dental help - posting here for traffic.

[Gilead]

22 year old dd woke up at five this morning in serious pain with a tooth. I thought abscess. Managed (finally) to get a dentist appointment for this afternoon - new area, new dentist. He didn't listen to us, we told him that dd has various difficulties and differences and most importantly that she doesn't feel pain as most of us do, as well as pointing out that she'd had some extremely heavy duty pain killers which she takes for her other difficulties. Dentist filled the hole that was there, didn't x ray, insisted it wasn't an abscess. He did no drilling, cleaning, nothing, just put a temporary filling in with his finger and an implement.
Since this was done, a couple of hours ago, she's got significantly worse, the pain has increased, and she is crying uncontrollably. This is unusual for her. Anyone know if this is an abscess even though it apparently isn't presenting as one because if so I want to get her to an emergency dentist and get antibiotics.

I m not medically trained but it sounds like an abscess to me.
I have a high tolerance of pain and was literally sobbing when I had one.
Surely they should x ray and give antibiotics?

That's what I thought, but nothing! So angry.

Sounds like an inflamed nerve to me (not an infection) it will usually need root treatment starting to kill off the nerve and remove the pain. The decay has spread to the nerve in the tooth and is aggravating it. If there’s no tenderness it’s likely not an infection and antibiotics won’t work, if there is tenderness when pushing down on the tooth it is infected. the nerve needs removing from the tooth (it’s called pulpitis) and this can be done via root treatment being started or an extraction. Phone them back and explain and they should see her again for an access

Well, we're off to the emergency dentist, when they ring me back!

Hope you get a better response from the emergency service.

For the future (or tomorrow if need be), find out if there is a community dental service in your area (may have a different name). They specialise in dealing with patients with complex health needs and should have a better understanding.

This may be helpful:

www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/nhs-services/dentists/dental-treatment-for-people-with-special-needs/