Anyone up? Toothache/abscess agony!

[nubofcheese]

I am in so much pain I think I could pass out, I lost a small part of a filling on Monday evening, been in pain ever since.

Tonight has been the worst, my face on that side is double the size, I have just woken up in unbelievable agony, I have taken Cocodamol and ibuprofen.

I don't have a dentist. There is a number you can ring in my area for dental emergencies (from 8am) but it says pain is not an emergency(hence, I haven't phoned yet) however swelling is so I will phone as soon as the lines open.

I haven't seen a dentist for 5 years, the last time I did was a horrible experience but I am trying not to think about it. I am embarrassed at the state of my teeth.

Is there anything I can do now to ease the pain even a little?

Good luck, once you get the antibiotics you will feel so much better. Toothache is awful, I feel for you 💐

Thank you all!

I'm back! 10 minute appointment with a lovely non-judgmental dentist, she drained it (ouch!) and prescribed antibiotics, MIL has offered to pick them up for me.

The dentist I saw today said my tooth is infected and needs to come out, so I should phone the emergency number after I had finished the antibiotics, but she then admitted I would be unlikely to get an appointment for it to be removed as it wouldn't be 'an emergency' until the swelling started again! I find this really frustrating, I only paid £23.80 for the appointment, surely the NHS is at a loss with that price, and it would be cost effective to have the tooth removed rather than keep going back for repeated prescriptions?

Does anyone know what the price would be for an extraction privately? I have been looking and everywhere seems to be £50 for a consultation.

That sounds like it was a combination of a massive relief and incredibly frustrating. I'm glad you're getting the antibiotics, and hope MIL turns up with them soon, so you can get on top of this infection as soon as possible.

If you go to a private dentist, you might find that they're more optimistic about saving the tooth. If it is possible, that would probably be really quite expensive, something like root canal work (a lot more tolerable than it used to be, according to DP) and a crown, but if they think they can save it and you can at all afford it, please think really hard about whether you want it removed. DP really regrets having infected teeth removed that could've been saved. Of course it might have to be taken out anyway, or you might simply not have the money, so, well.

I'm really glad you were able to get it drained at least, and hope it's less painful now. Did she give you the good drugs?

You need anbasol tooth liquid or 20% oragel which you can get from pharmacy only and yes something cold for swelling it's the worst isn't it x

My friend had a wisdom tooth removed last week at a private dentist and it cost £170, she was already registered there though so had had previous check ups

I hope the antibiotics work quickly and pain and swelling decreases swiftly

Poor you. Toothache is so awful.

I have just had 2 teeth out privately because I couldn’t find an nhs dentist either, and it was £219 for one of them and £250 for the other (both priced as ‘difficult’ extractions)

Hope you’re pain free soon

Just antibiotics unfortunately! I have just taken my first dose, feels almost pain free already, not sure if that was her draining it though, forced down a piece of dry bread first, hoping to get a nap now and be able to eat something when I wake up, I feel awfully sick but I think it's a combination of the drain, no sleep or food for 48 hours and loads of painkillers on an empty stomach!

I absolutely cannot afford £250 for dental treatment and £50 on top of that for the consultation, right now anyway but I will start saving for it, I think I have no chance of finding an NHS dentist and I can't go through this pain ever again! I can understand why people who need work on multiple teeth travel abroad!

nubofcheese · Today 14:14

Just antibiotics unfortunately! I have just taken my first dose, feels almost pain free already, not sure if that was her draining it though...

That will be it, the pus and swelling press on an area full of sensory nerves. The pus has gone and the swelling is down, which has reduced the pressure.

Mine cost £300 privately, because the tooth was cracked above the bone line. The specialist drilled is, put a temporary filling in, with an anti-bactericide. Tw weeks later, temp filling out, more anti-bac and a cement. I couldn't get back for three months (instead of 2) and the cement had worked, so he filled it properly.

Even if you need it out, just pay, instead of going through it again.

It's just appalling, what's happened to dentistry — I could maybe just about accept the idea (well, I couldn't, but for the sake of argument) of an NHS dental service that was reduced to emergency and urgent treatment like abscess-draining and diseased tooth-pulling, with people having to fund their own routine treatment or get insurance for it, even though such a system would be ridiculously short-sighted from a total health perspective. But to be told they probably won't even be able to rustle up a slot for you to have a infected tooth pulled out, when it's caused such an agonising and dangerous abscess?!

They could've at least chucked you a few prescription-strength codeine to take away the sting 😒 (Only half-kidding…)

@JarByTheDoor my thoughts exactly! After it was drained I was in agony so didn't take much in, the poor dentist knew how ridiculous what she was saying was but there's not much she could do.

She said 'I don't think I've ever seen as much swelling, it's a lot. If these antibiotics don't work by tomorrow please go to A&E to have intravenous antibiotics' then I need the tooth out, then realised that's unlikely to happen, I kept saying thank you and she just said 'I'm sorry' as I was leaving, it felt a bit ominous tbh.

It really is a bit of a crazy system when you think about it. I know I am lucky to have only paid just over £30 for my treatment today though.

she just said 'I'm sorry' as I was leaving, it felt a bit ominous tbh

Yeah to be fair that doesn't sound like the bode-welliest of signoffs. Tho maybe she just felt really sorry for you for having a giant pus-volcano take up residence in your skull?

Kudos on managing to eat something, by the way, hopefully that'll help you not feel too ill from the antibiotics.

Of course that's what she was apologising for! Makes so much more sense haha, I think I read too much into it!

Could she not have booked you in to have the tooth out? She can see it's an infection so she can presumably make the appointment and it won't happen for ages.

There's a phone number to contact on this website if you can't find an NHS dentist to take you on to their list.
www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/dentists/how-to-find-an-nhs-dentist/

the funding for emergency treatment is interesting. When I was running an emergency clinic, some people were in and out in 2 minutes, some were here for hours. One chap with bleeding from some very minor trauma at home which refused to stop so we kept hold of him.

Does it balance out in the end? I suspect not due to overheads but emergency treatment shouldn't be more expensive than this IMO.

I really enjoyed that job, shame NHS policies made it unworkable. I wasn't replaced so no idea what the locals do now.

OP, don't forget Manchester has a dental hospital. They may have a clinic you can walk in and will get a tooth extracted. Note- I didn't train in Manchester and I'm old now but it's worth investigating.

@Cloudhoppingdancer no she couldn't as I'm not a patient there and they are not taking on new patients - she said it's rare they take emergencies and I probably won't get another appointment there, even as an emergency, I think she would have if she could.

@MaidOfSteel thank you, I will try the phone number, I used the search function on Wednesday, it shows all dentists within a 5 mile radius and every single one is not taking new patients or is an orthodontist that is by referral only, I will call tomorrow and see if they can expand the search area maybe? It's worth a shot.

@MrsMorton that makes sense- surely if I managed to get a routine appointment, as a one off, for the extraction at £70 it would cost the NHS less than multiple emergency appointments at £24?

The dental hospital no longer takes walk-ins since covid, unfortunately. It was on the hospital website I found the emergency number, which I'm not knocking at all. I got triaged and an appointment so close to home within 4 hours, it's the aftermath that's a little frustrating.

When you say she drained it, do you mean she drilled the tooth and popped the abscess? That happened to me when I was a teenager. It was quite dramatic but the weird outcome is that I don't find the taste of infection in my mouth to be disgusting, like a normal person would. To me it's the taste of relief.

@MorrisZapp no nothing like that, maybe she didn't drain it then? Haha! She used a thin needle on my gum about 10 times and then squeezed it all out, it was hideous, the pain, smell and taste! I felt really sorry for the dentist and the assistant I bet they were gagging when I left the room!

@nubofcheese

She said 'I don't think I've ever seen as much swelling, it's a lot. If these antibiotics don't work by tomorrow please go to A&E to have intravenous antibiotics'

Well, that's from the horse's mouth, indeed. They don't want general toothache and bad gum patients turning up at A&E, but with a serious infection, they will treat you.

Interesting that she stabbed it with a pin, mine just sliced it with a scalpel and syringed a load of hydrogen peroxide into it, then made me do loads of brine mouthwashes. The day I went, it had burst in the night and come down between the tooth and gum, but was back to the size of a couple of dried peas on the front of my gum and a lump on my palate.

Cringing just to remember it...

How are you feeling today @nubofcheese. I hope that you feel a little better.

Thank you for asking @Purla that's really nice, much better actually, still very swollen but going down, still in pain but not agony, I phoned in sick to work today again so I've been in bed watching Netflix all day, I feel like I've got a bad cold- sweating a lot, dizzy and aching but I guess that is the infection, today is my first full day taking antibiotics so I'm hoping I'll feel a bit better tomorrow. Again, thank you for asking.

The swelling is going down but to me it looks like it my cheek is going down but my jaw line is swelling up? Although this could be just because my cheek has been so swollen I didn't really notice the jaw swelling, I'm going to keep my eye on it for now. I'm still taking ibuprofen and icing it.

Bless you @nubofcheese, you should be feeling a lot better by tomorrow.

I had an abscess underneath a root canal filled tooth last October. I was nowhere near as bad as you sound but the pain was awful. I am lucky enough to have a dentist so I managed to get antibiotics pretty much straight away so I don't think the abscess had chance to take hold.

I feel for you, tooth pain is a nightmare.

I wonder, based on this, if you might need to phone 111 and see about those intravenous antibiotics OP. This doesn’t sound great to me and I’m not sure I would risk waiting due to possible sepsis.