Owwww! My mouth really, really hurts. Anyone know what this might be?

[LovelyBertha]

Help please! I'm 33 wks pg (don't know if this is relevant), and have developed an extrodinarily severe pain in my mouth. It started a few days ago, and I thought perhaps I had a chip/crack/hole in my tooth (it's one right at the back). Today I woke up feeling like I'd been kicked in the face. My gum hurts, my jaw hurts and my cheekbone all the way up to my eye feels bruised. I've had a good look at it, and the actual tooth looks fine. The gum is quite red and swollen.

I've been taking paracetamol and doing a lot of mouth washing, but it still killing me.

I made the mistake of googling my symptoms just now and just managed to freak myself out... NHS direct are only answering emergency calls.

What do you reckon?

Abscess?

Try your out of hours dr perhaps.

your dentist's answerphone should have an emergency number on it.

That's exactly what I was thinking it might be...

I looked it up, and I get the impression that a doctor will prescribe antibiotics, but usually after a dentist has drained it. So do you think I should try to get an appointment with the dentist first? Such a pain in the arse this has happened on a bank holiday.

I know that pregnancy can sometimes cause nasty gum conditions- does this sound familiar to anyone?

My gums just went sort of spongey and bled a lot. Then I had a sort of growth at one stage, which turned into a small mushroomy blob. The "stalk" grew until I could twirl it with my tonge, and eventually broke off. More blood.

It was quite entertaining in hindsight.

I don't know if abscesses would be related to this. Bloomin painful though, I don't envy you.

Deffo try one of the emergency numbers, either from your dentist or your gp's answerphone.

Thanks. I'm thinking the dentist might want me to see the doctor first, because some of the stuff I've read about gum problems in late preg are pretty alarming- it can cause prem labour apparently, and my teeth really do seem fine. Although the doc might send me to the dentist... either way, looks like my bank holiday is going to be a barrel of laughs.

Kind of hoping there is either a gp or a dentist lurking on mn tonight to help me choose-
which do I call first, doctor or dentist?

dentist, i think (i work for one)

both would probably prescribe antibiotics in first instance though.

could be pericoronitis, an infection of gum over wisdom tooth, a dentist would be best for this as they could rinse it out for you as well as prescribe ABs

FFTM- Thank you! Decision made. Dentist it is.

how are you now?

Much better thanks! It was a gum infection (pg related apparently), which had caused a sinus inflamation. So it turns out the majority of the pain was actually my sinuses. Well on the road to recovery now, but I am going to be very careful to use medicated mouthwash all the time now- don't want it happening again.

Glad you are much better, that sounds painful!