I had a toothache and called my dentist to make an appointment for Monday. When doing my dental hygiene earlier today I lost the inside of the offending tooth and now the pulp is exposed. The pain has been excruciating and I have been alternating 800 mg Motrin with 1000 mg APAP with minimal (short term) relief. The pain is traveling up to my ears and I am in so much pain I can barely sit up. I called my doctor's after hours care since my dentist is closed and and they told me to go into ED since it sounds like I may have an abscess. I can't get anything but pain pills if I go but hopefully I will be able to sleep tonight. Hopefully it will stop the pain. Is it worth a trip to ED? I don't really know, but the phone triage nurse thinks it is. OMG, I had no idea a tooth could hurt so damn much. I swear my vision gets blurry in and out. I hate going to the ED. I feel like such a loser, leeching on the services of my overworked colleagues.
Edited to add: Just called ED and the nurse told me to please come in, there's an on-call dentist. Thank God! I may get it pulled tonight!!!! :)