i suppose i'm asking, its not that bad, but i'm at my wits end.
i've been dizzy for a week - vertigo. i spin, or the room spins. bad headaches off and on, some nausea. no recent colds, no running nose, no itchy eyes, no sinus pain or ear pain, but a LOT of sensitivity to loud noises. i finally went to the walk in clinic yesterday (no health insurance, no money) and the doc said my wisdom teeth need to come out!
i know allnurses cannot recommend medical treatment, that's not what this post is about. i'm curious as to what all of you experienced ED folk consider an "emergency". there's a hospital near where i live who will remove impacted teeth if you come into the ED - i can't get in where i could afford the sliding scale fees for at least 2 months. i start nursing school back up in a week and i can't really fathom handling this vertigo and headaches for that long. would it be abusing your precious (i mean that seriously, not flippantly) resources in the ED to go there instead of waiting the 2+ months? how often do you see people in the ED for wisdom tooth related problems?
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
we see dental problems/pain fairly frequently, but don't do any interventions for it other than pain relief and/or antibiotics along with a dentist referral. i'm surprised to hear that any er would pull out wisdom teeth--are you sure that they would or is that a word of mouth type thing? there is a commonly prescribed med for the dizziness though, that may help.
my last two hospitals were associated with both medical and dental schools. we did do dental interventions in the er. i worked for a transplant icu, and we'd bring our inpatients down to the dental portion of the er for dental evaluations prior to being considered for transplant. so i'm not surprised that some ers would pull wisdom teeth. of course, the dental residents and dental students are probably going to do it, not an experienced attending. if that doesn't matter to you, go for it.
A very similiar thing happened to me. I had a major vertigo 'event', as I like to call it. I thought I must be having a stroke. It was awful! I really wanted to go to the ER, but I was too dizzy to get up and go. Every time I moved the room spun around and around.
It went away, but I had slight dizziness for a long time. Then a friend of mine did a manuever and cured my vertigo forever!!! Thanks Goodness. Vertigo is the worst!
Until I did the manuever, I carried chewable Meclizine in my pocket everwhere I went. Here's another link in addition to the one posted above by a PP.
Do you live near a dental school, where they train dentists? You could probably get it done there for nothing. If there is one somewhere within driving distance, it would certainly be worth the drive. Good luck.
Ruby Vee, BSN
17 Articles; 14,051 Posts
my last two hospitals were associated with both medical and dental schools. we did do dental interventions in the er. i worked for a transplant icu, and we'd bring our inpatients down to the dental portion of the er for dental evaluations prior to being considered for transplant. so i'm not surprised that some ers would pull wisdom teeth. of course, the dental residents and dental students are probably going to do it, not an experienced attending. if that doesn't matter to you, go for it.
good luck -- dentists scare me silly!