One of you will be writing about me tomorrow

[HisTreasure]

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!!!! :)

[sissiesmama, ASN, RN]

posting got doubled

[FlyingScot, RN]

There's a big difference between people who get caught in this type of situation after hours and those that repeatedly go to the ER for teeth that are rotting out of their head (not an acute situation) who never follow up with the dental clinic and only fill the narcotic prescription not the antibiotic we gave them. We had to resort to writing on the narc Rx "fill only if antibiotic is also filled and paid for". Go on ahead I promise nobody is going to think badly of you.

[Altra, BSN, RN]

From a dental-phobic ... toothache pain is the WORST. OK, evisceration probably hurts worse, but you don't survive it to remember.

If you live in an area with such a thing as an on-call dentist, count your blessings. NO DENTAL CARE in ERs in my area, although it is a large urban area with a multitude of dentists and at least 2 sliding-scale dental clinics.

[sissiesmama, ASN, RN]

There's a big difference between people who get caught in this type of situation after hours and those that repeatedly go to the ER for teeth that are rotting out of their head (not an acute situation) who never follow up with the dental clinic and only fill the narcotic prescription not the antibiotic we gave them. We had to resort to writing on the narc Rx "fill only if antibiotic is also filled and paid for". Go on ahead I promise nobody is going to think badly of you.

Hey FlyingScot - we have to do that too now. Pitiful!

Anne, RNC :paw::paw::paw:

[RN_in_SC]

You can get a dental block (shot in the nerve of the tooth) at the ED to take away the pain until you can see your regular dentist

[nuangel1, BSN, RN]

i actually just went thru this myself .developed pain on rt side up my cheek .i had excruciating pain and h/a.tylenol and motrin did nothing .i was at work and people noticed how miserable i was and my cheek swelled .1 of the ed pa saw me and gave me vicodin because i already had an appt for endontics on the following mon.even with the vicodin by sun am i was absolutely miserable.long story short i had a very bad abscess required 2 root canals .dr put me on clinda and perc but by wed pain was worse despite med and my face blew up.more tx on wed and finally this mon some relief .you go to ed .you need relief and antibiotic.and the block is a good idea.

[luckylucyrn]

At my ED you wouldn't be able to see a dentist (we don't have an on-call dentist) but you would get pain meds and antibiotics. We understand the pain you are going through, but when it comes to priority you would be low on the list. Although if I saw you in my ER I would totally empathize with you and not think you were being in any way ridiculous for coming in.

[suzanne4, RN]

Medical advice cannot be offered on this site, thread closed per the TOS of Allnurses.com.