• This topic has 33 replies, 29 voices, and was last updated 7 years ago by ps44.
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  • Dental abscess
  • aphex_2k
    Free Member

    Wife seems to have one. Nurofen and 500/30 paracetamol / codeine not doing owt. She’s off to ED to see if they’ll do a script for tramadol.

    Any tips? Rinse with brandy? Clove oil? (knowing our ED she will sit there for 6 hours after being triaged and come away with nothing)

    Cougar
    Full Member

    Antibiotics, root canal.

    vickypea
    Free Member

    I was told by my dentist to dissolve half a teaspoon of salt in a mug of hot water, and take a mouthful and hold it in your mouth around the offending tooth. As hot as you can stand, obviously not boiling hot! It can help draw out the infection. Repeat a few times a day.

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    midlifecrashes
    Full Member

    Ouch. Not much touches the pain of an abscess. Might be worth ringing your GP out of hours service and seeing if they can send a prescription straight to a local chemist before heading to A & E though.

    Vader
    Free Member

    I had similar after an extraction and ended up in ED. They gave me anesthetic injections two days running to break the pain cycle. They said paracetamol would never work when it’s that bad, but after the injections I could control it. They also cleared out the antibiotic cupboard and emptied it into the boot of my car. By the time I had the injections I had taken maybe 200 paracetamols back to back with ibruprofen. Pretty much ineffective.

    It is no joke and i sympathise with your OH. The salty hot water is quite a comfort but won’t fix the problem.

    If she does get put on antibiotics then she should think about starting some pro-biotics from the day after the antis end as a hefty dose of them will wreck your guts.

    Lastly don’t trawl the internet for dental horror stories. It turned out they’re all true 🙁

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    Watch out for the side-effects of some of these remedies. They can affect your digestive system, resulting in rather strange-sounding passing of wind.

    An abscess really can make the fart go “Honda”.

    DrT
    Free Member

    Good luck with it, it’s no fun . I suffered over the new year and was at the emergency dentist on new years eve. Two courses of antibiotics later , it took about a week to clear the pain completely. Caused by a previous root canal not being done properly, waiting for referal to a specialist to get the root canal re-done 🙁

    ernie_lynch
    Free Member

    Watch out for the side-effects of some of these remedies.

    Mmm, unbearable pain your head or an extravagant amount of farting? It’s a difficult one.

    DrP
    Full Member

    Ouch. Not much touches the pain of an abscess. Might be worth ringing your GP out of hours service and seeing if they can send a prescription straight to a local chemist before heading to A & E though.

    A GP would not and should not prescribe for dental issues, bar analgesia.
    Evidence suggests that prompt DENTAL input is needed – usually minor surgical drainage.

    Essentially, GPs aren’t covered for diagnosing of managing dental conditions. Likewise, a dentist shouldn’t prescribe for or aim to manage asthma..

    DrP

    P-Jay
    Free Member

    Really the only way to cure it is surgery to drain it and antibiotics.

    You’ll likely have an emergency drop in dentist in your area – you can usually be seen the same day, they’ll drain it and fit a temp filling to buy you some time until she can see her dentist.

    aphex_2k
    Free Member

    They’ve given her some tramadol and Nurofen while she waits to see the doc. Probs get some metronidazole as I doubt a dentist will do much if infection present. She looks like a chipmunk!

    vickypea
    Free Member

    As Vader points out, the salty hot water won’t cure it. I meant it as an extra thing to try on top of pain killers until she gets antibiotics.

    jambalaya
    Free Member

    Only ever had one thank God. As Cougar said, anti-biotics and a root canal asap. Do not let her get pliers out of tool kit or smash head on the wall as much as she might want to.

    stevestunts
    Free Member

    Had one last March. Over the course of an evening it went from ‘sore tooth is a bit sore tonight’ to THERMONUCLEAR ARMAGEDDON TURBO XR3i PAIN, which laughed in the face of household analgesics. I looked like Glenn Quagmire from Family Guy.

    The tooth had to come out, although frankly, if they’d had to take my entire lower jaw off I’d probably have agreed to that in order to make the pain go away.

    ceepers
    Full Member

    Nothing (including antibiotics) will work as effectively as a dentist either extracting the tooth or drilling a hole in it to relive the pressure in the tooth and place a dressing directly in the roots. That’s the only thing that begins to treat the source of the infection.

    Metronidazole is usually the most effective antibiotic and it will relieve swelling and pain but should only really be an adjunct to draining the tooth or (extirpating and dressing it in technical terms). If she also has pain with hot and cold things from the tooth, antibiotics will make no difference as that suggests the tooth is still alive and the pain is from a dying nerve and not from infection. Treatment for this is dressing the tooth as above

    Unlikely any pain killer is going to do much to touch it I’m afraid. Likewise salt water isn’t going to do a lot.

    Emergency dental appointment ASAP

    technicallyinept
    Free Member

    When I had an abscess around a wisdom tooth, the doctor wouldn’t help. Had to go to a dentist to get antibiotics.

    project
    Free Member

    Ring NHS direct or whatever its called now and ask for an emergency dentist, worked for me, the pain is unbelievable, dont sy you have chest pains or theyll send a bloody anmbulance, they nearly did for me.

    sgn23
    Free Member

    I had one of these last year on a BH weekend in Cornwall. The most painful thing I’ve experienced, worse than dislocations and broken ribs.
    I came across the NHS dentist madness that is that they won’t prescribe antibiotics until there is signs of swelling or raised temperature. The thing is the pain comes before these symptoms so you get the unbearable pain and a dentist can’t prescribe pain killers, so you’re left to the over the counter stuff, which didn’t cut it. I visted a MIU and they refused to give me pain relief. I was tempted to self extract with a pair of plyers.
    Good luck to her.

    gavtheoldskater
    Free Member

    the trick with an abscess is to get on it as soon as your gum starts to feel a bit sore, but either way…

    rinsing with salt, as warm water as you can stand, a few times a day or when you need relief is excellent. helps clean the mouth and draw out the infection. when the abcess burst immediately rinse with salt solution to really clean it out.

    rinsing with cider vinegar is also highly recommended. very powerful natural remedy, tastes awful but really works.

    rinsing with hydrogen peroxide (read the bottle for the amount of dilution) twice a day helps fight infection and clean the mouth.

    2 or 3 cloves in your gum around the infected area or on the tooth is both a natural antiseptic and draws the infection out. keep them in for hours/all day. you don’t notice them after a bit.

    a drastic one for a very infected gum that really draws it out very fast, and helps ease pain, is a mix of baking soda and salt dabbed onto a damp cotton bud, helps if its warm water, and then applied to the abcess. utterly tastes foul but leave it in as long as you can only removing to refresh it with a new one.

    finally if you want a natural antibiotic have a look at propolis which i have found to be excellent.

    hope these help. i got most of them from an old alternative life book i have and for me they definitely do work.

    i_like_food
    Full Member

    Getting flashbacks to my abcess. Truly mind bending levels of pain.

    Nothing to add that hasn’t been said already, other than to say I hope it gets fixed quick.

    senorj
    Full Member

    Antibiotics! & keep on top of it.
    Unfortunately ,I was one of those dental horror stories. Antibiotics didn’t sort it out and I developed a comedy swollen jaw which then grew into a golf ball on my cheek(over four days). I went to oral maxillo facial dept for emergency procedure.They lanced it &raked out the puss,without anaesthetic ,which really hurt .(I sometimes wake up dreaming about the feeling of the forceps on my cheekbone!).
    I had to go back for reconstruction surgery because of the botched emergency effort.
    I know look even uglier than before.

    brassneck
    Full Member

    I had one of those, what a complete barsteward, no OTC drugs could touch it.
    In the days of great & available NHS dentists – some Swedish guy drilled up through my tooth, and lent on my face till it drained fully. I have never been so grateful to someone for pressing their whole weight onto my cheekbone.

    Wierdly, the treatment seemed painless, and the relief when he ‘broke through’ instant – bit of cocodamol after and was right as rain.

    Worst pain I’d had in my life – then I had kidney stones, just as a life lesson – there’s always something worse..

    stevious
    Full Member

    As above – emergency dentist is probably the best bet.

    I’ve had a couple of these before, one just a short while before I got married. They had to take the tooth but I’m glad they did.

    REading this has given me a really strong memory of the relief from the pain and the taste of the pus.

    oink1
    Free Member

    Antibiotics. No amount of Tramadol is going to touch it (Have plenty, I tried!) 2 paracetamol then two hours later 2 ibuprofen. Repeat and keep on top of it. Only the dentist is going to prescribe for this one. I feel her pain. What use are nerves in teeth anyway ffs?? 😯

    mattsccm
    Free Member

    I found that cold water helped. Thing is it warmed almost immediately and thus needed spitting out or pissing out. I couldn’t swallow fast enough. Was flushing out the morphine and antibiotics acccoding to the dentist. Eventually he gave me some fast dissolving tablets. The 30 second I had to keep them under my tongue without a cold drink were possibly the worst of my life for discomfort. Bugging me now that I can’t remember their name. Once the first had made me groggy I could back off the water, let the drugs work and eventually the tooth came out.

    TimothyD
    Free Member

    IF we didn’t have nerves in teeth I guess we might break them on things in our mouths – things we shouldn’t eat?

    langylad
    Free Member

    Had one many years past. Dentist drained it and put a temporary cap on. The infection returned and the pain was so unpleasant i ended up pokin the temporary fillin out with a pin to release the pressure. Tooth came out a few days later. It really is an unpleasant experience.

    aphex_2k
    Free Member

    Ah we don’ have NHS here (mind, sounds like you might not have it there soon either!). Health Direct (same as NHS direct) advised her to get to ED last night at 1am, which she did. But faced with waiting until 4 or 5am (earliest predicted time to be seen by doc) the tramadol had kicked in and she left.

    Currently at the dentist now. We don’t have many emergency dentists here as most will do walk-ins anyways.

    duckman
    Full Member

    I am currently on my third day of Metronidazole to treat an abscess under a twice root canalled tooth. Tooth drilled and dressing applied and an easing of bear-with-sore-head mode after 24-48 hours. I found slamming my fingers in the door repeatedly took away some of the pain in my jaw<Gives fist bump to Mrs Apex>

    aphex_2k
    Free Member

    Docs prescribed more trammies and the dentist wont do owt until the swelling/infection had gone down so she’s gonna be a mardy-fat-faced Mrs Aphex for a few days yet. Had root canal treatment about a year ago but advised it’s probs gonna get worse before it got better, and it did. Still, day off work, some nice meds and a day in bed. What’s there to complain about? (A sentence that she won’t hear from me!)

    aphex_2k
    Free Member

    I had a morning at the beach to “give her some peace and quiet”

    kerley
    Free Member

    What use are nerves in teeth anyway ffs??

    So you can sense what you are eating and what your teeth are doing.

    Agree with all others here, antibiotics are the only thing that make the pain go (until you get the root canal). In my case they always worked pretty quickly too.
    I had 3 abscesses over a 5 year period as fell over and hit a radiator breaking 3 front teeth in half and each one then went bad over that 5 years.

    oldnpastit
    Full Member

    I’ve found Corsodyl pretty good, certainly more effective than clove juice. It’s about £5 over the counter. You may be beyond that stage though.

    ps44
    Free Member

    God, this and the intercostal thread, both of which I suffered with over Christmas. The Co-codamol prescribed by GP for the ribs did a good job on the abscess.
    Now laid low with man flu.
    Will it never end…. 🙁

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