To not go to the other end of the country with a tooth abcess :-(

[Gingersstuff]

Am sat here cradling a bag of frozen peas to me poor, poor mouth. Niggling toothache for weeks, morphing into full-blown horrificness about a week ago and an emergency appointment at the dentist on Thursday. Diagnosed with infection right down in the jawbone and started a course of antibiotics on Thursday night. Back in 10 days for extraction or root canal.
I'm supposed to be at the other end of the country on Monday morning with a client, leading a very important meeting. The pain is monstrous, I can't sleep, eating/drinking is horrific and the only thing keeping it even slightly at bay is the aforementioned peas and a healthy dose of codydramol alternating with ibuprofen and a topical anaesthetic. My stomach is in tatters because I've been practically mainlining painkillers. The dentist says I have to give the antibiotics a chance to work, they won't extract before course is finished.

Our company is very small and it would be a huge deal if I had to cancel. It's taken weeks to organise. The clients are flying up to the meeting tomorrow night. I don't have contact numbers for the colleagues who could possibly step in and besides, they have kids too and it's too short notice. I don't know what to do. I can't see myself being in any fit state to go but neither can I let everyone down. What would you do, oh wise MNers??

OP I feel your pain. You are in a no win situation really. I honestly don't think you will be in any fit state to do the meeting properly.

I had my wisdom tooth out on Tuesday. I am in agony today. Had to admit defeat and leave work early. I'm taking ibuprofen and going to nail a bottle of red and possibly a sleeping pill if necessary. I NEED to sleep tonight!

Massive sympathies op, I had a dental thread on here just a few weeks ago so the pain is very very fresh in my mind.

I was so out of it due to lack of sleep and strong painkillers that I could barely watch my own dc never mind fly to the other side of the country! Please try and get out of it.

You have my absolute sympathies. I have been extremely ill with 3 abcesses in the past 10 years and it really was hellish. Not trying tp freak you out but the 2nd 2 caused me to have problems with my heart and I was hospitalsed on both occasions. Please seek more help if you continue to feel worse. Ths isn't a small thing.

I'd go tonight and see the OOH. I had a tooth out without taking antibiotics and the reason is, the anaesthetic doesn't work terribly well at all when it is very inflamed.

However the relief when it is out is immense. I held the nurse's hand and screamed a bit and it was done.

They may do this for you if the antibiotics aren't working anyway - definitely worth going back, it might need something else doing.

Btw I found naproxen knocked mine on the head, I can't take codeine though.

you should be feeling better by now :( give it another 24 hours and see how you feel then.

oragel is good but from the sounds of it it might not help you much.

man I really feel for you tons. there is nothing worse than toothache or any pain above the neck.

To be honest I would be putting my energies into contacting a colleague. Are you driving to this meeting? Sorry if I've missed this.

I had an abcess about 11 years ago and my face ballooned. The pain was unbearable.

I had an extraction a few weeks ago and again I had David Coulthard face. Well, half David Coulthard face.

Am I the only one whose face balloons?

No advice but much sympathy.

Get that tooth drained. Emergency dentist tomorrow. Pay privately if you must. The local anaesthetic won't work that well, if at all, due to the infection, but the relief will be immense and immediate. The dentist can just open the top if the tooth, clean it and put a temporary filling in.

Argh, I'm reading these responses (well, the horror stories) with dismay because I'm in the same boat at the moment - minus the important meeting on Monday. Infection after first part of root canal treatment, antibiotics since Friday morning, still lots of pain. :( I don't want to go as far as the loo, never mind the other end of the country!

I think I'll give the ABs until tomorrow to work, then I'll give BIL (dentist) a call for some advice. Bugger.

I'm taking cocodamol (not sure if it helps, but makes me feel very woozy, not pleasant at all) and ibuprophen, which I shouldn't really take according to my gastroenterologist. Neither of them do away with the pain completely.

I hope you get it sorted soon, OP. Toothache is horrible. :(

I've had my fair share of dentistry in thé last 9 months; angry wisdom teeth, root canal work, couple of fillings, over £500 of deep periodontal treatment last month, then a cavity under my crown the week before last!

AND i've got another crown needed, but booked for next month, cos quite frankly i'm fed up to the back teeth of the sight of dentists.

did you see what I did there

If you can get someone to prescribe you Naproxen, it ought to do the trick! It was the only thing that stopped my wisdom tooth infection in it's tracks.

I had it for buggered knees, but it works for dental pain too. Cocodamol didn't touch the pain in teeth or knees.

if you can't get something that properly kills the pain, you ARE going to have to rethink that meeting. There is no way you can possibly think with that amount of dental pain. There really is no pain like it.

You have my sympathies!

yama - the whole left side of my swelled up like i'd been in a fightwith a one armed boxer! that abscess made me as sick as i've been in my whole life. the dentist was worried about it affecting other parts of my body and i was a day away from being admitted to hospital before the ABs started working. horrendous.

Austenozzy - I shouldn't really be glad that I'm not the only one ... but I am.

If you can't be off sick with an abscess then I don't know what the world is coming to.

I would try and see an emergency dentist. Is there an out-of -hours duty dentist in your area? I called the much-maligned 111 on a Saturday evening, when DS3 had what turned out to be an abcess. He got an appt. for the next morning, the abcess was drained then and there, and DS3 immediately felt lots better.

I made an appt. with his own dentist later in the week, as advised, but was really impressed with the treatment he got. Worth a try, maybe?

Hope you feel better soon.

How are you feeling now op?

If its all as bad as you and everyone says, and gosh it sounds bad, I think you should probably talk to Work about them making other arrangements? I don't really see how you can travel to and hold a meeting in this state ...

Sorry to hear you are going all through this, must be awful.

How are you this morning, Gingersstuff? I had the most horrendous pain during the night, but it's actually a bit better this morning. Maybe the antibiotics are finally kicking in. I hope it's getting better for you too.

Thank you for all your kind responses, I'm sorry I haven't updated yet! As it happened the pain started to die down a bit Sunday, so the antiobiotics clearly did their job . It's still pretty painful and I guess it will be until the dreaded root canal treatment started next Thursday.
I'm so sorry for all of you going through similar...I wouldn't wish that pain on anyone, it was horrendous . I'm just hoping it doesn't flare up again before I get back to the dentist.