Severe tooth ache and no dentist for days!! What can I do ??

[mummyloveslucy]

Hi, I have a wisdom tooth that has decayed. It is extreamly painful right now, and has been all day. I went to the dentists, but none of them were there and I just got a help line number. It'll probubly be at least monday when I can be seen.
I've been taking 2 paracetamol and 2 neurofen every 4 hours but it's still really bad. Does anyone know what else I could try ? I've also tried clove oil, but that really stang my gum and tongue.
Does anyone know if there's anything else I could try ?

Try applying clove oil with a cotton bud so that you can avoid getting it on your gums and tongue. Although I did wonder if the distraction of the awful taste and stinging was the whole point of clove oil. I also bit directly onto cloves - you get bits in your mouth which is horrid but not as bad as the tooth ache.

My dentist recommended chewing/biting onto aspirin which I found v helpful, although when I've subsequently recommended it on MN I've been advised that this is V DANGEROUS and therefore I wouldn't recommend it.

I believe that alternating hot and cold (hot water bottle then bag of frozen peas wrapped in tea towel) can give some relief but never tried it myself.

Huge sympathies. When I last had toothache and resorted to aspirin I was DESPERATE.

i used to break up junior disprin and let a piece dissolve on the tooth itself, as they are weak you can take many more of them and have one on the go every 15 mins or so (check dose yourself obviously)
have been told this is REALLY bad for the tooth
but if it's decayed already and you can't stick the pain, who cares?

can you take nurofen plus? has codeine in, should help
ask the pharmacist if it's ok for you

oh and sympathy, i have an infected wisdom tooth atm and is not nice
i imagine a decayed one is much worse

Thank you, I give everything a go, the tooth needs to come out!
It would have to happen with the weekend here.

I've only had one filling in my life, so can't understand why this tooth is decayed. It's not even all the way through.

IME if you phone around you will find a dentist who can see you at the weekend if need be
i expect it might be ££££ though
i once found a dentist who gave me good advice on the phone, and offered to come out later in the weekend if i found i could not cope otherwise
knowing there was that option did help a lot

MLL how do you know it is decayed? it could just be infected, is certainly painful and you will get inflammation and aching feeling
you could just need some antibiotics

Do they not have an emergency dental clinic? Try the helpline at least. Most places have clinics that can get you out of pain till Monday.

Failing that try your OOH doctor - when I had appalling toothache, they prescribed a really good painkiller called Naproxen, which worked very well.

thank you, I'll try to get some Naproxen tomorrow.

Yes I cannot imagine there is no emergency sevice tbh. Please try and find out.

They only prescribed me the heavy stuff as the emergency dentist could do nothing, he wouldn't extract it and the root was cracked.

I'd have taken cyanide if they'd suggested it, probably! good luck xx

i would get an out of hours dentist if I were you and I am totally against calling folk out of hours

severe dental pain made me cry with pain once and I called and saw a dentist

Call NHS direct and they will fix and out of hours appt for you on the NHS.

ring now, sometimes they close at midnight.

I second the clove oil and also Bonjela for Adults. Sorry you are in pain. I had an abscess not so long ago and could not get in for the treatment I needed for ages. I really sympathise with you.

Try covering it in sensodyne toothpaste?

I realy feel for you, I remember one agonising night with tooth pain, writhing on my bed, nothing touched it! Wish I had been on mn then, for the good advice you have had here.

I hope you manage to get some relief and/or an appointment tomorrow.

if you are taking aspirin it should only be taken every 4-6 hours as it stays in the blood. it shouldnt be toppped up every 15 minutes.

When i had an abscess my dentist said it would cause less pain sleeping propped up until it has been removed or treated.

paramol is the strongest over the counter pain killer as it has dihydrocodeine in it.

i really sympathise as the pain is lke nothing else. I felt like throwing myself under a bus or pulling it out myself.
Get it seen to ASAP as it is quite dangerous to leave an abscess.

Phone NHS direct, they will out you in touch with an emergency dentist

Firstly, HUGE empathy here, have suffered horrendously recently with wisdom tooth pain, and two other teeth at same time.

If you have an infection,you will have to have antibiotics before they will even do anything to you, as there is a risk of sending the infection into your blood stream and causing other systemic infection - particularly myocardial. Which you don't want.

For immediate pain, get yourself some paramol, which has dihydrocodiene in it AND paracetamol and also take with some ibroprofen ( i got the expensive fastest acting on market!) but normal will do. It is a very good combination and any pharmacist worth their gold will suggest this combination.

Secondly, get an appointment at the GP emergency appointments, call your surgery, they will have a number OR your local hospital minors or even reception will be able to give you either a local on call surgery/GP or even book you in to get some anti biotics which is what you need ASAP. Truly, a dentist will do exactly the same, prescribe anti-b's & get you to go back when course finished & pain stopped. You are MORE likely to find a GP on a saturday than a dentist, plus they are free

IF you can not find anywhere and end up going to a&e Trust me, severe toothache is not dismissed as trivial, it's known to be incredibly painful and you won't be looked at as a time waster. My local A&E has an out of hours GP service attached. YOu don't need a dentist to tell you if you have an infected tooth, your symptoms will tell them!

Lastly, if you have any clove oil, dab on, around the tooth, anywhere you can bare, with a earbud, or I found even better my DD's Anbesol, which we used for her teething. The liquid version. If you don't have any at home, go to chemist in morning, and when getting analgesia, get a bottle of anbesol too, the liquid, NOT gel, the gel is useless and just smears anywhere but where you need it - just like when your child is teething!!

I really really hope that helps PLEASE, as a veteran of such things take my advice- its very very much tried and tested. I eventually last time, had my infected impacted wisdom tooth extracted, stitched etc, then the next day 2 more taken out... very horrible indeed. Oh, then got an infection in the wounds as my DD was taken into hospital with suspected meningitis for 4 days, so I didn't look after the "holes" very well! SO for gods sake if you have it removed, look after it, and rinse it with saline every hour or two & after any food!

I've gone on YET again.. sorry! but it is all valid - just for a change!

Ring the helpline number, there should be a 24hour advice line & someone to see you if you are in a lot of pain.

DO NOT dissolve anything on the tooth/in that area. You can cause burns to your soft tissues & add to your pain.

DO NOT apply a hot anything to the area, if you have an infection you risk spreading it towards the heat source.

susie, GPs don't usually prescribe for dental pain, because they have no way of knowing what is causing the pain, without xrays. I have never known a GP to do so, they usually always refer to the dental dept at hospital, or dentist.

Also, OP, if you say that it is only part erupted, then you could possible have what is called Periocoronitis which dissolving stuff on or near will only exacerbate it.

It is also the reason that it is decayed, as part erupted wisdom teeth are v hard to clean.

Differentname - I think I sounded so desperate that the out of hours GP took pity on me.

I am a bit in love with him, and Naproxen

Hope you manage to get seen today MLL. Most out of hours operate on weekend mornings as well as evenings, I think.

actually perhaps the fact I had already been to the OOH dentist that night and been refused treatment was the factor in them prescribing.

If I just went to the GP without seeing the dentist, or having an idea what was wrong, he prob wouldn't have given me anything.

That's true Flight! If you had a dental dx, then yes, I guess they would prescribe!

differentnameforthis: I've been prescibed antibiotics for tooth pain on more than one occasion

It was obvious on those, that I had an infection and could not get a dental appointment. I didn't have an xray for them to see either. But I guess it was just very obvious I needed metronidazole which is what the dentist would have prescribed first.

Anyway, clearly don't want to get into a to and fro about it, I was just passing on what my experience has been, hopefully to help the OP. Clearly if the OP goes to a GP & they refuse anti-b's then so be it. I was just trying to help, as I say, frrom my experience