Cat with swollen cheek & cysts

Hi I was just wondering is I could get some advice. My cats name is Oddie and he is 19 years old. He has never had any problems health wise his entire life until several months ago. I had noticed his cheek was swollen so I took him to the vet I just figured he had a bad tooth. They told me his teeth were really bad and he also had several cysts in his mouth. The vet then told me she popped one of the cysts and put him on antibiotics and steroids. All this did was make things worse, because then he started scratching at  the cheek and caused a large cut. Now he's been going every 2 to3 weeks for shots and oral antibiotics, and ware's a cone on his head to keep from scratching but that only lasted a little while because he's so smart still that he jumped on the laundry hamper to get to a towel hook to scratch it, and the antibiotics only seem to last for a little while. I cant stand seeing him suffer like this for much longer. To me it seems like the vet is doing nothing but prolonging his agony and mine right now.

From what you are describing, it sounds like Oddie has a form of stomatitis, which can be very painful for cats. Some cats are genetically prone to develop it, and others get it when their immune systems are stressed (as in very old age). I've had more than one cat with it, and one of my cats had to have all of his teeth extracted because of it (he was 12 at the time of the extractions). The first line of defense is steroids and antibiotics.

The only advice that I can give you is to either push your vet a little harder with questions on what you can expect from the treatments he is getting so you can decide what you want to do for him, or find a different vet for a second opinion. Mouth issues can get so bad that a cat will stop eating and therefore can be fatal.