Ouch!

Finding it difficult the past few days to concentrate on the blog. Several years ago I had a molar filled that was borderline root canal territory. It’s never been quite right since, with both pressure and cold sensitivity. I’ve always meant to get it taken care of, but I generally am the type of person that will avoid dentists if I can. About a week ago I get some pain in that tooth that wouldn’t go away. Now it’s more than a couple of ibuprofen can handle.

Some whiskey and a few ibuprofen get me to sleep, and while I’m sleeping I don’t seem to have much pain, but it’s off and on during the day, and when it’s on, it’s on. I’ve had bad cavities before that needed root canal, but this has been worse. I’m not getting any facial swelling so far, which is making me wonder if I cracked the tooth. Whatever it is, I’m getting to the dentist as soon as I can. I was hoping to hold off until the insurance kicked in, but I need relief now. Hopefully it’s not so bad, and a temporary medicated filling will fix me up until a root canal can be scheduled (with insurance). I’m not to keen on the idea of paying a molar root canal 100% out of pocket.

I’m getting way more experience with dental pain relief than I ever wanted. When I had my wisdom teeth out, I got Tylenol with hyrdocodone, which I didn’t find to be that much more effective than ibuprofen. I’ve generally found ibuprofen the best solution for dental pain. If you want to talk combination therapy that works well, but that your doctor will never recommend to you, ibuprofen and a three or so shots of whiskey is highly effective. Just make sure it’s ibuprofen and not Tylenol, which does bad things to your liver in combination with alcohol. This is very good at easing the pain, and anything you do feel through the buzz you don’t really care so much about :)

24 thoughts on “Ouch!”

  1. Been there and done that. Ended up having the root canal. In addition to the ibuprofen, I’d suggest a topical ointment like Ambesol. It will make it a little less sensitive.

    Good luck with it.

      1. I remember I was applying either the Oragel or Ambesol 15 minutes or so. Good luck Monday.

  2. Get thee to a Dentist ASAP or it will get much worse. Consider it a medical emergency. It is if it’s infected.

      1. One 800 Ibuprofen and one tylenol worked miracles for me when I had an infected tooth until I could see the dentist.

        1. Right now 600mg of Ibuprofen in six hour intervals is keeping the pain somewhat tolerable. It’s still there, and still highly distracting. I don’t get full relief unless I add a little bit of whisky to the mix… which had me feeling great last night. But I can’t spend all day stewed, and it would be hell when I stopped if I did.

          So I’m just grinning and bearing it through today with the ibuprofen. As soon as the dentist opens tomorrow, I’m calling for an appointment, which hopefully he’ll be able to do same day. One more day of this is about as much as I can tolerate.

  3. Truly sorry about the pain, Sebastian! I agree with Gary; oral infections can seriously affect other areas – even the heart. If it gets worse before Monday, I am not sure I would wait till then. Praying for you!

    1. I’ve been through this before. I think I’ll make it through until Monday. This one just hurts particularly more. I’m not noticing any swelling yet, either on my face or my gums. At this point it’s probably pulpits, hopefully correctable via root canal.

  4. Ok, I am learning gunnies use whiskey to ease a variety of health issues. Got it, buy whiskey.

    Hope you feel better soon and maybe see a doctor. Infections are no fun.

  5. Clove oil is a good painkiller.
    Whole cloves against the gum lasts longer than topical application.

  6. Get it fixed. Dental infections are nothing to trifle with; ignoring them only runs up the bill. (Is there a university dental school nearby? It’s a highly viable option.)

    AFAIK, all pain meds — most meds! — require extra work from your liver, so please be sparing in the use of alcohol with them. (The issue with acetaminophen is the effective dose and toxic dose are kinda awkwardly close: the recommended amount works great but more is very not better.)

    I take ibuprofen pretty much constantly, as the result of long-term dental problems that got out of control. Eventually cost me three teeth. They did what they could but it triggered unresolvable sinus issues. Don’t be me.

    1. I find the therapeutic dose is under what it takes to get stewed :) I’m also sticking with ibuprofen which is a bit easier on the liver than, say, Tylenol.

      1. You’re lucky the ibuprofen works. I get no analgesic affect at all from ibuprofen or acetaminaphen; I actually get more relief from plain aspirin. Oxycontin and hydrocodone don’t do a thing for me. Made my recent dental problems quite nasty.

  7. Sedation dentistry is your friend… Had an extraction, 4 fillings and a root canal about 2 months back… last thing i remembered that day was telling them that the “cherry” shit did not taste like cherry. And then I woke up the next evening.

    Worked like a charm.

  8. No special suggestions here, but get thee to a dentist ASAP, and look up info on an emergency dentist you could get to if the pain gets too ghastly. The first dentist almost certainly will Rx you with pain pills and try to get you into an endodontist as soon as possible. Hope your regular dentist is good buddies with a good endodontist. I had a tooth that finally drove me to my dentist after a few weeks of pain, and my dentist had me in at the endodontist that afternoon. Pain gone! Like magic! Good luck!

    1. In previous experiences, I’ve found the primary dentist willing to put in a temporary, medicated filling that kills the pain until you can get to the endodontist.

  9. I know someone who had a large cavity in one of their molars. The nerve was also exposed. Didn’t do anything about it and just kept rubbing painkiller on it and cleaning it out for two years. Eventually he got a nice bacterial infection and wound up in the hospital. He was basically told he needed to have it worked on right away or it WOULD kill him. Not could, WOULD as in his death was 100% certain within a month if no action was taken. He’s fine now but all this could of been avoided if he would of had it fixed in the first place instead of being a bitch about it.

  10. I’m in the ‘avoid the dentist at all costs’ boat too!
    I had a broken off tooth that was killing me once, nerve was exposed, and when the dentist said soonest I could see him was 2 weeks I fixed it myself, took 3 lortabs (hydrocodone) which pretty much numbed me up and took a toothpick to the nerve, and it still hurt like hell, but I got the nerve dug out of the tooth and no more pain. Extreme desperation move but it worked.

    Get well numbed up before you try this folks…….

  11. I had a couple of wisdom teeth pulled two Decembers ago. Vicodin & vodka got me through. I didn’t actually drink the vodka, though; I just used it as a topical anesthetic, swished it around the affected area and it numbed it right up. I carried it around in a Coke bottle during the day and no one was the wiser. ;-)

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