I had some twinges from my (long-neglected) teeth about a month ago and thought I'd (finally) get them seen to. Went to the dentist, and they took x-rays, said they'd probably have to do a root canal after baby was born and didn't take it further. That was fine with me, as wasn't really causing pain.
Flash forward to last night, and I am suddenly in really severe pain. Very intense. Took a couple of panadol, but hardly touched the edges of it. Went to the emergency dentist today, and I have had a different story. I have a bad cavity in a tooth (not the one the earlier dentist identified) and it will need to be extracted urgently. I can wait until after, and put up with severe pain, and risk escalation of infection, or choose to have it extracted now, when I'm due to go into labour any day.
I think I've decided to have the extraction, because it seems risky to let it continue, and quite frankly I can't imagine labouring with this sort of additional pain. Any recovery pain will be more manageable I think. It is scheduled for 3 days away - so the definition of cutting it fine. I went into labour with my DD1 a day early.
But, I'm so upset. I feel like I can't get my head around dealing with this sort of near-emergency situation this close to EDD, and am so afraid something will go wrong. Dentist has warned that it might be a complicated extraction, ie it might necessitate another extraction, or other issues that will prolong recovery so there's also that to contend with. But, the alternative is to tough out pain, with risk of aggravated infection anyway, and then have to have dental work when baby is a week or two old.
I'm a bit freaked out. Any advice from anyone who has suffered a similar situation?