Tooth abcess, dentist not allowed to take teeth out from today. Help pls.

[danni0509]

Can anyone help please? What do I do in this situation.

I have an abcess, I have had an emergency dental appointment with my private dentist this morning. Xrayed, told this is what I have and given amoxicillin 500mg x 3 a day for 5 days, plan was to have tooth removed Monday morning.

Just had a call half hour ago, my appointment Monday has been cancelled. New corona guidelines from today is no extractions / fillings or root canals. Antibiotics only.

The dental nurse who phoned said she was sorry but she had no idea when they could get me in for extraction could be weeks or even months.

What do I do if these antibiotics don't work? Will they even work?

god I hate teeth

Are they sure they've intrurpreted it right?
I'd call teh NHS emergency dentists and see what they say.
You can't stay on AB's for weeks or months for this. It'll be agony.

Not ideal but I managed my own absess with tumeric on a small piece of cotton wool and held it all evening wedged along upper gum where absess was.
I have now had the tooth out about 4 weeks ago but I put it off for years.

They are correct. Nhs England updated guidance today - dental procedures give off aerosols which is what happens in intensive care I believe. Think they are meant to be setting up nhs hubs where they have dentists with full protective hospital grade kit from the nhs

I'm really sorry you're going through this. Tooth abscesses are the worst.
I'm not saying it will, but if it gets worse it absolutely cannot be left.
There must be some sort of provision to get it sorted.

My dentist cancelled my routine appointment today and said there would be hubs set up for emergencIes and for me to ring the practice to get the number in an emergency. So I guess these hubs would have full on PPE

Yes they've interpreted the guidelines correctly. It's the same in all 4 parts of the UK
Aerosol generating procedures are very high risk for transmitting Covid 19.
If any doubt, consider the 2 cases of UK ENT surgeons who are on ITU Ventilators at the moment. ENT staff, Anaesthetics and dental all work up close to nasal/ oral -prime areas for viral transmission.

Are you near a dental hospital ? They may have a plan of action to deal with Covid + and unknown status
Covid. But unless they've been fitted with FFP3 masks at these dental hospitals & and have full PPE, it'll be prescriptions and pain relief there too.

Abscesses need treatment really.

I believe this is the advice being given to dentists currently, not do any dental treatment even extractions. I don't know what effect this is going to have on the NHS because people with abscess that could be simply treated will end up in A&E.

If these antibiotics dont work they will have to try a different type, normally a combo if antibiotics does work.

What I would do is basically try and pop it myself. Get some salt water and hold it over the abscess and suck really hard. Don't use any instruments or anything but try and suck it so it pops. If you can get it to drain then it should be fine.

I'm sorry OP, I wish I knew the answers myself. Hopefully the antibiotics will work, and usually they do. However it won't go away forever.

You may have to wait a week or so if the antibiotics don't work but there are systems being put in place for these type of things. There is no point in protecting everyone from Coronovirus if we let them die of other treatable things.

I would definitely try and drain it myself, will stop the pain for a while

I had similar at Christmas except I couldn't have the tooth removed as I'm pregnant. I took the course of amoxicillin, it took the infection down. My gum swelled up again a month later, my dentist drained it. Since then it hasn't come back, I planned to have the tooth removed in the Summer but looks like that will be delayed.

My dentist told me yesterday they could do emergency work still. Has this changed?

Thanks for all advice. In answer to a few questions.

We don't have a dental hospital here, I'm not sure we even have one in any of the surrounding areas.

I'm not registered with an nhs dentist, just a private one. Can I still access nhs emergency care if they set these hubs up? Can't find an nhs dentist for love nor money hence having to go private.

And I can't see / feel the abcess, I have nothing on my gum to burst iyswim.

I'll take these amoxicillin for 5 days & hope fucking pray they work. Then I'll have to phone back for more / different ones if they don't.

I've got paracetamol, nurofen and codeine here that's as strong as I've got so if I need anything more will gp prescribe if I phone explain situation?

Thanks again.

@SugarSugarShimmy yes guidelines changed today.

Last time I had a dental infection was 7 years ago whilst I was pregnant so only took paracetamol and amoxicillin and had a root canal in the end. Same pissing tooth flaring up now.

I can take any tablets / antibiotics they throw at me now not being pregnant so least that's a plus.

Dentists have been hit hard by Covid 19. Front line exposure (one of the very highest) not eligible to get medical protection as reserved for doctors, dropping patient numbers but needing to stay open for patient duty of care. No rates relief for them - (but opticians get it) just a loan which will need to be paid back and whilst the 80% will pay their staff during this period, they are self employed and have always been historically generally. Yet there they were, private and nhs , taking the pressure off A&E. they weren’t even named in the key worker list and it had to be clarified by the BDA.

They say you only know what you’ve got when it’s gone. Suspect the uk will find that out re toothache post all this. My husband is a dentist and lots of not sure if they can financially continue (whether private or nhs), but hey, rates relief for clothes shops was more important than the country’s dental health.

My dentist is private and they mentioned the hub to me but it didn’t sound like it was set up yet

Your dentist wouldn't have prescribed antibiotics if he didn't think they would work.

It only got announced today - after weeks of begging for guidance.

I have an abcess, I have had an emergency dental appointment with my private dentist this morning. Xrayed, told this is what I have and given amoxicillin 500mg x 3 a day for 5 days, plan was to have tooth removed Monday morning.

I'm surprised your dentist made an appointment for as soon as Monday. Dentists won't do anything with an infected tooth, and it can take up to a week or even more for the antibiotics to kill the abscess.

What do I do if these antibiotics don't work? Will they even work?

Yes they will. They will kill the infection causing the abscess and thereby relieve pain. However, they are only ever a temporary solution because the underlying decay which has allowed your tooth to become so badly infected is still there. That can only be removed by extraction or root canal.

I'm kind of in the same boat as you - I had antibiotics for a painful dental abscess 2 months ago and was supposed to get back to them for a root canal. However, I was away for a while in Feb and now this.... but it's my own fault as take terrible care of my teeth. Only myself to blame!

My 9yo dd has an abcess that flares up from time to time. Honestly, the best thing is to burst it and do salt baths twice a day, Not pleasant but it does work. She hasn't needed antibiotics this time.

I've an abscess under a crown. Rinses with warm salt water help.
It will probably make a head eventually, so you can burst it.

@danni0509
Yes you'll be able to access an emergency hub,regardless of being a private patient.
There'll be very tight qualifying criteria for these hubs, when they're set up though. The respirator masks are very hard to come by.

Dental hubs should have full PPE. assuming they can get anyone to staff them that is. Lovely to see the support here (not) - if it was an nhs intensive care surgeon being treated this way you’d all be up in arms. As it is, not even a squeak from anyone about how a whole healthcare sector is being treated - both financially and protection wise - whilst putting themselves at risk.

I hoe you sort it out soon OP. Hopefully the antiB’s work. 🤞🏻🤞🏻