Dentists confirms abscess at root of the tooth

No wonder I have been getting such severe pain in my tooth - there is an abscess under the root, near the nerve.

I started taking some antibiotics on Sunday afternoon, because I thought that maybe if the tooth was this painful, there may be an abscess underneath in the root area, that was causing the huge pain.

By the time it was Monday morning, I was in such severe pain that it hurt to even swallow my own saliva! The pressure from my tongue in my mouth was irritating the exposed nerve in that tooth and it hurt really badly.  Not only did that hurt, but the whole of my right side of my jaw, upper and lower hurts so much too. It's just awful.

I don't have a dentist here, so I had to ring around to find someone, but two of the dentists I tried were not available until Wednesday, which was in two days time. That was not soon enough for me, as the pain was excruciating!  I finally found a dentist who could take me in, in a few hours, as they had a spot available in their emergency appointment schedule - thank goodness!

Breakfast consisted of half a glass of a smoothie I made - to give me some energy. I had to drink it through a straw because any of the liquid that touched the tooth hurt so much.

When I saw the dentist, I explained to her the problem and the pain, as well as my bad experiences with dentists in the past, together with my very low threshold of pain and the fact that I get sinus issues, which makes working on my top teeth very difficult, because the vibrations of the drill vibrate the sinus passages and that causes pain, even with anaesthetic injected.


The dentist recommended that I undertake the treatment to the tooth under light sedation. Because the tooth and surrounding area is so sore, she advised me that she may not be able to get the area numbed enough to be able to treat the tooth. That was disappointing, but at least she was honest and had integrity enough to let me know what my best option was. She gave me two phone number of dentists, one who she really recommended, but didn't know if he did sedation and the other she didn't really know, but knew he did sedation.

I called the first practice, who confirmed they did not do sedation there and gave me the phone number of another dentist (not on the list) who did sedation and who was really good. God, I hope he is, as I am petrified of going to the dentist!

Today when I woke up, the right side of my face was visibly swollen. Not a lot, but enough to be visible that there was an issue underneath. The gum near the tooth was also sore, as was my jaw at the joint. I rang the dental surgery who explained that it was not anything to worry about too much unless the swelling got worse and that I would be okay as I was seeing the other dentist tomorrow.

My appointment with the dentist who does the sedation work is tomorrow morning - it is for a consultation to see what he can do for this tooth. The first dentist already sent over my file and x-ray to their practice, so they know what they're dealing with.