In horrendous pain, need advice

[shakeyospeare]

Yesterday I went to the emergency dentist s with what I thought was an abscess. I couldn't swallow, had swelling and a white sore around my wisdom tooth, had pain around my jaw, into my neck and around the back of my skull. Couldn't eat or drink.

Dentist says it's an infection and gives me five days of amoxicillin - he couldn't give me anything else because I'm breastfeeding. He said I should start feeling better pretty soon after taking the antibiotics. That was 18 hours ago.

I've not slept. I got up at 4am to take more painkillers (30mg of codeine and a dose of paracetamol) this hasn't touched the pain. It's worse. I can't move head without it being agony. I can't swallow or open mouth.

What do I do? Ride this out today? Expect things to ease up?

I can't think straight because of pain

OP Hot salt water rinses are the best -and also No need to worry about corsodyl staining after temporary use; in any case it's easily polished off.
Very unlikely that the emergency doctor will have anything to do with dental/oral problems; you will be diverted to the OOH dentist. TBH there are so few of the latter left across U.K for Mon to Fri evenings anymore. Sorry -this is the result of all the cuts-emergency NHS evening dental clinics are very low priority apparently😟 Anyway, I am going off on a tangent!
Follow the dose regimes that Lougle & I have given you; and you hopefully will manage. Ibuprofen (not aspirin or any other NSAIS) alternated with co-codamol OR paracetamol.
Track your body temperature & watch for racing pulse, along with any detioriation in swallowing, mouth opening, breathing ----go to A&E-preferably one with a Maxillo facial dept-but any will do.

Tooth infections cause such horrible pain, I feel for you. Co dydramol and diclofenac helped me. Once antibiotics kick in it should start to ease. Good luck!

Bobby mine are stained forever, i have to disagree with you. I would never use that stuff again and would recommend it to anyone. I have very good dental hygiene so regardless of brushing and hygienists the stains do not go.

Wouldn't recommend....

Also sounds bloody obvious but if eating is possible chew on the other side... my face was so swollen I couldn't actually get cutlery in my mouth (not great on Christmas Day) but honestly after the antibiotics kicked in it stopped hurting very quickly. The swelling took around a week to go away completely.

I was a bit like you thinking something more sinister must have been going on as it hurt so much! Started feeling better after around 3 days on antibiotics.

Be careful with the painkillers I've had a really bad back ibuprofen gave me the worst stomach ache and Co codomol terrible constipation I've been in a real state

Hi all, thanks for all advice. Not removed tooth manually yet, so not quite hit rock bottom...

Can't open mouth - physically it won't open wider than two fingers but am alternating pain relief - 2x 30mg codeine, 2 x 500mg paracetamol, 2 x 400 ibuprofen along with salt wash and corsodyl so whilst still in pain, I feel a bit fuzzy, which I guess is the edge taken off.

I've got some lactulose to counteract codeine if needed.

Just need a good sleep or any sleep and hopefully I will feel a newish woman tomorrow. God, I hope I feel even slightly better tomorrow.

Thank you all for your words of wisdom - I can't wait to eat something other than soya yoghurt and sucked on biscoff...!

for you. I had a dental access three weeks ago. Lost nearly a whole week to it as I just couldn't do anything. Luckily a 7 day course of amoxyllin cleared it up, but they didn't start kicking in until I had taken them for two days. And I developed thrush as a side effect of antibiotics, so I had to treat that too . Last week I had the offending tooth repaired with root canal surgery. All well now! There is light at the end of your tunnel.

i had a wisdom tooth abcess a few years ago, i was crawling the walls it was so painful.

definitely try the icepack, the cold will help it! If you have some icecold water (not actual ice) then drinking it and holding the mouthful over the sore bit can also provide a bit of relief.

Shake both times I've had abscesses (and I feel for you toothache is the devils work) my GP has happily prescribed super strength painkillers.

I'm not sure what your allowed to take when breastfeeding but it's worth a call, a telephone consultation should be ok.

Dentists are limited in what they can prescribe. I got nefopam (sp) and it did stop the pain.

@MollyHuaCha root canal sounds pretty painful too! Hope you're all sorted now? I'm half expecting thrush - although I've just got over a bloody bout of it - it's one thing after another at the moment - I'd put me down if I was an animal! I am hoping this light comes pretty soon :)

@cherryskull I can't bear anything touching it - I can't put makeup on, wash my hair, and I slept propped up and woke up in a dribble patch I will try the ice when the next round of painkillers have kicked in - everything is centered around that!

@UnbornMortificado I feel quite guilty about using their time up when things are so busy for the NHS - hate the idea of adding to their workload, but then again this is pretty bloody awful. Might take your advice and call up.

Also, don't know if anyone had similar, but my mouth just won't open very far - it's like it'll open half a cm and then it's locked? I guess it's swelling but it means I can only eat chocolate soya yoghurt (no bad thing!) because I can't open mouth enough to eat anything else. Swallowing is another issue but I have to eat something.

Just repeating advice from dentist up thread

Track your body temperature & watch for racing pulse, along with any detioriation in swallowing, mouth opening, breathing ----go to A&E-preferably one with a Maxillo facial dept-but any will do.

I do hope you're going to be reviewed today OP?
Your mouth opening "trismus"-seems to be deteriorating-if it's gone from 2fingers to 0.5cm (,less than 1 finger).
It's very important for you to be reviewed today. Good luck

I've got an emergency doctor's appointment (mainly for pain relief) - can't get through to the dentist at all :(

I really hoped the antibiotics would have made a difference but I feel like both sides of my jaw and neck are achy and tender.

@Bobbynoggle will GP be able to advise or should I keep trying the dentist?

Can't actually think straight so apologise if asking obvious questions.

Hopefully your GP will be able to add some Metronidazole to your existing Amoxycillin. I don't know what to suggest re BF but you need sorting first as the priority. Note of caution: a lot of GPs in our area of UK will not treat dental issues.
It may be that your dental clinic is closed for lunch? Is the answering machine on? Try dentist again at 2pm-stress the limited mouth opening is worsening & gross swelling not responding to amoxycillin.
Also -Really not true re dentists & limited prescribing of pain relief. We are able to NHS prescribe diclofenac 50mg and dihydrocodeine tartrate 30mg, where appropriate that is.

This thread has actually made me feel sick with the memory of this happening to me. I also couldn't open my mouth .

I don't have any advice but I hope you improve soon.

I've had this. Horrid

Bobby has given brilliant advice already.
Abcesses can get serious so keep an eye out for yourself

I've just spoken to the dentist and she has said there's no point going in as there's nothing they can do and the reduced mouth opening and swelling is nothing to worry about until the antibiotics course has finished. She said they won't prescribe any pain relief either.

She said the GP won't prescribe anything either so thinking I'm just going to have to somehow get through the next few days :( :( :(

I am so tempted to get some pliers.

I've had horrific pain with my teeth and can also definitely recommend Paramol tablets from the chemist, nothing else would touch the pain.

There are other antibiotics you can take when breastfeeding, maybe they are not relevant to your type of infection though. I would definitely ring your doctor as they Might have knowledge of a different one you can try as doctors are prescribing all the time whereas dentists are not. I had an infection after caesarean for example so I was put on metronidazole which treats internal not external infections and my doctor said was safe to take whilst breastfeeding. So I would call your doctor and ask their advice, also about painkillers. Hope you feel better soon x

Really don't think much of that advice OP.
Best thing now is to keep that emergency GP appt & hopefully you will get one with a grain of sense who will add in another antibiotic.
Failing that ring 111 after 5.30 -you may be lucky enough to have an OOH NHS dentist in your area.

X posts. Ring your doctors anyway, how does she know what your doctor would say? At least if you speak to doctors directly you'll have heard it from them. Ring now!