The primary treatment for a tooth abscess is always surgical: drainage, root canal, or extraction. Antibiotics alone cannot cure an abscess because they can’t remove the source of the infection.

Sasha Ross, DMD, MS, is a board-certified periodontist who has been with the Cleveland Clinic since 2013. She earned her dental degree from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and completed her ...

A healthy 45-year-old man experienced respiratory failure due to a giant life-threatening lung abscess caused by oral bacteria stemming from a wisdom tooth extraction. The case report was published in ...