Think I have another dental abscess - please shoot me

[SinkGirl]

After years of being too terrified I was recently forced to sign up to a dentist because of awful pain - I’ve had two broken molars for years and an impacted wisdom tooth.

They very kindly referred me to have the teeth removed under sedation. They said to come back if I’m in pain in the meantime as I may need antibiotics.

3 weeks ago it happened - they gave me antibiotics which were utterly brutal but it went away.

Yesterday started getting pain again, this time on the other side - was awful overnight but woke up with it much better this morning, thought I’d gotten away with it. Nope, it was just waiting until the dentist closed for the day and is now awful again. I’m going to have to go tomorrow.

I know it would stop if I just let the dentist remove them but I really really can’t - I can’t even sit in the chair without absolute panic.

I don’t know what to do - I could be waiting six months plus for the removal and I can’t be on antibiotics every few weeks.

Is there anything they can do to prevent this happening again, which doesn’t involve needles, drills or terrifying tools? I keep them very clean but obviously it’s impossible when the teeth are so badly damaged. I don’t think there’s enough tooth to even fill at this point, they’re so broken.

I wish I could just be brave and push through having it done - but I really can’t. Believe me, the pain is so bad, I would if I could!

Can they not give you a general anaesthetic?

The place they’ve referred me to could, either that or IV sedation would be fine with me. But my regular dentist can’t and the waiting list for treatment is huge.

I didn’t sleep at all last night and it looks lile tonight will be the same.

Assuming you can’t afford to go private?

To be honest OP no there's nothing they can do without any local anaesthetic or drilling

They could dress the tooth, which would involve numbing it, a small amount of drilling and then a little sedative/antibiotic dressing, that might get you out of pain.

Oh god. It’s so much worse. I have awful pain / tenderness on the underside of my jaw, a bit like when your glands are swollen but no glands there. Just waiting for them to open now.

No sadly I can’t afford to go private - the sedation alone is almost £1k per session let alone the rest of the treatment.

How are you? Have you been seen?

Get onthe waiting list op, then at least you will get it done. In the meantime get some oralgel from the chemist. Get the strong one if you can but the normal strength one is also good. Oralgel worked for me when everything else did not. Ask if they could bump you in the waiting list for some sort of emergency standby, if possible. You have my every sympathy. But get oralgel and put it on the actual tooth itself. 💐

Yes, I have more antibiotics. They referred me for the removal back in September, could be months yet sadly but they’re going to see if they can hurry it along.

Bought more orajel too, thank god for that stuff. The infection is way down in the root I think as the pain is very deep down. God I wish I wasn’t such a wimp!

I totally understand the dentist terrifies me! I will say though, and as someone who is petrified, my worst fear came true a few months ago and I needed a tooth removed. Do you know what though, it actually wasn’t that bad, and she had great difficulty getting it out. It took two trips! But I promise you, it was nothing like I expected at all and the relief when it was done I can tell you nothing compares to it. I wasn’t even sore much after, over the counter pain killers more than covered me and she gave me ponston too just in case! I will say, the first visit she did sedation on me and the second I didn’t bother, I actually preferred it without. But I can assure you that the actual process was an unpleasant one in that I was terrified, but actually it wasn’t painful and was over quite fast even though she had a hard time of it! I had a huge absess that she had to drain before the extraction as antibiotics didn’t get rid of it! It didn’t hurt though to do just wasn’t nice having someone poking so much in my mouth.I preferred getting the tooth out to the filings I had in previous visits, not that they hurt but like yourself I find the drilling makes me feel very nervous and panicky! So I totally understand! I do think the dentist themselves make all the difference. I swapped to a dentist that openly welcomes nervous patients and she was really sympathetic and made me feel safe! A practical thing that might help tide you over a bit, I probably will spell this wrong but cordodol mouthwash can really help make pain more tolerable and addresses inflamed gums too! I am back to the dentist myself next week and dreading it but I’m also thinking back to my last experience and how it was my worst fear and went ok! I really feel for you op and that’s an awful long wait for treatment, is there any way they could put you down as urgent or on a cancellation list given your pain?