An upper jaw abscess is nothing to fool around with, editor-surveyor. The nasty bugs that are out there that are immune to the ordinary antibiotics can get you into big trouble these days. I had one, I know. I had a tooth that started, out of the blue, hurting and it was loose. My dentist thought it was nothing serious... but when he got into it, discovered a 50¢ diameter abscess above it below my right eye! The abscess did not show up on the x-ray as it was filled with tissue with the same radio-density as bone... but was putrefying. He cleaned me out, sent the tissue for biopsy—not cancerous—thank God!—and let me heal for six months before building me an implant. However, the cyst that had formed went all the way into my sinus cavity and I could literally breath through the hole in my gum for over a month!
Had it gone any longer, I would have lost the sight in my left eye...
My doctor had one patient about 15 years ago who did not come in soon enough. The pain was excruciating, but he was a "man," and he could "take it." When he finally did come it, it was too late. The infection had gone from his tooth, into his right eye, through the optic nerve into his brain. My dentist sent him from our office by ambulance to the emergency room. He was airlifted by helicopter to UC Davis Med Center for brain surgery. He was dead in a week.
We had one this week that thought it was an abscess. It wasn't. Cancer. Bad one. Young guy, too.
I understand that there is the possibility that infection could remain in the tooth root, but I am very confident that the infection in the soft tissue is clear.
The swelling and the pain were relieved within about two hours after treatment with the TENS. The gum is also very tight. I will take your advice to heart though, and watch it carefully. The tooth may yet go for an implant when the zirconium implants become available.