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Original poster

Tooth abscess DH in great pain....

23 replies

cyphercat · 23/02/2009 13:59

he is supposed to have root canal done, only managed to have appointment in middle of March. At the moment half of his face is swollen and he can't sleep eat, nor work. They have given him antibiotics and painkillers. Is this it? Shouldn't they drain it at least...???

OP posts:

thisisyesterday · 23/02/2009 14:01

nope, AB's and painkillers is right. it should calm down soon

Lemontart · 23/02/2009 14:05

The antibiotics should kick in within 24-48 hours and hopefully kill the infection, face reduce and should feel a lot better quickly. At least that is my experience. If the painkillers do not cover the pain well enough to allow him to sleep and he is not feeling any better by tomorrow afternoon, perhaps worth phoning the dentist again and seeing if they have a cancellation or even just a ten minute emergency spot to get it checked.

I have had two abcesses. The first one they did excavate it, put a temporary dressing and give dose of antibiotics, follwoed by second appt. a while later for the full on root canal. The second time I had to wait and so was given anitbiotics and told to take paracetamol. Did resort to taking codeine as well and a whisky at night! However, I did feel better for the antibiotics quite quickly and spent the following days waiting with just nagging aches rather than debilitating pain. Dabbing neat clove oil was a godsend too. Definitely helped. Red wine is a natural antiseptic mouth wash too I think

Hope he is brighter very quickly. Any worse and insist he gets seen or even speak to your GP

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 23/02/2009 14:06

They tend to give the antibiotics before doing anything as infection can cause the nerve not to respond to the anaesthetic, which obviously makes any treatment excruciatingly painful!!

Sawyer64 · 23/02/2009 14:09

When I was a Student Nurse,and I worked in A&E,we sometimes saw Emergency dental patients.For pain relief,they were advised to have a mouthful of brandy and hold it against the tooth.Don't know if it worked but have always remembered it.

Original poster

cyphercat · 23/02/2009 21:49

I'm seriously thinking of taking him to emergency root canal dentists...anybody done this? anywhere near tonbridge, sevenoaks, tunbridge wells,, south east??

OP posts:

Original poster

cyphercat · 23/02/2009 21:54

I mean even if this gets better in a week, he might get infected AGAIN and it would be the third time...

OP posts:

LynetteScavo · 23/02/2009 22:00

I've been told this is the only real dental emergancy.

If you don't take him, he won't sleep tonight.

I speak from bitter experience.

Kayteee · 23/02/2009 22:02

Mayday Hospital used to have an emergency dentistry dept. Might be worth giving them a call. They're in Croydon btw.
Your dh has my sympathy it hurts like hell

pamplemousse · 23/02/2009 22:03

My dp went to our emergency dentist with the same. It was fine and he was relieved. It was in Hastings so sounds a bit far for you. I think he phoned NHS Direct for the nearest one and got an appointment that night. Dp had the tooth out iirc obviously it didn't get reinfected and cost him a small fortune!

Original poster

cyphercat · 23/02/2009 22:08

I found one place Pearl Dental clinic. They said he could come tonight and they will do it but is this a dodgy place..??

www.pearldentalclinic.co.uk/kingston-london-opening_hours.html

His dentist told him it's a very tricky one because the root is infected and it's not straight forward root canal.... He's in such a pain and can't eat sleep or do anything now for two days..just sitting on sofa and crying...

OP posts:

Original poster

cyphercat · 23/02/2009 22:09

Dh doesn't want the tooth out...understandably he needs it as he doesn't have any on the other side..had to take it away because of cyst 10 years ago..

OP posts:

LynetteScavo · 23/02/2009 22:11

www.pearldentalclinic.co.uk/kingston-london-opening_hours.html

It looks OK to me.

Please take him.

Original poster

cyphercat · 23/02/2009 22:49

one more question. Can you cake paracetamol with codein with ibuprofen? Thnkas

OP posts:

Nontoxic · 23/02/2009 22:55

I'd say a dentist who'd leave a patient in what I know is real debilitating, miserable agony is dodgy actually.

Well done for finding someone willing to see him. I hope it eases soon.

I know there is a dentist who sometimes posts here with great advice, but I can't remember her name.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 24/02/2009 07:25

As I said above, they don't sound dodgy, as the standard procedure is to let antibiotics work first before doing anything further.

BUT..do they know he is still in so much pain? Perhaps he needs a change of antibiotics.

Also his GP can give him stronger painkillers than the dentist can, if it's just a matter of time for the antibiotics to kick in, so i would be phoning dentist again and making appt to see his GP.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 24/02/2009 07:27

Emergency clinics probably won't do anything different to his own dentist btw, and just charge a lot more, I would speak to them first before assuming they are just abandoning him to suffer this terrible pain!!

(have worked for a dentist for YEARS)

Mithered · 24/02/2009 07:46

I had this 2 months ago and it was excruciating so I can sympathise. However my face was swollen to twice the size also so went to emergency dentist as it was the weekend. She drilled my tooth WITHOUT ANAESTHETIC and I was then given AB's and painkillers.
I went back to my own dentist who couldn't do anything until the swelling had gone down. However went to my GP for stronger painkillers and anti inflammatory drugs.
Have only just had my root canal done last week but all has been fine with it while waiting for treatment

no1putsbabyinthecorner · 24/02/2009 07:59

Hi sorry to hear he is in so much pain. I have also had this and I had ab/pk first before they could work on it. However it wasn't done properly the first time, so had ab/pk again and I ended up seeing an emergency dentist. Hope he gets it sorted.

Nontoxic · 24/02/2009 08:14

I'm sure he last time someone posted with this problem, a dentist came on to say that it was a myth that abs are neede to 'kick in' before draining the abscess.

The puss needs to be drained and you should keep ringing around until you find a sensible person who'll do it.

(Btw, I've got awful teeth and have had both types of treatment - believe me, you feel human again much more quickly when they treat it straight away!)

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 24/02/2009 08:47

Oh , did they? There must be differences between dentists as the ones I work for prefer to give antibiotics first.

However, this does sound like a severe case and perhaps their approach would be different now. I would definitely call them back and report the pain and swelling.

Perhaps being drilled without anaesthetic might be preferable if it relieves the awful pain anyway?

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 24/02/2009 08:47

I mean the original dentists might take a different approach now that the pain and swelling are still so bad!

Mithered · 24/02/2009 15:03

Fanjo - unfortunately it didn't take away the pain and my face continued to swell and was in agony until the ab's kicked in! My dentist was not happy that emergency dentist had drilled it (especially without anaesthetic!) Anyway OP how are is your DH getting on?

Original poster

cyphercat · 24/02/2009 15:27

my DH is feeling much better. We didn't go to the emergency dentist as he couldn't drive and I don't drive. He didn't want to wake his dad up in the middle of the night.

He is feeling much better and feeling human again and feeling that something foul is coming out from the swollen gum...(yeeeeeeek)

We are going to wait until middle of March. Thank you for all your input, DH read posts and felt very comforted!!

OP posts:

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