Worried about DH :(

[PumpkinPie2016]

Not an AIBU really but just want to ask opinions/offload.

On Wed just gone, my husband said he had toothache in one tooth. Took paracetamol/ibuprofen which was fine and didn't think much of it at first.

It got gradually worse and he used over the counter Co codomol but they were not fully getting rid of the pain.

Saw our dentist on Thur at 12.15pm who diagnosed sinusitis (DH has had a cold recently) and prescribed an antibiotic.

Fast forward to yesterday- anything warm/hot e.g. a cup of tea was aggrevating it but cold water was helping. Painkillers weren't working. Last night was horrendous- he was in agony all night, up every 10-15 mins for cold water.
Rang 111 at 5am who advised him to go to A&E which he did.

He came back with stronger co codomol (30mg codeine and 500mg paracetamol) plus naproxen.

He has taken these as directed but is still in so much pain. Surely they should have had some effect?!

He is honestly not a complainer and had to persuaded to go to A&E as he didn't want to waste their time! But he is honestly in agony.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it a case of waiting it out? Any tips?

While waiting for an appointment he could try swilling the affected area with warm salty water - a teaspoon of salt dissolved in a cup of warm water, take a mouthful and swill it round the area for as long as he can, spit it out then another mouthful etc till the cup,is empty. One cupful every half hour.
This provides an unsuitable environment for any infection, if it isn't infected it won't do any harm.

I had a problem with a wisdom tooth and it wasn't normal tooth pain. It was agony. I had to get serious painkillers from my GP.

I had this and it was a dental abscess

I found abses more painful than childbirth. And it took 2-3 days for antibiotics to kick in (also was not picked up on first visit to dentist)

Sounds to me too like trigeminal neuralgia. I have it and I thought it was toothache at first. So many trips to the dentist and painkillers and nothing touched the pain until my dentist finally had a brainwave and sent me to my GP to get a referral to a Neurosurgeon.

Is it constant or does the pain come in waves when touching your face/brushing teeth/washing face etc?

Thank you for all of the replies/suggestions.

We have just been on to 111 and following assessment, we are waiting for a clinician to call back.
If nothing else, if he could just get pain relief until Mon when he can contact the dentist again, that would massively help.

I'll update when they have called back.

Pain comes in frequent waves.

I had this and it was the nerve dying. I went back to the dentist and he removed all of the nerve and filled it. Just had the permanent root canal yesterday! I’ve also had 2 labours and the pain from this was just the worst.

Sounds more than just sinusitis to me - I had pain in my jaw with it, and antibiotics helped because everything started coming out and the pain eased.

Reminds me of when I had a dying nerve in my tooth, temperature change would trigger the worst pains (coming in from cold outside into warm house/drinking or eating warm things etc). It was worse than labour pain and I was scared as it radiated into my head so wasn’t sure if it was even my tooth anymore. I was also initially told it may be sinusitis by dentist. By the time I got back to the dentist the pain had stopped and it turned out the nerve had died all together!

Yes I had these waves with the dying nerve, it was a lot like labour in that it would ease off for a few minutes or even as long as half an hour then build up again to a crescendo..then repeat.

Sadly I have experienced this a few times too.
To relieve the pain, I kept drinking copious amounts of cold water to cool the tooth. I was waking up throughout the night to drink water and alternating between paracetamol and ibuprofen but it only dulled it slightly. Fed up, I tried the warm water with salt and at first the pain got worse but after 10 mins, the pain went and I got a couple hours respite. Went back to dentist and after she drilled a hole into the tooth, the pain disappeared. I needed root canal treatment.

Sounds exactly like my situation recently. I had the worst toothache I've had in my life, it was agony, and the only thing that helped was holding cold water in my mouth.

Apparently this is a sign that the pulp inside the tooth is dying due to infection. The cold water causes the gases inside the tooth to contract which relieves the pressure on the nerve inside. A root canal sorted out and removed all of my pain.

He’s got an abscess. Do not waste A&Es time. Find an emergency private dentist and get it sorted tomorrow

Same as PP’s, i had a root canal and the dentist said a classic sign of tooth root/nerve issues was when cold drinks helped with the pain whereas anything else didn’t touch the sides. I still test any tooth pain with a glass of iced water even now as I lived with the pain of what was eventually fixed in an afternoon for weeks.

Sounds like an abscess to me. Which would need dental treatment, root canal and draining in my experience! (Would be interested to know if it can ever be solved just by antibiotics).
Get him to freeze a bottle of water, wrap it in a tea towel and place it under his chin - it'll numb the nerves and help him sleep. When I had this it's the only thing that helped when drinking ice cold water was making me vomit and I couldn't stay up all night swilling and spitting.

My DH had sinusitis in the summer, emergency private dentist put him on antibiotics. He was in pain for ages, even after the antibiotics finished. Had a blood test through GP but infection had gone and it did get better a couple of weeks later. He said the pain was so bad he wanted to rip his tooth out and he needed to lie down in a dark room. He also hates the dentist so it took a lot for him to go (and pay £200 for it!).

We are waiting on a doctor to call us back (hopefully soon!) And hopefully prescribe some different pain relief.

DH said dentist did x-rays but nothing showed in terms of the teeth/abcess - he could see the sinuses apparently and where they were pressing on the nerves.

Hoping the doc calls soon and we get sorted!

Phone 111 and say "dental". That is a magic word.

You can't see on a dental xray your sinus 'pressing on a nerve'. That's crap

Dental is not a magic word calling 111. Most doctors have no ability to diagnose a dental problem.

If he first identified it as toothache, it's made worse by hot and isn't touched by painkillers it is most likely toothache. I would go back to the dentist. It could be sinusitis giving referred pain but it's not improved on antibiotics.

It doesn't sound classic for trigeminal neuralgia

I’m surprised the dentist didn’t x ray - seems like that would be standard for significant dental pain. I’m not a dentist but have needed two root canals so I like to think I know a thing or two about dental pain. Towards the end (nerve dying) painkillers did not touch the pain due to infection/swelling and the only thing that brought any kind of relief was cold water. It was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced. Childbirth was a doddle in comparison.

Nothing showed on my X-rays initially either, that was quite early days though before the pain got really bad. That was when the dentist suggested it might be sinusitis. I don’t think an infected nerve is obvious on an xray. I still think it is tooth related, it sounds exactly like I was. I hope he gets sorted soon.

111 should be able to find an emergency dentist, the small hospital in the town near us has an emergency dental surgery which is open on Sundays and I know another general hospital in the county has one too. They’re not specific to dental hospitals.

Yes, it does.

When I had this it was an abscess, I was sent by 111 to an NHS emergency dentist appt on the day. They xrayed it, drained it and did a root canal.