The tale of my tooth
So, a few weeks ago, on a Thursday I started having tremendous tooth pain. In my lower left side of my mouth.
I wasn’t overly concerned and planned to call my dentist on Friday. No big deal. I mean last time I had pain I thought I had a broken tooth and it turned out the filling just needed an adjustment. So I figured maybe that was the issue again.
By Friday morning the pain was worse. The dentist was also closed. Now before anyone starts giving my dentist – who I really like a lot, a hard time she has an emergency number and I was perfectly capable of calling it. I CHOSE not to. And I suffered the consequences for that choice.
I dealt with the pain on Friday, by Saturday evening the pain was so bad I couldn’t eat anything I had to chew. Not just in the lower teeth- though that was worst but in the upper teeth too. I barley slept Saturday night my tooth was just throbbing and nothing seemed to touch the pain. I didn’t eat on Sunday – it just hurt too bad. I barley slept Sunday night despite taking pain killers and a sleep aid.
The pain was so bad I was thinking hard about trying to dig my own tooth out. On top of that my lip and cheek had begun to tingle and felt fat and puffy. they felt like it feels when Novocain is wearing off but the feeling isn’t quite all the way back yet.
Ok -lets take a step back now. Back at the beginning of February I went to my doctors because I thought I had an ear infection. She told me that the pain I was having in my Jaw and ear sounded like nerve pain and there was no infection in my ear. Huh, nerve pain. Never occurred to me to try to figure out what was causing said nerve pain.
The pain came and went and I treated it with heat and ibuprofen. Some times it was worse then others but I figured there was nothing else I could do. Probably should have gone to my dentist then.
So Monday morning rolls around. I am convinced anything is better then the pain I am in. My lower jaw throbs constantly and my cheek and lip are tingly all the time. I can’t eat or sleep. I am sure my tooth is going to have to be pulled.
I call the dentist. The wonderful amazing staff at Westview dental let me come in first thing in the morning – I called at eight when they opened and was in before nine. They told me right away that the tooth was infected and needed a root canal.
My initial thought- oh, no please don’t make me wait for a root canal – just pull the thing out!!!!
To understand this I have to tell you about my last root canal. I had cracked a tooth during my pregnancy with Willoweve. It wasn’t infected and only hurt if I chewed directly on that tooth. I went to the dentist, they referred me to an endontist (sp).
It took a month to get an appointment. I was seen and they took x-rays then scheduled me for a root canal another month later.
UHM, HELLO – I cannot live in this kind of pain for two months!!!!!
I take the referral and call as soon as I get home. Bless the endontist. They schedule an appointment for me at 11:30. TO be honest this still felt like an eternity and I had no idea if they would actually DO anything at this appointment.
But they did. They took the x-ray and said the tooth had abscessed. They gave me a root canal. Right then at that appointment. The dentist had given me an anti biotic and the endontist gave me Percoset (SP) for the pain. Good drugs let me tell you.
In 48 hours I was feeling better. By Friday I was feeling normal. By Saturday I could chew soft foods on that side of my mouth again. On top of all that the ear and jaw pain I had been feeling on and off for the past two months is GONE. It was nerve pain because of the pressure the abscessed tooth was putting on the nerve.
I have felt more normal this past week then I did for a while and I can chew food without pain Praise God.
All that and I still have my tooth. 