AIBU to ask when will this antibiotic start working?

[KTD27]

Oweeeewwwwwoowww
Wisdom tooth is infected. Needs to come out. My mouth is swollen and the pain is just like nothing else. I’ve been given a strong dose of metronidazole (400mg x 3) and I just want to know when it might start to help. It will have been 48h later today. No worse and yet absolutely no better. This is hell.
Anyone reassure me that the wizardly antibiotics are about to kick in any minute??

Are you also taking a pain killer? Make sure you have something strong. Not sure how long your AB will take to kick in but I would have thought by 48 hours you should start to see/feel a difference.

Yes taking ibuprofen and paracetamol - the ibuprofen in particular is glorious when it kicks in but wears off after abut 6 hours. The paracetamol doesn’t seem to affect it as much. I want my mum

Can you get some stronger painkillers?

Sometimes I see no improvement on antibiotics until a week or so has passed!

Oh man. A week?! i will give the dentist a call today and ask. We have co codamol in the house but it spaces me out and I have two gremlins small children to somewhat entertain and generally keep from maiming themselves. There might be something else she can prescribe which doesn’t make me feel like I’ve drunk 2 bottles of wine.

Hope it improves soon (any chance your mum could come over?).

I'd take the co-codamol at your next paracetamol dose time and use that until the ABs kick in, I find the spaced out feeling goes after the first few doses.

Feel well soon.

She lives 200 miles away but she’s the best in the world and has offered to drive down so I might ask. God I’m 40! Just need to cuddle my mum. wail

Paramol is a good painkiller, you can get it from the pharmacy it doesn’t have to be prescribed. You can only take it short term but hopefully the antibiotics will be working by then.

Chew paracetamol, ir can act as a local anesthetic.

Go to your GP for something stronger.

Get some ice packs, the ones you squeeze and they go cold,I have some in my first aid kit that came in useful when my friend had his wisdom teeth out.

When I had a gum infection the pain was bad. The metranidazole (sp?) made a difference after two days. The pain lessened and the swelling started to go down. I can't remember the dosage but it was probably quite high as the infection was spreading. I hope it works for you soon OP.

I used the baby teething liquid anbesol on my wisdom teeth when they were infected along with antibiotics and co codamol.

If you can get that from the pharmacy, it works really well.

Go back - today!! Is there a reason the tooth can't be pulled...today...
Lots of tea and sympathy - toothache pain is the worst! I'm 3 weeks on from a molar extraction due to infection (3 wisdom teeth lost to infection too) it's just horrid.

Go to your GP for something stronger

Would be better to ask your dentist

Oh you poor thing

It's like nothing else isn't it? Don't bother going to GP or A&E as they may just refer you back to dentist/emerging dentist. I ended up screaming at the GP receptionist, which I later felt awful about, returned and apologised. In defence I was absolutely demented with pain, had probably overdosed on painkillers and simply couldn't function. If it hadn't have been right at the bloody back I'd have done the old piece of string jobby.

Hope you get some fab pain relief and the antibiotics kick in very soon

I’ve left a message with the dentist she will call me back later and hopefully see me again today
I’ve had infections with my lower wisdom teeth and I’m sure the antibiotics kicked in earlier than this. I’m on a pretty strong dose of metro so not sure whether I need amoxicillin aswell

@lumpy76 it’s super impacted so will be a referral job she thought on Monday. I also can’t open my mouth wide enough to let her in so couldn’t happen today

I have an abscess from an infected tooth and my jaw was swollen, prescribed 400mg x 3 metronidazole and 500 mg x 3 amoxicillin for a week, been taking since Monday and swelling is going down, dentist did drain it a bit which provided some relief, stomach feels a bit iffy though. Extraction planned for later in the month, its awful isn't it, I think because the tooth is dead I probably won't have the degree of pain as draining definitely relieved the pressure

@Ringthebells oh poor you. I think a double antibiotic might be the way forward for me there’s just been no relief at all except for when the painkillers kick in

Was yours drained at all, dentist gave mine a really good squeeze which was horrible at the time but did provide a lot of relief, I think there was a lot of pressure around the gum. Yours sounds much worse than mine which was really painful on Sunday and Monday but OK now, I found the ibuprofen worked the best. Hopefully they will give you additional antibiotics.

No! She could barely get in to rinse me out with saline. No squeezing to be done - that sounds painful! Not sure there’s an abscess it’s just swollen and painful

I think you can take quite high dose of ibuprofen under doctor or dentist supervision, much more than it says on the box, I would probably ask about that. When I googled to see what was best for the pain it did mention about high dosage ibuprofen under prescription

I think they metronidazole begins to kick in about 48 hours after you take it. Dp has frequent dental issues and gets a week supply of metronidazole and amoxicillin as the first doesn't work well on its own for him.

@skidmarksaremylife thank you. It will be 48 hours this afternoon so I won’t panic it’s not working until tomorrow.

Good luck @KTD27 👍