is anyone a dentist? help!

[littlefrog]

my tooth hurts SO much!

Now, before everyone says get thee to a dentist, that's exactly what I have done already, and he says he can't see anything wrong... I had a wisdom tooth extracted about 3 weeks ago, all fine, seemed to heal well, wasn't all that painful. Then, a week ago, I suddenly got toothache like I've never had - super-sensitive tooth, and a burning kind of pain that seemed to take over my whole head. First appointment I could get at the dentist was Friday, so I bore it all last week, with lots of painkillers and getting up in the night for extra hot water bottles. Anyway the dentist had a look, and took an x-ray and said he couldn't see anything wrong at all. He's given me a low dose of amoxycillin, but it's still SO painful, it's really making life miserable.
Is there anything I can do? What is this, what's making my mouth so sore?
And are there any better painkillers I can take - I'm taking paracetamol/codydramol and ibuprofen, and they're definitely not deadening everything, at all... (oh, I'm breastfeeding still...)

Comeovener is you gal.....

...although she is moving into the world of feeding everyone sugar is is a qualified dentist I think,

Not a dentist, but if you can get Oil of Cloves from your pharmacy, you can get pretty good relief - you paint it onto the tooth.

This does not, of course, tackle the cause of the pain.

have clove oil, have tried it, makes no difference... this is so horrible, and it makes me so bad-tempered and gloomy

Hmm, severe pain following an extraction could be a dry socket (when the blood clot is moved from the extraction site exposing the nerves)..but I'm sure the dentist would have picked up on that. I would go back and see the dentist though and tell them you are still in agony (not a dentist but work for one!, maybe there will be more to see now. I wouldn't put clove oil onto an already sore extraction site!!

Surely he would have picked up on that?! He said that the extraction site had healed nicely, and certainly it didn't cause me any trouble at all for the first fortnight - the next tooth along felt sensitive, but that's been the case for a long while (and is really the reason the wisdom tooth has come out).

could it be nerve damage? is this what it would feel like?

Yes I think he would have picked up on it. Sorry, I don't know if it could be nerve damage. I do suggest you go back and see him again though!

He said basically stick it out, take the antibiotics, if it's not better after 10 days (10 days!) then make an appointment to come back again - which will take near enough another week after that...

I guess what I'm looking for is advice on what to do if the dentist says: your gums look fine, your extraction site has healed well, your teeth look good, there's no sensitivity to gentle knocking all around the area - and yet I'm in such pain! what can it be?? I was SO depressed coming away from the dentist on Friday being told 'there's nothing wrong' - sounds ridiculous, doesn't it... but if he'd known what it was maybe he could have done something...

Bumping for any dentists!

I was a dental nurse for 12 years and it sounds to me like a dry socket to be honest. You need to go back and get a dressing in the socket to help it heal over. Dry sockets are extremely painful.
A dry socket is a situation where the extraction site's healing has been delayed usually by loss of the natural clot that forms over the socket post extraction.
With time the extraction site will still go ahead and heal on its own, it will just take longer than it would otherwise. Dry socket treatments do not speed up the healing of the wound, they simply help to mitigate the discomfort the patient experiences while the (now prolonged) healing process takes place. A medicated dressing will sooth a dry socket.
Hope this helps.

Hopefully a dentist will be along soon. We had a patient like this recently, she had a slight dry socket but even after it had healed she kept calling in real pain. The dentist really felt for her but couldn't see anything wrong so couldn't DO anything, it was very frustrating!! It DID get better though with time, hang on in there. And hopefully a dentist will be along soon with some better advice!!

But the dentist said the socket had healed, c0mfort...

rinse with hot salty water don't think dry sockets would appear after two weeks. Also give some time for the ABs to work, it could be an infection

I am a dentist.

if you can locate the pain as def coming from a partic tooth, and it is constant unremitting pain it is NOT a dry socket.

If it is from a more vague area, including where the tooth was taken yoout, yes, it could be socket pain which I am afraid you will have to put up with till it gets better.

please tell me more.

oh jasper, it almost feels better being able to ask questions about it!

What happened was, as I said, I had the tooth taken out, basically because the dentist couldn't explain why I had a lot of sensitivity on the molar beside it, and thought it might be to do with pressure from the wisdom tooth, and because it was hard to clean. Came out really easily, very little pain afterwards (never even thought of reaching for paracetamol etc.), seemed to clear up fine.

A week or so later I realised that the tooth beside was getting very sensitive again and thought oh well, this is probably just because everything's been interfered with, just sit it out.

Then last Monday it suddenly got really horribly painful. Mostly it feels as if it's a pain in the molar next to the ex-wisdom tooth, but sometimes it's in my incisors (top and bottom on that side), sometimes in the molars below - I've assumed this is all referred pain. It's a burning pain, and it comes and goes - sometimes it's gone completely, but 5 minutes later I'm finding it hard to sit still with it.

Dentist did a x-ray and couldn't see anything...

If this is pain I just have to bear, is there anything I can go and ask the GP for tomorrow?

Thank you thank you...

I don't think the GP will give you anything other than codeine/ibuprofen/paracetamol when breastfeeding, I had severe nerve pain in my leg and begged several GPs for anything else and they wouldn't!!!

bumping in case a dentist comes on this morning!

hi Littlefrog.
is there a filling in the sore tooth? If you tap it with a pen does it hurt?

Hi Jasper - no to both. Even gum isn't sore to the touch, though it feels as if it should be. GP has given me diclofenac, which again doesn't seem to do anything at all.
I'm scared now that this is some kind of nerve damage/inflammation, as it seems to come and go so much, and when it comes, it isn't confined to a single tooth, it's the whole of that side of my mouth...

bump!

Rest assured it is not nerve damage as your mouth was fine following the extraction.

I confess to being stumped.

HOWEVER it is not that uncommon for someone to get quite severe pain for no identifiable reason and it always just goes away by itself.

I think the more you panic about it the worse it will get , I do hope that does not sound patronising!

Do you smoke?

that's really reassuring, as I have to say I have been panicking quite a lot as time has gone on and it's just got worse.

None of the painkillers make any difference, nor do hot/cold water bottles - basically it just seems to come and go. Sometimes it's completely fine, at other times it's agonising.

I don't smoke, never have, I can't think of any bad mouth-related vices (drink decaf coffee and tea, though I'm going to give hot drinks a rest for a few days and see if that makes any difference). My teeth are good - I have 3 fillings, I think. Though I did have quite a lot of discomfort following a white one, which went on for some months (nothing compared to this - sensitivity, not bursts of pain)

Ok . Deep breath.

No more panicking!

It is always a mistake to attempt a distance diagnosis (it's a bit hocus pocus!) but you have given a good detailed description of your signs ( none) and symptoms ( many)

I will wave my virtual magic wand in your direction and pronounce you on the road to recovery.

I have a theory you will never find in the textbooks.

You take out a tooth in a senitive human being (thats you Froggy)
THAT IS NOT NORMAL

Mother nature never agreed to have unwanted bits of her perfect design cut out and discarded.

The surrounding nerves will shout out to complain! sooner or later thay will realise that their world is ok , really, and will calm down.
You see they are just like little children really.

Please tell me in a few days I was right.

I hope noone can identify me. I might get struck off

I like being called froggy, that is what i call ds!

Also the idea of nerves being like fussed little children.

Am trying the deep breaths, which definitely make dealing with the discomfort easier (might dig out my hypnobirthing cd, it worked amazingly with ds). have also decided to cut out hot drinks for a bit - seem to make it worse. cutting out all food and drink seems tempting every now and again, but i'm too much of a hungry person for that kind of a resolution to last!

Thank you for the reassurance, it's been really helpful. And I plan to be back here sometime next week saying pain in teeth, what pain in teeth?