- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Parenting
Who to call: pediatrician or dentist?
Ds is being irrational, emotional, and cranky. Totally not himself. Crying for no reason. Then, while bathing, he started crying about his jaw. He's having pain in the fleshy area right under the jaw- can really tell if it's more jaw related or more like lymph node pain.
Just barely touching it or brushing you hand against the side of his face makes him cry. I can't tell for sure, but it seems like that side of his jaw might be even the tiniest bit swollen and warm to the touch.
He doesn't recall bumping himself or any sort of injury. I tapped on all of his lower teeth and that doesn't trigger the pain. Earlier in the week he had a totally random episode of fever, body aches and chills that lasted just one evening, then went away- wonder if that could all be related? Some sort of infection brewing?
If he's still acting like this in the morning who would you call- his dentist or his pediatrician?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Who to call: pediatrician or dentist?
Charlotte Ella 07.16.10
Emmeline Grace 03.27.13
Kelly Monaghan's 5K - 5/15/11 - 3rd Place in AG
Walk the Talk 5K - 5/18/11 - 31:12 PR
Ridley Run 3.1 - 4/14/12 - 1st race of the year, 32:45
I would call the pedi too.
Good luck!
Um, yeah. Several this summer so far.
I'll be the odd one and say call his dentist.
Didn't he have some extensive work done a while ago? To me, it sounds like one of his teeth may be abcessed. Can you look in his mouth and see if there is any swelling around any of his teeth? Or something that looks like a pimple?
Extensive dental work = about 10 fillings. All standard, straightforward fillings; just a lot of them. Many are in between teeth.
He had the weird fever/chills episode on Sunday night. Yesterday I noticed a white sore on his inner lip. Today that is nearly healed, now just in the last 30 minutes or so his upper lip on the same side as the pain is suddenly swollen and droopy. No noticable swelling around teeth. I tapped each tooth several times with a dental pick and that didn't trigger any pain.
The sore from yesterday looked exactly like this and those ducts (Stenson's ducts?) are really pronounced and large. Very easily seen:
https://www.doctorspiller.com/stenson%27s_duct1.htm
Even with standard fillings, teeth can abcess, but if that was the case, I would expect it to be really uncomfortable if you tapped on it (I missed that sentence in the op). Is he eating normally?
The picture you linked to looks like an apthous ulcer, which are painful, can cause a fever and swelling of the lymph nodes, some of which are present in the fleshy area under the jaw. They can be present for up to ten days, so that would explain the symptoms earlier in the week maybe. I wonder if he has another one developing?
Its so hard to guess without seeing it, so if he has swelling tomorrow, I would take him wherever you think is best.