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Last night I lay on the bed, pain all the way from the bottom left hand side of my jaw to my left eye socket, moaning, feeling exhausted, and waiting for the 50mg of diclofenac I'd taken to work so I could get to sleep.
This morning I woke up ready for my dental appointment in almost no pain at all. Spooky - it's like teeth know.
Anyway, I arrived in good time thanks to the decision to cycle instead of taking the car (at 10am in Cambridge, with the dental surgery on the opposite side of the medieval city centre - good luck with that). Sarah, my usual dentist has now gone; she's Ghanaian and has decided to return to Ghana topoison guppies do dentistry there (she's actually very nice and seems to be only slightly sadistic). Instead I saw a middle aged gentleman who had a very jolly bedside manner and instantly put me at ease (did he pick the wrong profession or something?)
I told him about the problem I'd been having, including how it seems to have mysteriously disappeared this morning. Looking through my note, he said, "ah, I see you're on the pill", which gave me one of those "OMG, I actually pass" moments (consciously I know I do, and hate the word, "pass", but a part of me still doesn't believe it), and I replied, "well, HRT". He said the symptoms I was describing sounded fairly typical and took a look. Instantly (I like it when that happens - it makes me feel less like a hypochondriac) he proclaimed that I had "a very nasty infection in the gum", and poked and prodded, with me saying "ow" at the appropriate points. He then felt the lymph nodes (I think?) in my neck, asked if it was tender (it was), and explained what he thought was going on...
That wisdom tooth is partially erupted. That's left a flap of gum half covering it. Apparently it can sometimes happen that a bit of food or plaque can get under the flap and cause an infection. This has happened before, but never this painfully, or never for this length of time.
He said he would prescribe a course of antibiotics, and that should clear it up. If the symptoms are not gone in 5 days time, I need to come back and see him again, but they should go away in 24 hours once I start taking the pills.
This probably explains why I've been feeling run down for the last week or so - my immune system has been busting a gut trying to fight the infection in my gum.
Also, current thinking is that unless absolutely necessary, the wisdom teeth should be left well alone and they prefer to avoid surgery. However, if this happens three times within a year, then they'd consider that serious enough to look at removing the tooth.
So I now have a course of Amoxicillin, and I've taken the first one. After leaving the dental surgery the gum started to hurt again (it's sentient, I swear), but the antibiotics are now in my blood, and the infection has no chance to survive and must make its time.
By tomorrow lunchtime this should be a non-problem, and I get to avoid surgery, so it's all good.
Originally posted at http://auntysarah.dreamwidth.org/206642.html - you can comment here or there.
This morning I woke up ready for my dental appointment in almost no pain at all. Spooky - it's like teeth know.
Anyway, I arrived in good time thanks to the decision to cycle instead of taking the car (at 10am in Cambridge, with the dental surgery on the opposite side of the medieval city centre - good luck with that). Sarah, my usual dentist has now gone; she's Ghanaian and has decided to return to Ghana to
I told him about the problem I'd been having, including how it seems to have mysteriously disappeared this morning. Looking through my note, he said, "ah, I see you're on the pill", which gave me one of those "OMG, I actually pass" moments (consciously I know I do, and hate the word, "pass", but a part of me still doesn't believe it), and I replied, "well, HRT". He said the symptoms I was describing sounded fairly typical and took a look. Instantly (I like it when that happens - it makes me feel less like a hypochondriac) he proclaimed that I had "a very nasty infection in the gum", and poked and prodded, with me saying "ow" at the appropriate points. He then felt the lymph nodes (I think?) in my neck, asked if it was tender (it was), and explained what he thought was going on...
That wisdom tooth is partially erupted. That's left a flap of gum half covering it. Apparently it can sometimes happen that a bit of food or plaque can get under the flap and cause an infection. This has happened before, but never this painfully, or never for this length of time.
He said he would prescribe a course of antibiotics, and that should clear it up. If the symptoms are not gone in 5 days time, I need to come back and see him again, but they should go away in 24 hours once I start taking the pills.
This probably explains why I've been feeling run down for the last week or so - my immune system has been busting a gut trying to fight the infection in my gum.
Also, current thinking is that unless absolutely necessary, the wisdom teeth should be left well alone and they prefer to avoid surgery. However, if this happens three times within a year, then they'd consider that serious enough to look at removing the tooth.
So I now have a course of Amoxicillin, and I've taken the first one. After leaving the dental surgery the gum started to hurt again (it's sentient, I swear), but the antibiotics are now in my blood, and the infection has no chance to survive and must make its time.
By tomorrow lunchtime this should be a non-problem, and I get to avoid surgery, so it's all good.
Originally posted at http://auntysarah.dreamwidth.org/206642.html - you can comment here or there.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 12:05 pm (UTC)Yeah, the tried that one with me. Most of my back teeth on the bottom row are missing as a result.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 12:07 pm (UTC)I prefer this approach over a previous dentist of mine who kept having conversations with me like this:
"Do you want your wisdom teeth removing?"
"Is there anything wrong with them?"
"No, but I can remove them anyway"
"No thanks"
no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 12:06 pm (UTC)Good luck with the getting better rapidly!
no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 12:08 pm (UTC)Anyone for canapés?
no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 12:09 pm (UTC)No it's not...
no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 12:10 pm (UTC)lolsob.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 12:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 12:36 pm (UTC)Has he added middle class establishment style racism to his other doubtful social 'skills'?
Bloody good riddance, I say!
Glad you've got the tooth issue sorted out. I've a dental check myself next week (shudders!)
no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 12:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 12:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 12:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 12:18 pm (UTC)As for 'passing'. I remember when the nurse asked me about my smear for the first time. I was all 'squee'.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 12:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 12:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 12:59 pm (UTC)General
Date: 2009-07-29 02:36 pm (UTC)Or a sedative: when I had my tooth excavated for a crown, I was such a coward that they gave me this drug that just mildly knocked me out and left me remembering nothing. During which time they removed the contents of my bank acoount (or so it seeemed).
no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 03:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 03:28 pm (UTC)"I can feel that"
"Oh, sorry"
Removes scalpel from my genitals, takes suringe of lidocaine, injects more into area next to clitoris, puts syringe down, resumes cutting with scalpel.
"Ah, that's better!"
no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 04:40 pm (UTC)Luckily my doctor was as sympathetic as yours, added anaesthetic and carried on.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 04:36 pm (UTC)I hope the anitbiotics work their magic. They certainly used to work for me.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 04:50 pm (UTC)with his shiny new dental laser.
Incidentally... burnt flesh DOES in fact taste a lot like burnt chicken.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-29 07:26 pm (UTC)Hope you are on the mend now
no subject
Date: 2009-07-30 09:20 am (UTC)I think it's marketed as Orajel.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-31 01:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-31 02:51 pm (UTC)Thankfully, the antibiotics appear to have solved the problem for the time being.