How long should antibiotics take to kick in? Tooth really sore.

[Flightattendant12]

I'm on erythromycin for a tooth that's on its last legs.

I've been taking them since Friday morning and it still hurts like b*ggery.

Yesterday was slightly better than Friday, today is getting worse. It's horrible, am already taking paracetamol and ibuprofen, will try the codeine stuff later - he said he hasn't any appointments to take out the dead nerve and do the root canal until April.

I want to cut my head off. Should they be working by now? or is it too soon?

This is day 3 of a five day course btw.

TIA

OMG Flightattendant, how vile for you. I had this once and I remember the agony more than I remember 6 labours. I sat up at night 'cos I was in too much pain to sleep. I wanted to get pliers and pull the tooth out. Only my DH grabbing the pliers off me stopped me actually doing it. I knew it would hurt like hell, but I reckoned it would be a "better" pain than the hideous throbbing vileness that went right through my head. I do think that still suffering on day 3 is extreme bravery. There are quicker-acting antibiotics than the one you're on - I was prescribed Metronidazole (Elyzol/Flagyl etc). You only take it for about 2 days and you never believe it is long enough, but after 24 hours - no pain - bliss. There is still the wait for the appointment for it to be sorted, but I didn't have a recurrence, even with a long wait. You could always get another prescription if it came back . S**T - hope it is sorted soon.

Thanks MCN, it's good you didn't have a recurrence, partly that's what I'm afraid of as I'm not great with a/b's. He was going to give me metronidazole but I said no, because i had it last year and it made me feel really sick. I'd rather be in pain than feel sick which is probably a bit stupid

I just hope it starts to work by tomorrow.
I know what you mean with the pliers

You've cheered me up anyway!

Hi, hope it works by tomorrow. Personally, I would take the sicky antibiotic. I would rather vomit through my nose or ears than have that tooth agony. Actually, I would rather vomit through my skin pores. Is that humanly possible?

Lol. You'd be great fun on the emetophobe threads, my friends over there would run screaming with fingers in their ears

I might change my mind if it doesn't start to kick in soon...

Thanks again x

Call your dentist in the morning - you need an emergency appointment. They should definitely be working by now. If they won't give you a slot ask them for a number for the emergency NHS dentist in your area who will be able to see you tomorow. The appointment should take minutes so there's no reason for them not to fit you in.

Metronidazole is the AB of choice but I think is more expensive which might be why they gave you erythro first. Metro is much better at penetrating bone which is where your infection is.

I've had 3 abcesses and 2 root canals by a dentist who loooveees to talk and explain everything so I know what I'm talking about.

Ahh now I see why he gave you erythromycin

Make sure you take the metronidazole with food even if its just a slice of bread. if its really bad you could ask for an antisickness pill, they might be kind...

Pheebe is right - My DH takes Prozac but has to take an anti-emetic with it.

Hello, thanks Pheebe, I am so terrified of taking metronidazole. I took it for 15 days last summer (one and a half courses) and by the end I had to stop, I was waking in the night shivering, having awful panic attacks, feeling like I was going to throw up - it was nasty.

Tooth is still tender to touch but didn't keep me awake last night, I just want the nerve taken out but I went in this morning, and they had nothing still until April 1st. I didn't stay as they were really busy plus I had ds2 with me, and nobody to watch him, so I said I'll wait till tomorrow - see if it stops hurting by then, and my mother can have ds while I am seen.

I don't want to take metronidazole after the eryth. also because I had c diff last year, and taking more different a/b's could cause that to come back - the erythro is already upsetting my stomach.

I'm between a rock and a hard place tbh. I even thought about asking them if I could pay to have the RCT sooner, but not sure how that would work really?

Do you not have a dental hospital in your area FA? They would give you the treatment if your own dentist cannot do so for that long.

Although I do think your dentist is being very unreasonable, as in my experience the infection will come back again if the cause is not treated pretty soon after the ABs.

No, Tiggy I don't think we do - although I will enquire at my GP's as I think they have a dental bit there, we're new there so don't know who uses it. Thanks for the idea.

I understand he is fully booked but i am scared it'll come back/ get worse and I just can't risk taking more a/b's. The c diff took 4 months to get rid of, I never want to go through that again.

Have checked and GPs don't offer anything, it's for special needs apparently? (not sure what kind of special needs - I mean, people with unusual dental problems?)

I rang my dentists again and asked the receptionist if there was any way I could jump the queue, but she said no, because he only does NHS work, so unless he can fit me in sooner I can't just pay and be done quicker. Some of the partners do private work but he doesn't - I guess I'm not allowed to switch, unless I keep paying privately from now on and there's no way I can afford that.

She has offered to speak to him and ask if he can do anything, but I feel really embarrassed as he is a lovely bloke and I hate to be pushy. I hope they can somehow manage it though.

Sorry the bit about special needs wasn't sarky, I just couldn't work out what it meant.

Do be pushy! Its ridiculous that you should have to wait til March. They can do a quick fix for you, where they drill the tooth, drain the infection and pack it with an Ab paste. Its a temporary solution but should carry you through til you can get the full root filling done. Would also mean you shouldn't need any more oral Abs. Definitely push for this as a minimum. Also there should be no problem about you taking a private slot with one of the partners to get this done if your dentist REALLY can't fit you in. If he is a nice bloke I'm sure he'd rather you did that than suffer. CALL THEM BACK

Yes, they really should not be leaving you without treating the tooth as the infection is likely to come back very quickly (I speak from experience as a veteran of tooth absesses-I have spent may a night crying with the pain).

Mine have always been sorted out as soon as the AB's are finished.

{Oh, special needs dentists treat children with autism, for instance, as they are very reluctant to let anyone even look in their mouths. Experience with that too, unfortunately}.

Oh golly. Firstly apologies Tiggy, it did cross my mind but I saw on another thread someone mentioned 'special needs' dentists meaning they dealt with people who had very bad teeth and issues surrounding that - maybe fear of dental work etc, so wasn't sure iyswim. Yes I can understand what it means now, sorry you have experience of it - it must be very hard, I remember taking ds1 to the dentist for the first time and he screamed so much he was just terrified. Hopefully the special dentists have a few tricks up their sleeves!!

Pheebe, I wonder if he has already done that - he did drill it and I felt a bit of scraping but not for long, like with a proper RCT - then he said he had put an ab paste in, and sealed it up.

Though if that means it shouldn't be still hurting, i guess something else must be going on?

I'm so confused. I wish I understood about teeth.

Stop press!!!!!!

They have just called me back, and my darling dear sweet dentist has decided to do a few saturdays and get some longer treatments done. I am booked in for the 21st of Feb. Yippeee!!!!!!

Thats fantastic news

Pheebe, do you think I should still go back and get some more ab's? I mean, if it still hurts, does that mean the infection still needs knocking out (or calming) some more, or would it be hurting in any case until they did the RCT properly?

I'm anxious not to risk my digestive health too much by taking more, but then again if it's going to get really really bad again (as in crying rather than just suffering) maybe it means something else is going on in there? (or in another tooth )

Not sure if I need to bother him tomorrow or shoudl just wait 10 days. It's not unbearable at the moment, just not great either.

Personally I would go with more Abs if its still that tender, especially if he's drained it and packed it already and its still sore. I had the temporary fix done over christmas after a course of metro knocked the worst of the infection out and had no pain for the 2 weeks it took to fit me in for the full treatment. It did stay tender but the constant throbbing pain went.

If you can stand the metronidazole it really is the best one. Try taking it alongside yakult or something to give your digestive bugs a boost.

Thankyou Pheebe, you're a star (I am such a bore on this!)

It's not bad this morning but I think I'll go in and ask if he thinks more ab's would be a good plan - also maybe he might re-pack it or something, I don't know - he used a steroid one time in a different one.

(am taking three different types of probiotic at the mo!!!)

The main thing is it's going to be fixed in 11 days, so I can stop panicking.

thanks again

No worries flight, I've been where you are more than once and I know how miserable it is (specially with little people to look after too!). Glad you're getting it sorted though