Who knew toothache could be this painful?

jenfur79

Hello All,
My story - I grind my teeth in my sleep, this was picked up by my temporary dentist about a year ago.
She made me a gum shield to sleep in. I moved house and during the move I misplaced my gum shield, so didnt wear it for 2 months. (yes, I know, I have already been rollocked by the hubby!!)
I woke up in the early hours of Monday with horrific shooting pains down my upper and lower right jaw.
I couldnt get an initial appointment at the dentist, and was sent to A&E by my boss to try and get some pain relief. I was given co-codamol and diclophenic. (excuse my spelling) Neither of these touched the sides in relation to the pain...
I managed to get a cancellation dentist appointment the next day, and after 4 x rays, she said I had an infection on my upper and lower back jaw. (under the back upper and lower teeth) probably due to grinding and decay. She advised either extraction or root canal work on both mentioned teeth and a crown on both.
I chose root canal work and have my appointment for first round on Tuesday. (I have no issues with the cost, although my dentist is NHS the crown part is still expensive)
She prescribed me Amoxicillan and Metronidazole which I take 3 times a day, alongside my other meds from the A&E
Anyway, after me setting the scene...my question is.. WHY when I am taking all these meds, am I still in major pain?
I have quite a decent pain threshold (or so I thought) (I used to play rugby)....
The pain has changed from a sharp shooting pain down my jaw, to a throbbing, constant aching pain. Both have stopped me sleeping, and Im worrying that the antibiotics wont have taken hold of the infection prior to me having root canal done.
Can root canal work still be done if there is infection still remaining?
Im hoping some kind person can give me some reassurance that this is normal and that Im overly worrying.
(why do these things happen on the run up to christmas?!:()

thanks in advance to anyone who replies.

hethmar

You have a abscess and yes, Ive had a lot of them and you feel like you could whip the tooth outyourself when you get that awful throbbing. You need to go back to the dentist and get some more antibiotics. Once the throbbing stops you will find you have a sort of bruised numb feeling in the area. I used to get such bad ones I looked like those comic strips with huge swellings on my face. I dont know why I got them as I always looked after my teeth - just bad luck I guess.

Ring an emergency dentist asap.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

i do the same to the point ive weakened the carteladge in jaw joints, i grind my fillings away periodically.

for the extreme cases of tooth pain i use anbesol liquid, it numbs you up pretty quick and is better than creams, and kills bacteria wich aids recovery of abcess's and ulcers and infections http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/medicines/100003636.html ive taken tramedol that hasnt touched the toothe ache but this stuff works for me and is cheape to buy at a local chemist, and you dont need all the bottle, just a dab, and the taste is better than bonjela.

ive a high pain threshold, due to spinal issues, so im lucky i dont get to feel most niggly toothe ache pains as the dentist discovered when i had half a tooth exposing the central nurve and she was poking it and i didnt even flintch and woundered why! she thought i was just being a stubborn proud man not admitting i was in pain, but in all honesty i just didnt even know i had half a toothe there due to a high pain threshold.

sashadesade

I had a root canal done a couple of months ago, so I know how bad the pain is. I was taking antibiotics and ibuprofen, I'd been taking Ibuprofen prior to seeing the dentist and it didn't help with the pain but she told me to continue taking it as it's an anti-inflammatory. Once I was taking antibiotics and ibuprofen together the pain improved pretty quickly. It didn't go completely, but then it won't until you have the root canal. I'm guessing you can't contact your dentist over the weekend, but if you're still worried by Monday you should give them a call and see if they can offer any advice.

GRM

I think everyone who has been through an abscess and root canal work knows exactly what you're going through. I had one last year and went to my GP about the pain. He prescribed stronger cocodomol and morphine - the latter was wonderful. From I-want-to-rip-my-face-off to what-pain? in a minute or less, I sure saw the attraction of class A drugs after that.

Gargling with whisky also helped, I got through a bottle inside a week.

jenfur79

Thank you all so much for your replies. I purchased some of the Anbesol stuff, does help a little bit, although Im thinking the morphine would be even better!

I will forever have sympathy for people experiencing tooth ache now, its simply shocking.

Never thought I would be keen to have root canal done, tuesday cannot come quickly enough!
Thanks again.

MrsAtobe

Two thoughts, alcohol and metronidazole don't mix, trust me on this;). You'll end up feeling worse than you do now, yes it is possible .

Secondly Tramadol, for some reason, does not work on dental pain. Yes, I've tried it, and even my dentist agrees.

HTH.

mr_rush

The answer from A&E should have been - we are not a dental service - here's a list of emergency dentists.

Sooki

Sorry mr rush but in my experience if I was experiencing the kind of pain that comes with an abscess or wisdom tooth issues in any other part of the body you would be rushed in to theatre and operated on the same day, for some reason you are expected to tolerate excruciating pain if it's in your gob! And if possible charged extorianate amounts of money for the experience, and personally I don't find it acceptable.

System

My grinding was healed by sleeping on my right side with my bottom teeth forced to the right. It stops me grinding and I would never wear one of those guard things, they are so uncomfortable.

FannyAdams_2

I had a problem with awful toothache a few months ago, I think it was because I was clenching my teeth a lot, it would be fine and then suddenly it would be unbearable for a few minutes and then fine again. I did a lot of googling and read that taking an antihistimine with your painkillers can help, so I did - I took two (cheapo asda one a day ones) and two pain killers and once the painkillers kicked in it didn't hurt again after that!

Your problem is probably different to mine but it's got to be worth a try, HTH I know it's agony, I hope your sorted soon xx