Really frightened

[dobbyisfree33]

I know this is going to sound dramatic but I have low level toothache and I'm really scared. A year or so ago I had a wisdom tooth go bad and it went from no pain at all to catastrophic, can't eat/sleep/function pain very quickly, within days. The short story is my NHS dentist was useless and basically said I would have to wait up to 9 months to have it removed at the hospital. So I paid to have it removed privately within a week.

I'm now starting with pain in the wisdom tooth on the other side. I'm so scared of the pain I had before returning and not being able to access help. I really will struggle to pay privately again but there is no way I could have waited like they wanted me to last time.

The soonest my dentist can even see me is 10 days away and I'm hoping they'll be able to do an X-ray to check for decay or other issues. But I have lost all faith in the UK dental system and just don't know what to do if it's bad news. Also very worried things may ramp up pain wise in the meantime.

Has anyone been through similar or has any advice?

Just here with solidarity as my tooth broke my earlier and god knows when I’ll get seen.

In our area we can call 111 if we can't be seen by our NHS dentist and they will arrange to be seem by another, but you can be sent anywhere (not necessarily local). It is no thrills, they won't try to save teeth, but they will help. Usually we get sent to the place where we're sent to have difficult teeth removed, so it could be worth a try.

If you have pain get some Oragel, it's the dogs bollocks. Nothing can be done tonight so try to calm, int go worst case and just sort what you can in the morning.

Good luck with it - tooth pain can be awful. Dose up with paracetamol to help you sleep tonight and hopefully you will be seen soon.

Wisdom tooth pain is really awful. Clove oil worked a treat for me. I am in London and had it removed privately for around £300 privately a few years ago and until I could get it sorted it was clove oil that got me through it. Crossing fingers for you.

The pain isn't even that bad at this stage it's more the worry after what happened before. I can't describe how awful it was. My tooth was rotting inside (the pulp I believe?) and it was such an intense pain deep in my gum. Antibiotics helped but only after two courses and 5 days of sheer agony. By that point I just wanted it out.

I think I'm just worried about the same thing happening again. And panicked by how disinterested my dentist was before. I was literally in tears in the surgery. I went to a private dentist who was lovely but it cost the best part of 1k to get it out and I don't have that sort of money to do it again if it ends up being a similar thing.