Going to A and E for tooth pain?

[Legobla123]

I'm in the worst pain ever! I am unable to get a dentist at the minute and 2 months ago I was given a temporary root canal 4 days ago it started hurting again to got an emergency dental appointment and they gave me antibiotics these started to work and had no pain yesterday today however is horrendous and odly I'm having to put cold water on my tooth to take the pain away momentarily it has now got to a point the water isn't working and I'm dancing about in agony! Ive rang the emergency dentist back and got an appointment for 8:45am tomorrow but the thought of getting thru tonight with this pain is awful! I'm in work till 10pm would it be unreasonable for me to go to AandE when I finish would they be able to do anything or do I just not sleep all night and wait it out. Does anyone have any siggestions? Besides my antibiotics I've tried cocodamol Ibuprofen paracetamol orajel and clove oil and nothing it's not even taken the edge off :( if it wasn't a front tooth id have tied a piece of string to it it's that bad!

A and E will turn you away, maxfac will not see you unless you have spreading and systemic infection with threat to airway or eye. You may be “lucky” and a non-dental practitioner will prescribe something like morphine or tramadol, neither of which really work for dental pain and in my experience just make people feel really sick when they get to the dentist appointment so on top of toothache/needing dental treatment they have to cope with wanting to vomit as well.

Keep taking your painkillers to the dose on the box and I hope you feel better very soon

Really sorry OP I know how you feel, try swilling with warm water wierd thing is it's the only thing to stop mine for a few moments rest when I had it.

But for the love of god do NOT do what the hospital told me to do, they said put an aspirin next to my gum. It hurt like HELL and made it worse. When I finally got to a dentist he informed me that the aspirin had literally burn away all the gums next to the tooth.

Ring round every dentist you can find online with an emergency dental call out. It took me about 7 before an amazing dentist got put of bed and met me at his surgery and sorted it. You might be lucky so try!!!

I got given an I Necton straight into a muscle for lain and he was very sympathetic thankfully.
That was an ooh doctor attached to an a and e, arranged through 111

Scuse the typos!

Your main problem will be that it's unlikely you'll be seen before your appointment tomorrow morning if you head to A&E at 10pm!

Sorry as people have said A&E won’t be able to help you unless there is swelling around your throat and airways due to possible infection and then it would be antibiotics only

please call 111 they should be ably to help you

Hope the pain eases soon

Try a hot or cold compress x

Recent response was to get painkillers from GP and find a private dentist as no NHS dentists in our area.

I work as an interpreter for NHS, I had several clients in your situation. Unfortunately A&E will not be able to help you as they don't deal with dental issues at all, so no point even to go there. Call 111 to see if they can put you in contact with an emergency dentist/dental nurse who can advise you about pain relief until your next appointment or refer you to a dental hospital or a specific medical centre where you can be seen if it cannot wait until tomorrow morning. Best wishes to you, toothache can be horrendous!

Hi OP. You have my sympathy, tooth pain sucks. If you go to A & E you are likely to have a very long wait. What you really need to do is get on top of the pain by taking regular pain relief, alternating something like codeine with an NSAID like ibuprofen. Also using heat like a well wrapped hot water bottle or hot flannel against the side of your face may provide some relief.

I urge caution around any other signs of worsening infection though, such as a high fever, rapid heart rate or any confusion - my MIL had a serious dental infection that led to sepsis.

We are fortunate to have an emergency dentist at A&E. 111 should hopefully be able to advise. I’m on strong pain meds anyway for a pancreas disease so when I got really bad toothache a few years ago I really dosed up, but it didn’t do much. Dentist asked what I’d been taking so far, paracetamol? Erm no oral morphine (didn’t tell her the stronger stuff either), she looked horrified but it genuinely didn’t stop the pain. It was a terrible night so you’ve got my sympathy OP. Good luck

If you’re in extreme pain I don’t think it’s unreasonable to go to A&E. I went with severe pain from an infected wisdom tooth once (admittedly this was about 20 years ago). They tried telling me to take some paracetamol (as if I hadn’t already tried that FFS), but I cried and begged and they gave me some morphine. It made me sick but took the edge off the pain until I could get to a dentist the next day.

I feel really bad for you OP. I’d rather be in labour than have the pain I once had with a tooth abscess

This is what I thought.

You're better off getting through the night in the comfort of home rather than sitting on a and e plastic chairs, under florescent lights etc.. with horrible toothache. Good luck op hope you get well soon.

I’ve spent 48 hours in A&E with my mum this week. The queues were astronomical.

111 has an option for dental help when you ring up. I was on hold over an hour to get through to them.

@negomi90 there are other doctors on this thread that will prescribe for tooth pain? Does treatment very trust to trust why is their conflicting information regarding this on this thread from different doctors here?

For example in my case my local A+E were adamant they wouldn't even triage me for dental pain and this was after nearly 48hrs of no food and sips of water. So I waited for a 111 emergency dental appointment (in the same A+E department no less!!!)

Others here are saying their A+E will prescribe at least something to get them by.

Really feel for you, last month I had agonising tooth pain. Took paracetamol, ibuprofen, dyhydrocodeine, cocodomal, even tried cannabis. Nothing touched it. Rubbing sensitive toothpaste on it helped for about 2 minutes.

Oh you've got my sympathy. I remember the pain from a dying nerve in a tooth that had been destroyed by a crap dentist doing a terrible job on a filling. It was the weekend and no painkiller, even Paramol, made any difference. Even a warm draught (it was a summer's day) made the pain worse and made me cry, banging my head on the kitchen island. It was the weekend and I just rang round dentists and listened to their recorded messages about emergencies and managed to get hold of someone at a practice where I'd never been in my life, who left a family bbq to come out and sort me out. He was a lifesaver, and the nurse that came out to meet us. Was wierd going into a dental surgery that was all locked up with this dentist in his short and t shirt, but I was only in there 15 mins and all pain was gone. Magic. I did have to pay of course. I can't remember how much, but I would have paid £5k to take the pain away by that point!

So I recommend trying what I did.

If your in that much pain then a&e is worth a try. My OH had terrible tooth pain and he had his head under cold shower (apparently it helped). Also clover oil from the pharmacy. He also said this helps along with strong painkillers from them. Best bet is head towards the nearest open chemist!

I went to A&E with severe wisdom tooth pain once, I was in absolute agony. They gave a numbing injection which only lasted 20 minutes or so but those 20 minutes were much needed. They sent me home with stronger pain killers which didn't do a lot but were better than nothing. It really annoys me dental care is so difficult - and the harder it is to see a routine NHS dentist the more A&Es will see extreme pain from tooth issues.

Work let me leave early so I could get to a pharmacy and they couldn't give me anything else other than ibuprofen cocodamol and paracetamol which I've been having all day, I've been putting cold water on my tooth all day which gives me the smallest bit of relief for 20 seconds.
I'm obviously going to have to wait till the morning but this is going to be the longest night ever!
Thanks for all your advice x

I had same situation recently. I couldn't get hold of anyone on 111. I asked my friend a dentist if A&E was worth a visit. I did call in and ask if they would be able to prescribe antibiotics but couldn't get a response. I had the most awful taste in my mouth and couldn't actually open my mouth apart from a cm on one side. In the end I had to wait for dentist to open on the Monday morning. It was playing up on the Friday evening so it was a long weekend tbh. It seems unless you're private you can't get emergency dental care over the weekend (unless you have a dental hospital which opens for emergencies.)

Oil of cloves worked, and I alternated ibuprofen with co-codamol. Warm salt water helped a little.

My sibling has been to a&e twice with severe toothache. They were given antibiotics as the doctor thought they likely had an abscess and they were right!

Dental pain is the worst, I had an awful abscess recently. Antibiotics didn't help and I had all levels of painkillers and nothing helped. The only relief I got was holding an ice block wrapped in a tea towel pretty much all the time, I even slept on it. My face was swollen so badly - I had to call 111 as I was on holiday and o got my tooth taken out as an emergency and honestly, that couldn't have happened soon enough.

A&e have doctors and haven't a clue about teeth. You need an emergency dentist not a&e. Cloves are good to help with pain in the interim. Put one near the tooth