AAAAGH!!!!!!Agonising toothache in potentially failed root canal [sad]

[BoffinMum]

Had root canal in 2007. Now in great pain. Feels like poker in side of head and up side of face. Tooth tender.
Taken codeine phosphate 30mg, amoxycillin prescribed by dentist on Friday, 1000mg paracetemol.
Have cold pack on head and ice cubes in mouth but nothing will make pain go away.
Dentist took xray and he will talk to endodontist when she is in next week about whether we can avoid extraction.
Advice needed from anyone who works with teeth or who has survived similar experience.
I am a very Boff tonight.

Have it checked out tomorrow at an emergency dentist. Mine was infected and would never have healed. I was crying on the phone to NHS direct and begging them to send me someone with pliers!

I think I will stay on the anaelgesics and home cures for tomorrow, while DH is around to supervise my care, and go to see the dentist again on Monday for more advice.

No emergency dentistry in my area - you have to go up to near the next county, wait quite literally half a day, and they rarely actually treat anyone with abcesses, they just send them away with nothing. It ain't like da big cities oop here, you know.

I've recently had a tooth removed after getting an abcess after a filling went wrong, so I share your pain. Are you able to take ibuprofen at all? I found it really helped with the toothache, didn't get anywhere with codeine and paracetamol (although only tried otc stuff.)

My experience was really similar although had root canal done then abscess flared up about 2 weeks later. Went to emergency dentist who, without an x ray, decided my own dentist must have left some of the root in. She drilled me without any anaesthetic then sent me home with antibiotics looking like the elephant woman.

Try and manage pain by taking strongest ibruprofen then 2 hrs later codeine and paracetamol. Once antibiotics kick in and swelling ones down you can discuss whether it needs to come out or can be saved.

May the force be with you it's almost as painful as childbirth

Just to reassure you I kept my tooth, so is worth persevering if you can.

Lots of urban myths whirling around on this thread. As the tooth has no nerve in it, clove oil won't work (it is debatable whether it works anyway).

An abscess is a collection of pus around the root of a tooth, this happens in some root canal treatments, no matter how expertly thu have been done.

Re-root canal treatment is a specialist job and may fix the problem however, if the root is cracked, it will be that which is letting the bacteria in and the tooth will need extracting.

My sympathy- toothache is horrendous! I had a flare at 5am few days ago which luckily turned out to be food trapped

My strategy is usually to smother area in Oragel ( avail OTC containing good amount of local anaesthetic). You can also take up to 60mg codeine although beware constipation !!

Hth
Good luck x

I found co codamol with ibprofren inbetween doses helped when I was in agony with toothache a couple of weeks ago .
Nearly finished third week of antibiotics ,still aware of swelling and some pain .
Hate to think what this weeks dental appointment will be like .

Back now. I am wondering whether it's starting to settle a bit now I am on Day 3 of the antibiotics, but I am still on the whisky and occasional codeine phosphate and paracetemol. I have been taken off the 18 year old single malt and put onto the rather cheaper Famous Grouse!!! I'm keen to see if it's a bit better in the morning, and I am interested that some people have managed to keep their teeth ... maybe I will be lucky. Anyway, this evening I am not having to hold a cold pack on my face like yesterday, although it's a bit uncomfortable. I live in hope.

Pain free today! Is this a good sign?

it's probaby feeling better because the AB's have got rid of the infection, but if the tooth is cracked then you're going to end up with another one...

glad it's feeling better now though, when are you seeing the dentist?

Ouch, poor yiu.

My brother had recurring, v v painful infections in his root canal tooth, when they took the tooth out (procedure not too bad) a rancid stinking bag of infection fell out and made the dentist's room stink. He had a good look and we discussed it at length, v satisfying, we're weird like that!

I am waiting for the dental surgery to ring me.

God, I had no idea a tooth could be so infected. If I have to go through that I ought to do a live sporn thread.

I made the fatal mistake of Googling root canal pus on YouTube.

It is up there with Dragon Butter.

can you imagine it?
"i hope you don't mind, but i've brought someone along to film this, they need it on MN"

I just had a tooth fixed that broke in half because it was so filled at a root canal years ago that they didn't leave a lot of tooth around the filling. It turned out to have three roots so I had to have a lot of tooth drilled out.

Anyway... The tooth broke in half and then the filling fell out leaving me with half a tooth. My lovely dentist put a pin in it and filled it back out with filling. He said if it doesn't last I can have a bridge from the tooth next to it. Would this be an option if you have to lose the tooth?

Good luck. It's a bastard isn't it?

Any volunteers to come along to the appointment with a camcorder????

I would be a MN pus heroine.

It is just sooooooooo bluddy expensive though!

£120 for AB's and a look at the tooth and an xray.

My appointment is next Monday.

i'll do it!

My dentist charges you £150 just to put your arse into the chair.

If he wasn't loveliness itself and a fantastic practitioner I would find it hard to forgive him.

Message from dentist. Apparently I have to book a 75 minute appointment with the endodontist and a 60 minute appointment 2 weeks later. Do we have any idea what that means?

I have no idea, and I'm not a dentist, but I had a problem with an old root canal 2 years ago and my dentist (who is ungodly expensive but very, very good, so I guess at least I'm getting my money's worth) actually redid the rootcanal. It took something like 4 appointments over the course of a month or so but it hasn't given me any trouble since, so maybe not all is lost?

Usually one appointment is to prepare the tooth. i.e remove old filling & shape the canals, & one appt is to fill it up. It can be done in one visit but if te tooth has been symptomatic it's good to check that the first appointment (& subsequent antibacterial dressing) has fixed the problem & there's no pus hanging around to spoil things. Sometimes a third or fourth appt is needed where thentooth hasn't settled or there's still pus in the canal.

Being kept awake by foxes. Hope that helps

It sounds like that is their plan, then.

Anybody got any idea what the relative chance of success of re-treatment is? I am guessing it's dropped to 50/50 now and I might lose the tooth in another five years or so, or it might work.