Any dentists around?

[wineandsunshine]

I'm on my second course of antibiotics (metronidazole 200mg) day 5 and my tooth is still so painful. Should the pain have eased by now?

The tooth had a precious root canal just under a year ago but the X-ray didn't show major infection.

It just hurts so much and I'm reluctant to have this pulled but I'm struggling to teach while this hurts!

Hi, yes that doesn’t sound good, are you allergic to penicillin? I think you really do need to try to go back to your dentist so they can have a look and see if there is anything they can do to help get you out of pain.

I can't take metronidazole but the first (and only!) time I was prescribed it, the infection cleared in about two days.

I'd press to be seen again tomorrow, and I'd urge you to consider having the tooth out - root canals often fail and often the best thing to do or get the tooth out! I had mine out and the relief was instant - it was leaking and irritating the nerve (I think that's right, it was about ten years ago now!)

Thank you for the replies. I'm not allergic to penicillin thankfully.
I've managed to get an emergency appointment this afternoon which is good because I want to rip my face off at the moment 🤣🤣

Keep swilling your mouth with warm salty water - it helps!

A cold compress on your cheek on the bad side for ten minutes will also help. Don't use heat because it can make the infection worse!

Disclaimer - I'm not a medic, just unfortunately had a lot of issues with my teeth 😬

I've just been and he agreed it needs to come out - booked in tomorrow afternoon!

You'll feel so much better with it gone!

1.5 hours trying to get the bastard tooth out. I've now got a surgical procedure tomorrow 😞
Literally cried on the dentist and it still hurts.

I feel your pain - literally. I've had two molar's out in the past 18 months. The last one was a bugger to get out but thankfully my dentist had predicted this and referred me to a specialist dental surgery!

Good luck OP, and the best advice I can give you is keep up with the aftercare. Salt water rinses after 24 hours, avoid food that could get lodged in the socket for a week or so, don't bodge the clot and avoid alcohol for a few days.

Thank you! I'm scared about having the gum cut and worried he won't be able to get it all out!

Feeling very sore this morning 😞

Oh it will be absolutely fine! I had stitches top and bottom with my wisdom teeth and it was really sore for a few days but overall wasn't bad and my mouth is so much better now! I've packs and gentle salt swilling really helped!

How did it go OP?

Hope you're okay today @wineandsunshine 😊

I'm not going to lie, it wasn't very pleasant. He spent another hour tugging and cut into my gum to get the root as it had fused with another root. The dental nurse actually said it was the worst extraction she's seen😫

Pain is quite bad today as he only said paracetamol and ibuprofen. It's throbbing if I don't take them.

Any advice on when this should ease?

Blimey that sounds traumatic. I hope that you feel better soon. You sound really brave.

I feel your pain. I had exactly the same thing done a few years ago and I clearly remember actually moaning in pain ( without realising it ) between painkillers. Think that only lasted a couple of days though and it did heal very quickly.

Should ease day by day until it doesn't hurt anymore. Usually a good few weeks before you don't notice it anymore.
Upper or lower tooth?
Lower extractions / females / difficult extraction / smokers = high chance of dry socket.
You should be doing warm salt mouth rinses frequently throughout the day by this point. Let the WSMR 'puddle' around the socket-hold as long as possible and then spit out. No vigorous rinsing or spitting. Rest as much as possible OP.

Honestly, ice packs. I slept on mine at one point. I also used cocodamol and ibuprofen with codeine a couple of times with no ill effiso if you can get them, it's worth trying them.

Thanks all - it's an upper molar.
I don't smoke and tried the salt rinse today - wow, that stung!

I can't take co-codamol as it makes me sick but the pharmacist said to gargle with a dissolvable tablet.

The salt shouldn't sting - dilute it more next time! Are you using ice packs too? They really help to reduce the inflammation!

My upper hole healed slower than my lower one, and the stitches drove me mad!

I did put quite a lot of salt in 🤣 will try again before bed and take an ice-pack.

DH had a look and said it looks sore/red with a white line - guessing that's the stitches!

It will look a bit weird and gross for a week or two, try not to worry if it goes a bit yellow looking But if it get sore, inflamed, foul tasting..go back for a check up.

Keep up with the salt rinses.

Hi,
Amoxicillin is the antibiotic of choice for dental infection unless you’re allergic.
Antibiotics might help subsiding the pain temporarily but will not remove the cause . If root canal treated tooth has a severe pain , usually it’s failed so it has to be re-treated by a root canal specialist or removed .

good luck with your treatment !

Well I've now got dry socket and an infection - more antibiotics for me! Yippee 😫😫😫