Infected tooth extraction. How painful?

[Painpaingoaway1]

On Monday, I started having pain in my back tooth and my gums. By Wednesday the pain was excruciating so I saw my dentist and was prescribed antibiotics. The pain became worse today despite taking the antibiotics so I saw an emergency dentist. She was absolutely horrible and unsympathetic and wanted to remove the tooth, which i am terrified of. She told me she has other patients to see and if I want to stay in pain then I should leave. She was very rough when looking at the tooth.

Now, I know I'm going to have to have this tooth removed and I'm gonna book into to see my dentist in the morning. I'm in pain but I'm absolutely terrified of getting it removed. Has anyone had an infected tooth extracted and how bad was it?

Hope you've had some relief OP!

How are things @Painpaingoaway1

You need a root canal .......the pain you are in now is unreal I have been there .
I got an emergency appointment and they removed root which was nothing pain wise ..........it just sounds traumatic.
Until root is removed your pain will continue .
I was so bad I was rocking in the chair .

Okay so I saw my dentist today and he said that the tooth is very complicated to get out and will need to be done by an oral surgeon. Hes given me some metronidazole for the mean time and hopes that will calm down the infection. I've been referred so just gotta wait to be contacted. Salt water and paramol is my best friend today. Thanks for checking in.

Glad that you are getting it sorted. Good job you didn't let the other dentist try and pull the tooth out. Hopefully the antibiotics will start to work quickly for you.

Please , unlike what some other posters had said, do NOT put heat near an infected tooth. It will make inflammation worse and can cause infection to track out onto face.

Do NOT use Clove oil inside the mouth it can cause horrific chemical burns and make things worse.

The reason you alternate ibuprofen and paracetamol is so that as one is wearing off the other kicks in. Taking them both at the same time rather negates this advantage.

Is anyone up? I've been up crying in pain all night. I don't know how I can go on like this. What's ringing in my ear is the dentist today told me the antibiotics might not work. I have an abscess which I can feel getting bigger. I need this out today. I can't afford to go private, I can barely afford basic nessecites. I don't know what to do. I'm even willing to go back to that horrible dentist I had yesterday to remove the tooth. I'm seriously feeling suicidal, I've taken my daily dose of pain relief but I need to take more. I can't cope like this any longer

Sorry to read your update @Painpaingoaway1

Antibiotics usually start to work within 36-48 hours so hopefully by lunch time things might start to calm down a bit.

I would try phoning the emergency dentist again and say that you are feeling suicidal with the pain and see what they say.

So sorry for you.

I really sympathise, @Painpaingoaway1. I know it feels like the pain will never ever go but it honestly will get resolved sooner or later, and hopefully sooner! I have everything crossed for you.

I’m sorry you are in so much pain.
I’m a private dentist and we have an on call where one of us will come out and open the surgery at weekends. We charge £200 plus treatment cost (usually around £100-150) for doing this. Could you put it on a credit card?
NHS option is ring 111. Good luck!
If we assess it as too difficult an extraction to attempt ourselves sometimes we can dress the nerve and put a temporary filling in which can help calm the pain.

Have you tried some codeine OP? I sympathise as I remember how painful this is. Paracetamol and ibuprofen weren’t enough for my tooth pain but codeine is stronger and helped. The real relief came once the tooth was out though so I hope that can happen for you soon. Like you, I remember thinking I would rather give birth again without pain relief than go through that. It is the worst. I spent a couple of nights literally pacing up and down in my hallway because I couldn’t cope with the pain and didn’t know what to do with myself. Codeine did help though- get to a pharmacy for that asap.

I spoke to 111. I was basically told to deal with my pain. I told her I'm suicidal and going to overdose on pain medicine she just advised strongly against me taking more than needed. I'm taking paramol and once it kicks in, it helps im just trying to leave a long enough gap between. The lady said that sometimes when on antibiotics it feels like things are getting worse until they kick in. Has this been anyones experience ?

When I had an infection I went to the dentist on day one so it wasn't too painful. Got antibiotics and the pain did get worse over the following 36 hours but then the antibiotics kicked in so it got better quickly. I hope that you are feeling a little better by now.

How are you feeling now ? Have you started getting any relief

I was told to alternate cocodamol (paracetamol and codein) with ibuprofen. You can take cocodamol 4 times a day and ibuprofen 3 times a day; so it means you can have pain relief every few hours (it's important to alternate so you don't have too much of either drug at once).

I found holding an ice pack to my jaw really helped.

In my experience it does take a few days for the antibiotics to work- it was the 5th day of the course when I finally felt a bit better.

It really is horrible, sympathy to you

I could have written your post a few weeks ago - the pain is unreal! I took amoxicillin and metronidazole together and that worked for me but not until a good few days in. I got cocodamol for the pain but when it wore off I thought I was going to die. As soon as the infection cleared I was ok, no pain at all. It's the infection not the tooth causing it.

If you have a wait for the extraction get some back up antibiotics to have at home just incase.

I had the tooth out this week. It was a complicated extraction that took over an hour - it didn't hurt at all due to anaesthetic but It's a horrible experience! After the extraction it's a bit uncomfortable but nothing like the pain of the infection I promise.

I'm also terrified of dental work so when the infection cleared up I decided to find a new dentist that I was comfortable with doing the work. I'm so glad I did because they were fantastic - even held my hand during the extraction - they were so lovely. Although it was an awful experience it would have been worse without their kindness.

Hope you get sorted soon!

Hi everyone. Thanks for checking in. I managed to get some rest from about 9 till 1 and when I woke up I wasn't in any pain. I ate something and the pain seems to have come back but on a lesser scale. I've just taken some more pain relief and I've got an ice pack to my jaw which seems to be helping for now. Hopefully things will start to improve from here

If it’s an abscess you need to get it seen to. You can go to any hospital with a dental department. I had an abscess and I ended up admitted for 5 days with it (complicated by the fact I was at the time 33 weeks pregnant!)

please go to the hospital. Hopefully you’ll feel better soon.

I sadly don't think that's quite correct I'm not sure hospitals do treat dental pain. ! Op is on antibiotics for the abscess so has been seen.

OP really hoping it's starting to calm down and so glad you got some rest

My local hospital has the emergency dentist within the building but I do think that it is quite rare to be honest.

The pain you are suffering now is much worse than anything you will suffer during or after the extraction. You do need to take care of the bone and keep the mouth clean after the extraction, but it will slowly subside. It’s manageable….. you will even sleep well (taking painkillers) for the first week or so. You don’t have a choice, obviously you can’t go on suffering great pain like this, that tooth just has to come out and it won’t take very long. I have had three lots of dental implants which is an extraction followed (later, after healing) by a a screw into the bone and it was all ok. Not completely pain free but I went back on three occasions to get broken/rotted teeth removed and replaced. Please just go and get this sorted out.

Last night I had a look online in an desperate attempt to get seen and saw that there is a dental a&e about 45 minutes away from me. But you can only go there with a 111 referral. I asked 111 about this and was refused as I've already seen by a dentist and I'm on antibiotics. I have to wait for the referral to the oral surgeon to be seen. I am in pain today but I would say its dulled down about 10% since yesterday. Slowly but surely hopefully

If the pain does come back, Cocodamol, taken for a maximum of three days, is much more effective than paracetamol on its own.

Advice to op…. Co-Codamol is great for dental pain but it can cause constipation. So be really careful to keep your fluids up and lots of fibre. if you starts with constipation just take some senna. You will only be on painkillers short term, don’t let the constipation be a problem to you or it will just add to everything.

I've got some co-drydamol that I was prescribed when I had a pelvic infection. Is that the same as co-codamol?