Wisdom tooth extraction gone wrong

lknights1987

sorry for the long post but here goes.

For the past week I have been in a lot of pain with my wisdom tooth ( bottom right) when that pain first started which was last Friday night 27/02/16 i phoned the 111 service who told me to take pain relief paracetemol and ibuprofen.

This didn’t help so around 7 hours later i was back on the phone to 111 and this time they said i need to go to the nhs emergency dentist at the hospital. When i saw the dentist she told me that i had an infection and that I will most likely need to have the wisdom tooth taken out. She also gave me some antibiotics and said that i need to register with a dentist as i hadn’t been for a couple of years.

I managed to register with a local dentist who take on private and nhs patients and was asked to come in on the Wednesday to register. When the dentist had a look at my teeth he said that 100% i will need my wisdom tooth extracted. I asked him how long will i have to wait to go to the hospital and have it done and he replied with “if you go to the hospital you will have to wait 6-8 weeks but i can do it no problem within 1 week time”

I told him that normally I’m put to sleep to have teeth out ( the last time was when i was 14( i am now 28) as I’m quite nervous he said it will take less then 5 minutes and that he has done loads and that i wont feel a thing. The receptionist booked me in for next Thursday 10/03/16

During the week I was in agony I was going to sleep at 11pm and waking up at 1am with extreme pain. I was taking paracetemol and ibuprofen and antibiotics but this still wasn’t helping so i phoned the dentist on the Friday 04/03/16 ( 2 days after registering) and asked if they had an emergency appointment. They said come in at 2:30pm.

I saw the same dentist as i did on the Wednesday and at first he took an X-ray and had all the tools ready to go in order to do the extraction. I had a look at the X-Ray and see that the tooth was nearly on its side.

He then injected my gum about 4 times and asked if it had gone numb which it hadn’t he then gave me 2 more injections and then started to try and extract the tooth.

When he started i could feel what he was doing and i was in a lot of pain so he injected a few more times. Within 40 minutes he had used the extractor tool, drill and leverage tool and i could still feel what he was doing so he injected me more. After an hour he sat me up and said i cant do it i have to refer you to hospital.

I then asked what today please be today? He replied no you will have to wait 6-8 weeks. I was quite angry and i knew that I will be in more pain over the weekend he said i’ll proscribe you with antibiotics and that will help with the pain.

Within an hour of leaving the dentist i got a taxi up to a&e at the local hospital but all they could offer was pain relief advice and the triage nurse had a look and said it doesn’t look good ( no dentist were on site). I had an X-Ray and had a look at it as well. I can clearly see that half the head on the tooth is missing and the root is now lodged into my jaw.

Over the weekend i have called hospitals,Bupa dentist and other dentists and the 111 service but all i can be offered is pain relief.

Im taking stronger ibuprofen tablets and now taking co-codamol and even more antibiotics but I’m still in a lot of pain. I can hardy open my mouth as my jaw feels lodged and i can hardly eat anything other then porridge or tomato soap which i have to swallow whole as I cant chew.

Tomorrow being Monday the a&e department managed to book me in to see a consultant to have a look at my wisdom tooth and tell me when it can be operated on. If I am told that i have to wait more then a week I am going to need to go private to have the dental surgery done which should then hopefully be sooner as I can’t put up with this any longer. I am in more pain now then before the dentist started trying the extract the tooth.

If I go private i may have to pay around £800-£1000 which i haven’t really got. As i have already said it is effecting me eating and sleeping. I have had to call in sick from work as well as i am in too much pain to even concentrate plus the antibiotics are making me drowsy.

I want to take this further so that this doesn’t happen again to another patient at this dentist. But how far can i take this?

I feel that if i need to go private then the dentist who messed it up and put me in more pain then what i was already in should have to pay the fee.

Ted_Terry

What an awful experience for you to go through. I cannot really offer any advice as such but I hope you get sorted soon and find some relief for the pain, if you can see your GP for some stronger pain relief, like co-codamol 30/500 worked for me with toothache.

lknights1987

Ted_Terry wrote: »

What an awful experience for you to go through. I cannot really offer any advice as such but I hope you get sorted soon and find some relief for the pain, if you can see your GP for some stronger pain relief, like co-codamol 30/500 worked for me with toothache.

Thank you. I have taken co codamol for the past 4 days it works for around 2-3 hours then the pain comes back i can only take them every 6 hours and even ibuprofen I'm taking them every 4 hours. I'm hoping the hospital can sort me out tomorrow.

cashewnut

I have no helpful advice but good luck OP. I hope you're free from pain soon. Let us know how you get on!

mal4mac

It's unfair to blame the dentist.

The human body is more complex than a car, and we're all different. So you can't expect the dentist to do the job 100% of the time. When he failed to extract, he did the right thing to refer you to a specialist at the hospital.

But the waiting times are, of course, ridiculous. But that's what you get in Cameron's Britain. The government are the people to blame. Find out when your MPs surgery is and complain directly to him. Find out what the MPs intentions for NHS dental service are. If he's a Tory, like mine, he'll probably have no coherent plan. Write to the local newspapers and complain about the situation.

Is the 6-8 weeks for full treatment? I've been told I might have to wait 6-8 weeks for an appointment to see the consultant, and then wait 18 weeks after that for the extraction!

I got the phone number of the department doing the extraction and was told to keep phoning back weekly 'cause they might be able to fit me in early if there's a cancellation.

welshdent

in fairness to the dentist, they were trying to avoid you having to wait in pain for weeks for the referral to come through.

They haven't wedged anything in your bone. It was already there and they were trying to get it out. I think it is unreasonable to expect them to pay for the private extraction. The could have referred you before trying and not even considered having a go at it meaning you would still have been in pain for a period of time. They believed they could get your tooth out and believed they could prevent you sitting in pain for an additional couple of months.
They were wrong. But more often than not we do not know how things will go until we start,

Tigsteroonie

lknights1987 wrote: »

When he started i could feel what he was doing and i was in a lot of pain so he injected a few more times.

I have often found that I can feel the dentist's activity in my mouth when work is being carried out - the injection seems remove any potential pain, but don't stop the actual sensation of pulling & prodding.

Were you experiencing the same pain as you had been previous, or did the pain worsen whilst the work was being carried out?

lknights1987

I went up the hospital today the the dentist there said "he shouldn't of even attempted to do what he did" I now have to have 2 teeth out because there is now a hole in the side of the tooth next to my wisdom tooth caused by him. The X-rays clearly show this the before picture shows the tooth next to my wisdom tooth with no holes and the after i have a chunk out of it.

I am now on the list to be seen asap and been put under the high risk of nerve damage category.

Sharon87

The dentist definitely shouldn't have attempted to take it out. Yes you may have been in some pain, but impacted wisdom teeth like yours need to be taken out in the hospital.

I had my top wisdom teeth out at a dentist when I was a teenager. One dentist was fine, the other didn't inject the local anesthetic properly and I had a fair bit of pain when he did it. These weren't impacted teeth, they were just growing at a slight angle into the side of my mouth, so they got pulled.

I had to get my bottom 2 wisdom teeth out in the hospital, I was in pain, so went to the dentist, he gave my anti-biotics and referred me to the hospital to get them out. I did often have to take pain killers when it hurt. I did wait about 3 months after a couple of different consultations, but I'm glad I waited now based on your experience! Patience is a virtue sometimes!

I hope you managed to get your teeth out soon, as it seems it's unusual and classed as an emergency.