tooth pain -desperate - antibiotics for something else?

[everythinghurts]

my teeth are hurting hugely, made worse by hot/cold things but pretty bad most of the time - it's all up one side. I'm taking as much ibuprofen as I can but it's not making much difference - there are these sort of waves of pain, perhaps every 45 minutes, which last a couple of minutes and are leaving me sweating.
I'm pretty sure it's a tooth infection (had one before) but can't see a dentist before Monday - phoned 111 and they've said there's nowhere in my area that does out of hours.
Buuuuuut, I am breastfeeding and have a blocked duct which could, with bad luck, descend into mastitis. How bad would it be to get an emergency appt with my GP tomorrow to get antibiotics for that in the hope it would help my teeth too? I'm sobbing at the thought of several more days pain like this, and if I did get mastitis too I do think that would break me, though to be fair I've never had it before, have always managed to get the blockage cleared without anything worse happening.
Anyone got any views (technically or ethically)? Or any at-home things I can do for the tooth in the mean time? I've got some iodine-based mouthwash which the pharmacist recommended too.

I would assume that AB for mastitis would also sort out your tooth pain, but I'm not medical.

In the meantime you need to take both paracetamol and ibuprofen. You can take them alternately, so if you are taking them every 4 hours you would take ibuprofen at 8am, 12, 4pm and 8pm, and paracetamol at 10am, 2pm, 6pm, 10pm.

ABs for abscesses tend to be a different kind - something to do with the kind of bacteria in a 'trapped' space as opposed to a general infection. I don't think they would help if you really have a dental infection.

Can you put Orajel or Bonjela on the gum around the tooth? It won't help with the infection but it might take the edge off.

Rub sensitive toothpaste neat into the base of the affected teeth

Thank you everyone.
I don't think it's an abscess - although it hurts like anything, I'm not sure it's bad enough for that. Last time I had an infection I think they gave me something penicillin-ish, but I can't be sure.
It got bad this afternoon but has been a little better for a few hours now - I'm keeping up the ibuprofen so hopefully it's building up (does it do that?!) and yes, thank you, good point about paracetamol too to fill the gaps.
Will also find some stuff to rub on my gums at bedtime, though when I did this earlier it made everything smart much worse. I'm finding it hard to work out exactly where the problem is since there's such a spread of pain - and I'm too much of a wuss to open wide and look in the mirror, if there was a gaping hole or something it would make me feel the pain a thousand times more...

Poor you. Toothache is miserable. So is mastitis though. I would do everything to avoid having both at the same time. I don't know if I was unlucky but I had terrible fever when mastitis kicked in in the middle of the night - was sick, couldn't move, in agony. I'd try sort the blocked duct.

Sorry I don't know re the antibiotics.

Can you call round local dentist surgeries and see if any of them can take you as a one off emergency tomorrow. I got lucky with this once, just try and sound pitiful.

Don't know if you can travel but NHS might find you an emergency appt in a nearby area.

Monday us a long time to wait with bad toothache.

I used the cold gel strips for headaches when I last had toothache. Stuck them to my jaw for night times. Helped a tiny bit.

Oh Forkie, thank you, I needed to hear that - both the sympathy, and the reminder not to get so carried away with my plan of getting anti-b's for the mastitis that I forget that mastitis really is something to avoid!
I'm going to try my local one again first thing tomorrow - she said they sometimes do get cancellations.
There's also the logistical problem of two small children (hard to get them around, hard to manage them in appts, but also hard to be good to them when I'm in pain).

Might be worth trying a hot saltwater rinse in your mouth. If it is a gum or tooth infection then that can help draw the bacteria out. Get the water as hot as you can bear and then pop some salt in and hold it in your mouth on the painful side. Also it might be worth trying some corsodyl mouthwash too as that is good for use after dental surgery. Ibruprofen is best thing for toothache so worth taking that regularly too.

Hope you feel better soon.

You can take paracetamol with codeine which you can buy at the pharmacy plus the ibuprofen as suggested above.

Does a hot water bottle held against your face help? And also, have you called your own dentist and cried pitifully? I'm pretty sure they do definitely should hold some space for true emergencies.

Hope you get it sorted soon.

Bonjela is also good ..

Careful re heat. I tried a hot water bottle and it made it much much worse.

I totally recommend SMOTHERING the affected area in Sensodyne toothpaste and also doing warm salt water rinses.

I found co-codamol to be the only thing that had any effect on my tootache, not sure about taking it if you're breastfeeding though? Hope you manage to get something sorted soon, sounds horrible x

Paracetamol seems to help me better when I have toothache rather than ibuprofen. As for the blocked duct try a hot waterbottle on your chest and then massaging any hard lumps. Also try feeding from that side as much as bearable. Hope you feel better soon!

Co-codamol is more effective for pain than paracetamol. You can buy 8-10mg codine yourself at the pharmacist, but ask your GP for a stronger painkiller (they can give 15 & 30mg doses as co-codamol)

Definitely ask for an emergency appointment with GP, this is the kind of thing emergency appointments are for! Much cheaper for them to have you on the friday emergency list than getting charged for you going to A&E over the weekend.

GPs don't deal with teeth. Neither do A&Es. GPs don't get 'charged' for their patients attending A&E. You local NHs trust has to offer emergency dental services.