Why can't the dentist pull a tooth if it's infected?

Answer:
Dr. C.W. was partially right..The infection changes the pH of the surrounding area, making the anesthetic not as effective..However, there is a great amount of debate about infected wisdom teeth. Some people feel that an infection will be pushed back into an artery when giving the injection for anesthetic, leading it straight to the vascular system. Therefore, antibiotics are used to decrease this effect. You CAN pull a tooth if it is needed...but it is better to wait a couple days and let the infection go down a little bit.

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Because the infection fights off the anesthetic making it a very unpleasant experience for you. Much easier if the the infection is gone.

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one) either the infection has a risk of spreading to the bone if pulled without treatment
or
two) the infection could counteract the anistetic and it would be a horrible experience for you

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Because the infection can get out and spread through out your whole body and make you deathly ill. It is better to take ALL of the antibiotic and then have it pulled

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As a dentist I can tell you that an infected tooth is nothing to play around with as the infection can spread very easily. The tooth will need to have antibiotics to help reduce the infection prior to extraction because the infection will prohibit the Lidocaine from actually numbing the area of the nerves of the tooth. Ericthedmd is very correct, the tooth can be pulled in an emergency situation, but it is best to give the antibiotics time to begin fighting the infection.

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