What to do with a slight dental pain

[YellowWave]

A few weeks ago I noticed a small white spot on my gum. It didn't go away. It wasn't sore. I eventually made an appointment with my dentist. It was something stuck in my gum. Something small, something I was eating. He retrieved it. He gave me antibiotics and told me to do salt water rinses 4 times a day.

I took the antibiotics as prescribed. I wasn't as successful with the salt water rinses. I aimed to do them 4 times a day but more often than not life got in the way of them. I nearly had to pay some sore of rent money just to book a slot with the kettle and let some water cool down. I got imsalt water rinses done about 2/3/4 times a day for the first week.

All that was 2 weeks ago. I never had any problems until today. There's a pain in my mouth at the site. It's a bad, tremendous pain. I can work through it. The pain comes and goes and it doesn't last long. The pain is gone just as quick as it comes. It seems to come about with head movements like bending and coming up again, running.

My routine for the morning was ibuprofen, clove oil, and I also have some oragel dental gel and I'm doing the salt water rinses again. Not all together at once. All spaced out. Even now with this, there's some light twinges coming and going.

So what do I do with this dental pain?

Do I need to go back to the dentist or will I continue with the routine in the hope it settles down? Maybe see how I am within the next day or two with the routine and then phone the dentist if there's still pain.

Go back to dentist. To me it sounds like an abcess. Mine would get worse when bending or lying down and if you weren't doing the salt water rinses, it's possible that one is starting to form.

Thanks for the reply. I'm getting some comfort today with the salt water rinses today. I'm going to see how I am for the rest of the day and I will phone my dentist in the morning.

Floss the teeth around it. Be brutal, it might be something caught under the gumline

Please go to the dentist if it's painful, abscesses can be very serious not just for your dental health but for your other health. Sepsis is a huge concern

Imissthesouth

Thanks for the reply.

The pain is not too bad. It comes and goes. I flossed around the area. It bled a lot. I did a cold water rinse to stop the bleeding. Followed by a warm water rinse. It's much better since. There's still some slight twinges but not as many as earlier. I will decide in the morning what I will do.

That's good news OP, hopefully a good nights rest will ease it!

This is very bizarre. Its baffling and I have no idea what to do now.

I slept very well all night with no pain.

Got up this morning. There's no pain or twinges since getting up a few hours ago. I have had no pain medication all morning so it's not pain medications masking a pain. I'm waiting for pain or twinges before taking paracetamol and nurofen. I did a dalt water rinse after breakfast. There's no pain.

I will see how I am over the course of the day to see how I get on.

Excellent! If there's no pain and no obvious signs of infection you should be out of the woods :)

Sounds like you just had something stuck in your gum again, youve removed it with the flossing and now its healing.

If you had an abcess you would have swelling. Just keep up with the salt water mouthrinses

Thanks. I was doing great all day with no pains.

I'm just after experiencing some pain. It was a little bit more intense this time around but it didn't last long. Pain went away after about a minute with no medication or dental gel.

Now, I haven't a clue what to do. I think I will hold off for a day or two and see how I am then. Or my dentist has an email address that's on his Facebook. Could I email them to see if the dentist should see me?

I would give it a day or two and then Id just give them a call, normally toothache is constant or triggered by eating/hot/cold. Not just random, it could be your gums, TMJ or it could be referred pain from your sinuses or something. Not completely ruling out toothache but it doesnt sound like classic dental pain.

An email is difficult as you cant ask the appropriate questions, so its better to call.

I am confused by the dentist removing ' a white spot on your gum '
It sounds like an abscess and cannot be simply removed that way? Possibly the white spot was ' pus ' hence the antibiotics?
You do not necessarily have swelling with an abscess...mine was self draining and I had had it for months as it turns out.
Due to covid - 19 the only treatment on offer when I eventually got an appointment was extraction. Mine originally started off as toothache but the dentist could find nothing wrong.
Better to try and resolve it now just incase dentists close again.
Good luck.
I would not worry

The spot was located in the side of my mouth so I couldn't see it properly. I saw it as a white spot. The dentist investigated and it was something that was lodged in the gum. He retrieved it and gave me a course of antibiotics.

I never had any pain by the way when I went to the dentist a few weeks ago for him to investigate that white spot.

Its only since yesterday, a little bit of pain has come about. Today was a better day but I did get some twinges here and there in the afternoon.

You’ve experienced pain.
I’d go back to him and see what’s causing it.
It could be a further course of antibiotics or a different type of them is required.