To go a&e or dental hospital

[emmapemma91]

I’ve been in severe toothache for 3 weeks, been on 2 x antibiotics for abscess in wisdom tooth. Dentist says they need took out but because ones on a nerve plus having TMJ I need to get referred to dental hospital.

The wait for this is 6+ month and they need X-rays first. I’m in absolute agony can’t eat, can’t sleep, been alternating ibuprofen and codeine doing salt washes and using special mouthwash yet I’m still in agony and can’t possibly go 6 month or more like this .

Would it be unreasonable to go to dental hospital tomorrow and demand they do something? Or if they won’t then go to a&e? I’m a single parent to four kids and feel horrible I can’t go out far etc because my whole mouth, jaw is agony

What's a TMJ?

What is TMJ? I'm absolutely aghast at waiting six months for urgent dental work. My dentist sees people with toothache on the day they phone in.

OP change dentists. My original dentist needed to send me to the hospital for an extraction because it was too close to nerve. However when I was in agony and couldn’t get an appointment for 2 weeks I phoned another dentist who not only saw me the same day but 10 days later extracted said tooth without issue (i was I dentist less than 15 Mins from walking in to walking out!)

Definitely worth calling a few others.

You can go to a&e if necessary don’t listen to others. However if you can deal with the pain with painkillers at home then there’s no need to go. 111 can either refer you to the dental helpline or give you the number to call for an emergency dentist appointment. But you will still need to go through an assessment first.

If your lymph nodes are up as you say, you have an infection. That’s enough to get you emergency treatment. Call 111, insist that you have signs of infection and ask for an emergency appointment. Infection in any area can lead to sepsis. Insist insist insist!!!!

Op, I would try the dental hospital. They might have had cancellations and they should have an emergency department. If you need a general for it then that's the problem because waiting lists are very long but the dental hospital might think they can do it under local. Or they might be able to open it up and drain it.

meteor NHS dentistry is paid entirely differently to NHS medicine. The practices are all privately owned, NHS just pays for the work done (and sometimes not even that), for not an his dentist you do NHS work and there simply isn't the money from the NHS to do this. It costs a lot to open up a practice for 24hrs, and youd have to have a lot more dentists to work the night shifts, you would need a complete overhaul of NHS dentistry and they aren't willing to do that. There will be an on call maxfax dentist to deal with life or death situations at A&E.

• If 24/7 emergency dental care isn’t provided then it’s unreasonanle to tell someone in crippling pain not to go to A&E.

How about we question why ‘NHS’ dentists aren’t required to work ‘on call’ shifts and no 24/7 dental care is provided like A&E. They’re in the same class as doctors but get away with it- totally ridiculous*

What you should be questioning is why Emergency NHS Dental treatment is being cut right back to the bone.
The general public should be asking why these services have been decommissioned.
To suggest it's anything to do with NHS dentists is laughable and ignorant. This government is determined to remove all NHS dentistry.

I had similar recently and saw my GP as I couldn’t function with the pain and sickness as a result of the infections and jaw issues. They spoke to the hospital and I was over there the same afternoon. I had the procedure done under local the next week (after more antibiotics).

Due to the jaw issues they paused frequently, reassured me and were just generally wonderful. The whole process was much easier than feared. I won’t lie, it did hurt but it was over quickly.

I know that Drs don’t deal with dental issues but I was becoming so ill that they happily intervened on my behalf. Can you get an emergency appointment in the morning?

Oh op, TMJ on its own is awful. But with a toothache that's from an infection? You must be at your wits end.

No advice, but masses of sympathy.

the most effective painkillers are actually paracetamol when treating toothache so theres no point even prescribing something stronger

Excuse me while I fall off my chair laughing. Assuming this poster has not had a dental infection?! 😂 Paracetamol, while a very effective painkiller, is like pissing in the wind where serious dental infections are concerned. 60mg of codeine, combined with 1000mg or paracetamol and 400mg of ibuprofen just about took the edge off it for me. trammadol worked better.

I suspect IV a paracetamol would be good, that’s a great painkiller. But oral paracetamol really does not cut the mustard in this situation I’m afraid.

OP, I’ve just checked your hospital’s website which states here:

We also provide an emergency dental service if you experience sudden onset of a dental problem in need of immediate attention, find more details of this service here.

And that links here with details on how to access.

So get yourself to the dental hospital!

Also 111 could possibly book an out of hours appointment elsewhere

no advice but it’s such awful pain

Thank you all so so much, was nice to just have a rant tbh. Will ring 111 and let you know how I get on.

The dental hospital may do emergency appointments for people who don't have a dentist so it is worth looking on their website. Alternatively, if you are willing to go private, I would find someone who says that they are a specialist in endodontics.
Dentists vary in their abilities and in what they feel confident to do. If a dentist says you need to go to the dental hospital they may just be saying that it is something they don't feel confident in doing what is required . Another dentist may be different thogh.

Also, (although it may not be much consolation), you won't be in agony for six months as the tooth will die and will probably stop hurting. If you start to feel unwell, it is an emergency though.

I feel for you op I had a nerve infection and the pain was so bad I'd rather of been in labour for a week I cried myself to sleep with it, in the end the only thing that stopped it hurting was the course of antibiotics and taken neurofen and co codamal how I didn't overdose with everything else I tried I don't know. I also had the tooth out as it was just to much to cope with. I then got dry socket when it was pulled which was even more agony