My dm started having a bit of a niggling toothache on Friday and decided to leave it until Monday morning before phoning the dentist. By this point her face had swollen right up on one side. She saw a dentist midday on Monday and it’s an abscess but it is too inflamed for her to have anaesthetic injected so he prescribed AB’s and booked an appointment for the following Monday.
This morning she woke up with her face so swollen that he right eye is completely shut. She has a fever and is shivery and said she couldn’t hold her cup of tea because she was so shaky. She phoned the dentist who told her to phone her GP as she may need intravenous AB’s or have the tooth out under GA if the swelling isn’t going down.
DM phoned GP who tells her to phone the emergency dental number. She does this, is told she urgently needs to see a dentist but as she has a dentist she needs to phone him. So she calls her dentist back, she gets another appointment and the dentist explains that he can’t prescribe any other AB’s and he can’t remove the tooth as he cannot inject anaesthetic as it is so swollen. He tells her to relay this to the GP. She speaks to GP again who tells her that he can’t do anything as it’s dental but due to her clearly having an infection she should go to A and E at the hospital.
She gets the bus over to A and E, waits 3 hours to be seen and is finally taken in to see a doctor who tells her to call the emergency dental line (who she already spoke to and who told her to go to her dentist who told her to go to the GP). At this point my dm bursts out crying, explains it all and the doctor tells her to go back into the waiting room and he’ll see what he can do.
Another 90 minutes later and a doctor tells her that it’s likely she’ll need it out under general anaesthetic. Her local hospital doesn’t have a maxillo facial department so he’s made an appointment for tomorrow morning at the hospital 2 hours away from her house.
She is now at home with a clear infection, fever of 40 degrees and sounds barely conscious when I call her. I’ve phoned for an ambulance for her but they said it almost certainly wouldn’t arrive until the morning. She is a 5 hour drive away from me and I have children who I’d have to take with me if I left now. I don’t even have a key for her house so I don’t know what I’d do when I get there if she’s asleep/ unconscious.
What should I do? Am I overreacting? I keep looking at Google and there are so many things saying how dangerous a tooth abscess can be if untreated.