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Alas! My Dental Saga Continues

Sporadic Sparkly

After completing my 5-day course of antibiotics last Sunday, I ended up contacting my dental practice the following day to express concerns. In addition to earache, I was continuing to experience pain inside my mouth, which over-the-counter pain relief was doing nothing to ease. From my perspective, I felt the only thing the antibiotics had done was rid me of a foul taste in my mouth, caused by my "small" post-extraction dental infection. I was offered an emergency appointment for a couple of days later (1st November).

The dentist had a good look inside my mouth and said there was a tiny area of my gum that hadn't quite healed, which was exposing bare bone. He felt the exposed bone, along with post-extraction bruising was what was causing my pain. The solution was to pack the unhealed area of my gum with medicated 'dry socket' paste. Not particularly pleasant because the paste contains eugenol (found in clove oil), and tastes utterly revolting in my opinion.

In addition to acting as an anaesthetic, eugenol has anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. Having had a dry socket on at least one occasion in the past, my experience of dry socket paste is that it initially caused a mild stinging sensation, followed by a fairly rapid easing of pain. Unfortunately, this was not my experience on Wednesday.

Currently, I am feeling rather frustrated and weary. Whilst I'm not in agony, the pain I'm experiencing is constant and proving impossible to distract myself from. It's exhausting, both physically and mentally. Come Monday, I think I'll be contacting my dental practice again to book another emergency appointment. Although it has only been just over a fortnight since the extractions were done, I'm thoroughly fed up with the fact that my dental pain doesn't appear to be easing and that OTC pain-relieving medication is proving to be ineffective.

For the record, I'm not after sympathy or dental advice, I just needed to let off steam and have a good old moan.

  • I am aware this is from a year ago however I wanted to express my sympathies for the experience you had and that I hope you have recovered mentally and physically from this and are doing better now (smiley)

    I hate visiting the dentist and never do unless it is absolutely necessary. Luckily my teeth don’t give me much agro, I have a wisdom tooth which might catch the wall of my cheek every now and then but thankfully it isn’t causing any pain, may this last!

    When I was a kid I fell over and damaged two teeth at the bottom of my mouth and had to go to the dentist for that. I have a firm memory of me clinging to the railing outside. I remember my mum’s frustration and the meltdown that followed minutes later. It was decided in the end I would see a specialist in the hospital so they could do it in a more controlled environment. It still wasn’t a nice experience to go through but it was better than visiting the dentist.

    I hope your dental situation has improved since you made this post a year ago.

  • in reply to $parentForumReply.Author.DisplayName

    I have been looking for a new Dentist myself (as my recent one retired).

    I had a look through both of these references in an effort to help fine-tune my search list:

    https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/physical-health/going-to-the-dentist/autistic-adults 

    https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/Topics/physical-health/going-to-the-dentist/dentists 

    Many years ago, I used to have the perfect Dentist (for me) before their retirement and my relocation to a couple of Counties away from their Practice (else, I would have stayed with the Practice and the new Dentist there). 

    So, I have been trying to think about - and note down - what was different (preferable to me) about that "perfect" environment and experience of yesteryear. 

    It was mostly about deceptively simple things which all added up to as relaxed experience as is reasonable given the task at hand. 

    I have realised that it wasn't only all about the Dentist themselves (excellent as they were).  Each member of their Practice Team contributed to the positive experience as a whole. 

    I really appreciated that ultra-low-fuss "welcome back" from everyone there.  I never had to re-explain myself since my last visit (they took the trouble to know me and remember what was helpful - without drawing attention to those accommodations).

  • in reply to Goosey

    You may well think I am deserving of medals, but I would never be able to wear them. I feel like I spend far too much time lying down as it is, so there would be even less chance of me being in an upright position due to the weight of all the medals. Having said that, I suppose they could prove useful if I ever decided to take up weight-lifting. Laughing

    I feel for you with your CFS. For the first few years after my hypothyroidism diagnosis, I seriously wondered if I might also have CFS or possibly Fibromyalgia. In addition to aching all over, there were days when I felt like I barely had the energy to do anything other than breathe. Therefore, I feel I can relate in some way to the frustration that your CFS causes you.

    To echo what you've said Goosey, keep being the awesome person that you are. 

  • in reply to Sporadic Sparkly

    Hehe xD after all this I think your deserving of medals now rather than the certificates ^^ 

    I think it's hard or rather frustrating actually when you have to continually take things easy because you just want to get on and do things

    I've found this with my CFS it becomes really frustrating.

    I hope your feeling good this morning. Keep being awesome!

  • in reply to Catlover

    Thank you for taking the time to let me know that Catlover.

    Having looked in the mirror, the partial dry socket that my dentist packed with dry socket paste is barely visible. Although there are no visible signs of swelling, I confess to feeling like there's a walnut-sized swelling inside my gum, and also in my lower jaw. Weird! 

    My son kindly bought me a bottle of Clove Oil from our local pharmacy on Friday. In addition to my daily saltwater rinses and teeth cleaning, I have been applying cotton wool with a few drops of Clove Oil to the affected area.

    Sadly, the Clove Oil is proving to be as ineffective as the pain relief medication I've been taking, despite being one of the main 'go to' products recommended by dentists. This is another cause for concern because I had always found it to be effective in the past.

  • in reply to Goosey

    If certificates were issued for resting, then I think I would have an impressive collection. Laughing

    There are some days when I can be rather accepting of the need to take it easy and rest, but there are also days when I can find it rather boring, and it can feel a bit like Groundhog Day. The desire is there to want to do things, just that I don't have enough spoons to do anything other than rest.

  • in reply to Roy

    Good Grief Roy, that sounds like a truly ghastly experience. I'm glad the nurse's trick did the... er... trick and helped to stop the bleeding.

    As I am a somewhat cynical person, I cannot help but wonder if the reason why dissolving stitches weren't used, or that my sockets weren't at least packed with medicated dry socket paste, was simply due to cost-cutting. In addition to being an NHS patient, I'm exempt from paying NHS fees. Rather than erring on the side of caution to prevent the risk of complications, maybe the way of doing things now has changed.

    It has to be said that the dental practice where the extractions took place is incredibly busy, as they see on average 300 patients each day. As I think my procedure had taken longer than anticipated, it has crossed my mind that perhaps the dental surgeon was mindful that there were other patients on their list that they needed to see after me. Therefore, if they had spent time on preventive measures (i.e. stitches), it might have resulted in them not having enough time to treat other patients. 

  • I know you don’t want advice, but I just wanted to say dry socket pain can last up to 10 days, depending on the state of your oral health, so I hope that you don’t have to suffer too much longer while your wound heals.

  • OMG I'm so sorry Sparkly:( 

    Offers virtual hugs! 

    You've really suffered with this I'm so sorry it must be awful for you.

    Please take care and get plenty of rest. I hope your be feeling lots better soon :) 

    Moan anytime you want were all here for you ^^

  • I had similar quite a few years ago, the gums had stitches in to pull the wounds together. Later one area wouldn’t stop bleeding. In the end I had two bath towels covered in blood and started feeling dizzy. I was taken to A&E, unfortunately the hospital didn’t have a dental unit. I got transferred to another hospital, by that time it was the early hours of the morning, an older dental nurse had a look, she said that she knew an old trick. She returned with a latex glove with one finger packed with crushed ice, I was told to gently bite on it. She told me the veins would contract and clot, after about 10 minutes the bleeding had stopped.

    I am surprised with you having molars removed that dissolving stitches weren’t used. I hope you feel better soon and can put this behind you. My old cockney Nan had no teeth, she said, “they ‘urt ya’ coming and they ‘urt ya’  leaving.” 

  • in reply to Caelus

    Ouch! I do not envy you with your wisdom teeth issues. Mine were extracted in one fell swoop when I was back in my teens.

    I recently heard on the news that within the county of Worcestershire, there are no NHS dentists currently accepting new patients, resulting in an increase in patients turning up at A&E in pain due to dental issues. It's a similar situation in Herefordshire too, and I dare say in many other counties in the UK.

    It has to be said that I feel incredibly thankful to be registered with an NHS dentist in my town.

  • still have my wisdom teeth and sometimes they get infected and weird and give off foul tasting stuff when they get swollen.
    i switched to electric toothbrush to reach and get those areas better than manual toothbrush.

    but to actually have a dentist these days is apparently lucky as many cant get a dentist at all. imagine having this issue and pain with not a single dentist willing to see you.

    i heard of a person who was in that situation, dentists refused them but they was in agony and begging dentists to take them and offering them big sums of money, still declined.