Tooth Abcess

trinnylilac

Help I need some advice .I am waiting to have a broken tooth removed and my consultation isn't untill next Tuesday.. ( seeing an oral surgeon to get this done)

Unfortunatly in the meantime I have developed an abcess which is really painful.... My whole jaw is aching.

I have been given high dose Amoxicillin ( 2 sachets of 3 mg each) from my local walk in centre and have taken 1 already and will take the next one 12 hours afterwards,

Can anyone tell me how long these usually take to work and once they are working in theory should the pain go away ....

Should it be also ok to wait the week untill my consultation or should I try and get an emergancy appointment with my dentist ( he isn't open till Thursday though)

Taking paracetomol and iburofen in turn but they are not working . Not looking forward to this evening .. I need a glimmer of hope that pain will be gone soon.

black-saturn

Get an emergency appointment. This will only get worse as the time goes on and your whole face will swell up. This happened to me on Christmas Day :rolleyes:

trinnylilac

black-saturn wrote:

Get an emergency appointment. This will only get worse as the time goes on and your whole face will swell up. This happened to me on Christmas Day :rolleyes:

Can I ask what happened when you went to the dentist

Toothsmith

Antibiotics can take 12-48 hours to really kick in.

If you've already had an emergency appointment, and this is what they decided was the appropriate treatment, then nothing will really be gained by returning, unless something gets significantly worse, or it starts to swell, in which case do go back.

Manage it as best you can with pain killers, and whatever you do DON'T hold anything warm against the area.

Once the antibiotics have got a grip, it should be fine until the process of having it removed gets underway, but any sign of trouble, get back to the emergency centre.

trinnylilac

Toothsmith wrote:

Antibiotics can take 12-48 hours to really kick in.

If you've already had an emergency appointment, and this is what they decided was the appropriate treatment, then nothing will really be gained by returning, unless something gets significantly worse, or it starts to swell, in which case do go back.

Manage it as best you can with pain killers, and whatever you do DON'T hold anything warm against the area.

Once the antibiotics have got a grip, it should be fine until the process of having it removed gets underway, but any sign of trouble, get back to the emergency centre.

Thanks so much for getting back to me. That is really good news...

I am hoping that the antibiotics will get rid of abcess ( is that what it does?)

Then I can then get tooth removed next week. Luckily being done privatly so shouldn't have to wait too long.

Goldielocks

Ooooh abscesses, know 'em well - very painful!
Antibiotics should destroy the infection and thus the abscess should go down shortly, thus relieving your pain. Just have to manage on painkillers best you can for the timebeing - easier said than done I know, the pain can be excruciating.

I remember years ago, staying at my sisters house - her hubby is a dentist. I developed a vicious abscess on my front tooth - arghhhhh the PAIN!!!!!! I was crying to be honest. Lucky me, having a dentist on hand - he got me some ultra strong painkillers but in the end he had to give me Valium to knock me out!! Was great, I slept for the whole day & woke up feeling better once the ABs had kicked in.

I don't believe dentists like to do any work when there is an infection/abscess present - they usually try to kill the infection first before carrying out any procedures.

G

trinnylilac

Also thanks also for mentioning not to use anything hot against my face because at the moment I think that doing that would feel lovely..

trinnylilac

Thanks Goldielocks, I am now feeling much more confident now that will be ok . I have to work all day tomorow aswell so I am hoping that there will be some improvement by the morning .

I think you are right about dentists and infections and not doing any work while you have one, thats why I hope I can just get by over the next two weeks untill this gets sorted.
I would rather be in labour again than have toothache.

Toothsmith

trinnylilac wrote:

Also thanks also for mentioning not to use anything hot against my face because at the moment I think that doing that would feel lovely..

Yes - it's a common thing that people do! But it incubates the bacteria and REALLY make them breed!

I can always tell the people who have done it. They are the ones who arrive in my surgery in absolute agony with faces like footballs despite having been on antibiotics for a few days!

Generally they don't admit to it, so I have to trick them by saying "Have you tried holding anything warm against it?"

Then (thinking they've been clever) they say "Oh yes!- I've got a wheat bag which I heat up in the microwave"

I then smack them on the head!

Toothsmith

Goldielocks wrote:

I don't believe dentists like to do any work when there is an infection/abscess present - they usually try to kill the infection first before carrying out any procedures.

G

That's right.

If there's an active infection present :-

1. It can prevent the anaesthetic working effectively.

2. Removing a badly infected tooth risks setting up a septacaemia (Blood poisoning)

Quackers

Toothsmith wrote:

That's right.

If there's an active infection present :-

1. It can prevent the anaesthetic working effectively.

My dentist told me this last Thursday AFTER giving me 4 injections in my mouth. Oh, you must have an infection then if you can still feel it :rolleyes:

I cried

My antibiotics finished yesterday and I am going back on Thursday to have the tooth out.

I've been in more pain since I went to the dentist than before I went! My whole jaw hurts now and I keep crying like a baby

I'm soooooooo glad you I read the post about not putting heat on it - someone told me to do that today & I've just been considering it :rolleyes: