Dentists & antibiotics

BYTEr

BYTEr

BYTEr

Associate
Joined
2 Oct 2004
Posts
1,048
Hi all,

Just looking for people’s opinions on the following scenario.

Dentist tells patient they need a tooth extraction but will first need a round of antibiotics due to infection. Dentist re-books patient in for a tooth extraction in 8 days after the course of antibiotics has finished.

However, the dentist cancels this appointment and re-books for 6 weeks later.

A week before the next appointment, the patient begins to suffer pain again due to the tooth getting infected again, meaning when the patient turns up to the rearranged appointment, they have to be prescribed antibiotics another time and again they get re-booked for an appointment 8 days later.

I’m asking because this is the situation my wife finds herself in. Due to the dentist cancelling the follow on appointment and only offering an appointment for 6 weeks later, her tooth has got infected again, meaning she needs another round of antibiotics, which isn’t ideal as she’s currently breastfeeding, she’s also had to go through more pain.

Maybe I’m expecting too much, but surely, if the dentist prescribes antibiotics in such a scenario, it’s unacceptable to then make the patient wait over 6 weeks to cure the problem because it could get infected again like my wife's has?

I use to be with the same dentist but had to find another one because after 2 weeks of phoning every day they still couldn't get me a pain appointment.
 
Brexit Britain aint it. Too many darkies stealing jobs, houses and dentist spots.

Yes its terrible but what can you do except switch to another overpriced, overworked dentist practice. IS it NHS? Maybe go private for the emergency work and suck up the £1000s it will cost.
 
It's never been a perfect world, the tech we have now is amazing so be thankful you don't have to wrap a piece of string around it and the other side to a door.
 
Yeah that does seem pretty poor, you'd think they'd perhaps reschedule some other patients who just have a check up etc.. booked first.
 
My dentist is amazing. The rule is generally that a dentist isn’t allowed to numb up both sides of your mouth for fear of you monging and swallowing your tongue.

Not mine, she uses a syringe the size of a turkey baster and just goes nuts. None of this nanny rubbish. Teeth need fixing, then fix them.
 
Doesn't exactly sound devastating. In the dark days of medieval 2005 I went to an out of hours NHS Dentist in agony with an infected and impacted wisdom tooth, who helpfully confirmed 'yep that needs to come out - in the meantime go to your GP for antibiotics and I'll make a referral'. I finally got a hospital operation date to have it out two and a half years later. Fortunately it responded well to repeated rounds of antibiotics from my GP in the meantime.
 
BYTEr said:
Maybe I’m expecting too much, but surely, if the dentist prescribes antibiotics in such a scenario, it’s unacceptable to then make the patient wait over 6 weeks to cure the problem because it could get infected again like my wife's has?
Click to expand...

Chances are this was rearranged by the receptionist etc without looking through the patient history, surprised you or wifey didn't point out the problem at the time though ? It's also possible there's a silver lining here - The first antibiotics didn't get rid of the infection so post op she'd have needed another set anyway. So personally I'd be pointing that out to the dentist to ensure she is given a long enough course or a different type pre-op.

Annoying but not the end of the world. Private would be an option if you wanted it done quickly but if it's an infection even an emergency NHS treatment wouldn't help as they'd still want those antibiotics to be taken first in most cases. You could check with the local NHS Trust/Board though as many offer emergency cover of some kind.
 
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