Dental Emergencies

divadiow

divadiow

divadiow

Associate
Joined
5 Mar 2003
Posts
349
Location
Bristol
a current episode has brought back memories of how our dental system seems to work.

I'm in pain, I phone up for an 'emergency' appointment. All they can EVER do is poke around and do the least they can in the alotted 5 minutes emergency slot to get the pain 'under control'.

I know what needs to be done, I need the filling removed and a root canal done. I get given a prescription for ibuprofen and an antibiotic and given an appointment in 2.5 weeks time.

I'll never understand why they cant just get on with the work that needs doing, instead I have to wait for a couple of weeks in pain.

This much pain with a fractured wrist or anything else and I'd get treatment in triage or something asap, not a checkup and a future appointment to get it properly looked into.

So now I'm ODing on every pain killer possible and Im sitting around feeling like I'm in some 3rd world country hoping a Dr will visit my shanty village in the couple of months.

I've had 2 emergency appointments. Think I may go private.

Absolute crap.
 
If they have given you antibiotics, presumably you have an infection. In my experience, they need to wait until that has cleared before they can do any intrusive dental work as there is a risk the infection could spread otherwise.

I'm not a dentist, but have lots of trouble with my teeth and this has always been the case when I have had an infection. 2 1/2 weeks seems a bit excessive though, normally you're given a 7 day course of antibiotics.
 
and whenevr I phone the emergency lines or any out of hours service or ANYONE nhs dentist they'll always say that they won't do the whole job on the tooth- just enough to stop the pain. And I'm like thinking, yeh, doing the whole ******* job on the tooth will sort the ******* pain
 
KoR said:
If they have given you antibiotics, presumably you have an infection. In my experience, they need to wait until that has cleared before they can do any intrusive dental work as there is a risk the infection could spread otherwise.

I'm not a dentist, but have lots of trouble with my teeth and this has always been the case when I have had an infection. 2 1/2 weeks seems a bit excessive though, normally you're given a 7 day course of antibiotics.
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maybe maybe.

I've had quite a few dental issues in the past and I always end up waiting
 
I had a bit of tooth (molar) break off but it didn't hurt and stupidly I didn't go to the dentist to get it sorted. Hence it decayed down into the tooth. One evening I suddenly started getting very severe pain. It was like being electricuted through the tooth into my jaw and was crippling.

After searching the nhs site I found a local hospital that ran an out of hours emergency service and went in that evening. The dentist dug out the inside of the tooth, did 95% of a root canal and put a temporary filling in for £15.50. Check the nhs site and search on your postcode. I think they all have emergency cover for if you are in pain but the idea is they just do the minimum to stop the pain and then you get it sorted properly.
 
I agree, we pay all this money and get crap service, and then you usually end up paying again for som private dentist who you probably paid for to be trained anyway with your taxes but you have to now pay him again, it needs to be fixed or ditched.
 
The NHS emergency care is a great thing to have though. I use a private dentist who is strictly 9-5, and I was in ridiculous amounts of pain with dry socket over a bank holiday a couple of years ago. My dentist wasn't working, but my mum managed to get me an appointment with an emergency clinic who made the pain go away, and no further work needed done.

It was a drop-in clinic, so there were a lot of people there waiting to see the one or two dentists. If they'd spent 30mins+ on each patient doing fillings or longer things like root canals, then they wouldn't be able to help anything like as many people.
 
What is a dry socket? That sounds lovely, although not as bad as a root canal sounds which is what I likely need soon. :eek:

NHS is a good idea and great when it works, but it depends where you live.
 
MHayes said:
What is a dry socket? That sounds lovely, although not as bad as a root canal sounds which is what I likely need soon. :eek:

NHS is a good idea and great when it works, but it depends where you live.
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I had a tooth out at the back (on top of a wisdom tooth) and it didn't heal at all, so the nerves in the gum were left exposed to the rest of my mouth.
 
Im in the same situation.

Went for an emergency appointment yesterday and apparently ive fractured my tooth and they gave me antibiotics, ibprofen and some other tablets.

But ive not been given another appointment, ive got to go to the hospital to have mine removed as the dentist cant do it apparently

When im dosed up with pain killers im fine but other times im in absolute agony :(
 
Dry socket is basically when the socket the tooth is extracted from doesn't clot properly and doesn't heal, the bone then gets inflammed and it hurts like hell.

The problem with endodontics is that it takes time and unfortunately there usually aren't many dentists available on emergency clinics, so if it was a decision to do rct on 1 patient, or see 5 patients and prescribe antibiotics to relieve them of pain for a short while - there is obviously only one choice that favours everyone.

To the OP, I'm sure this is no help with the pain you're in. The Antibiotics should relieve the pain over the next few days though but its imperitive that you get the tooth sorted asap because the source of infection will still be there. Best thing to do is to switch between taking paracetamol and ibuprofen.

(Mods if this is too close to medical advice then feel free to edit as you please)
 
Many NHS dentists just wont do endodontics these days. Thanks to the Government bringing in the new contracts in NHS dentistry, rct just can't be justified due to the amount of time it takes.
 
divadiow said:
a current episode has brought back memories of how our dental system seems to work.

I'm in pain, I phone up for an 'emergency' appointment. All they can EVER do is poke around and do the least they can in the alotted 5 minutes emergency slot to get the pain 'under control'.

I know what needs to be done, I need the filling removed and a root canal done. I get given a prescription for ibuprofen and an antibiotic and given an appointment in 2.5 weeks time.

I'll never understand why they cant just get on with the work that needs doing, instead I have to wait for a couple of weeks in pain.

This much pain with a fractured wrist or anything else and I'd get treatment in triage or something asap, not a checkup and a future appointment to get it properly looked into.

So now I'm ODing on every pain killer possible and Im sitting around feeling like I'm in some 3rd world country hoping a Dr will visit my shanty village in the couple of months.

I've had 2 emergency appointments. Think I may go private.

Absolute crap.
Click to expand...


Mate, no offence but what do you honestly expect from an NHS dentist. My dentist used to be NHS but he soon ditched them and went private. I can now get an appointement whenever I want one, no waiting, no come back in 10 years and we will fix it. In addition to this, he offers all the latest dental techniques, lasers to remove teeth rather than drilling etc. The service provided since my dentist went private is a million times better than when he was on the NHS.
 
divadiow said:
a current episode has brought back memories of how our dental system seems to work.

I'm in pain, I phone up for an 'emergency' appointment. All they can EVER do is poke around and do the least they can in the alotted 5 minutes emergency slot to get the pain 'under control'.

I know what needs to be done, I need the filling removed and a root canal done. I get given a prescription for ibuprofen and an antibiotic and given an appointment in 2.5 weeks time.

I'll never understand why they cant just get on with the work that needs doing, instead I have to wait for a couple of weeks in pain.
.
Click to expand...

they cant work on it while its infected unless they just pull out the tooth.... im assuming you said you wanted to keep the tooth

in 2 weeks the infection should be gone !

a tip for you though is to buy some anesthetic spray thats meant to be for bad throats/tonsils and spray it on your touth and gums , pain = gone
 
cool

the antibiotics have done their job, I have now just have to wait until this Thursday for the full job to be done- thanks to a cancellation. Drama sort of over, but... ugh
 
Emergency dentist appointments are there to patch you up and keep you going - nothing more nothing less. As I found out in April on Bank Holiday Monday when I was in so much pain I thought my head was about to explode.

They do the minimum necessary to releive pressure on the problem tooth, and send you on your way. But it's £16 and they have a lot of people to see, so it's understandable.

I've since had the 2 knackered teeth treated on the NHS and the cavities are huge according to my dentist - I've had 3 sets of treatment so far (he is doing multi-stage fillings), and another 2 to go. For £45 that's really not bad.
 
sounds like the faff my mrs is havin, in agony cant eat etc, give her some antibiotics and painkillers that aint workin, make her come back thursday for 1 tooth out, oh and the thurs after another one out, the thurs after another.. why not do em all at once ey? and even now 2 are out they are killing her and constantly oozing blood etc and shes in massive pain.
 
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