read this article that I saw today, and please don't wait to get it taken care of, there should be clinics in your area if you can't afford a dental visit, thats where I go, and they are real dentisits:

Maryland boy, 12, dies after bacteria from tooth spread to his brain
Deamonte Driver, aged 12, is shown with his mother, Alyce, at Children's Hospital in Washington, D.C., after emergency brain surgery.

A routine, $80 tooth extraction might have saved him.

If his mother had dental insurance. and if his family had not lost its Medicaid.

If Medicaid dentists weren't so hard to find.

If his mother hadn't been focused on getting a dentist for his brother, who had six rotted teeth.


By the time Deamonte's own aching tooth got any attention, the bacteria from the abscess had spread to his brain, doctors said. After two operations and more than six weeks of hospital care, the Prince George's County boy died.

Deamonte's death and the ultimate cost of his care, which could total more than $250,000, underscore an often-overlooked concern in the debate over universal health coverage: dental care.

Some poor children have no dental coverage at all. Others travel three hours to find a dentist willing to take Medicaid patients and accept the incumbent paperwork. And some, including Deamonte's brother, get in for a tooth cleaning but have trouble securing an oral surgeon to fix deeper problems.

In spite of efforts to change the system, fewer than one in three children in Maryland's Medicaid program received any dental service at all in 2005, the latest year for which figures are available from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

鈥楾hey know there is a problem鈥?br> The figures were worse elsewhere in the region. In the District, 29.3 percent got treatment, and in Virginia, 24.3 percent were treated, although all three jurisdictions say they have done a better job reaching children in recent years.

"I certainly hope the state agencies responsible for making sure these children have dental care take note so that Deamonte didn't die in vain," said Laurie Norris, a lawyer for the Baltimore-based Public Justice Center who tried to help the Driver family. "They know there is a problem, and they have not devoted adequate resources to solving it."

Maryland officials emphasize that the delivery of basic care has improved greatly since 1997, when the state instituted a managed care program, and in 1998, when legislation that provided more money and set standards for access to dental care for poor children was enacted.

About 900 of the state's 5,500 dentists accept Medicaid patients, said Arthur Fridley, last year's president of the Maryland State Dental Association. Referring patients to specialists can be particularly difficult.

Fewer than 16 percent of Maryland's Medicaid children received restorative services -- such as filling cavities -- in 2005, the most recent year for which figures are available.

For families such as the Drivers, the systemic problems are compounded by personal obstacles: lack of transportation, bouts of homelessness, erratic telephone and mail service.

The Driver children have never received routine dental attention, said their mother, Alyce Driver. The bakery, construction and home health-care jobs she has held have not provided insurance. The children's Medicaid coverage had temporarily lapsed at the time Deamonte was hospitalized. And even with Medicaid's promise of dental care, the problem, she said, was finding it.

More dentists should have to take medicaid.
What good is it if nobody will accept it for dental work?